Job Description
ONLY PERMANENT EMPLOYEES IN THE TITLE AND THOSE THAT ARE REACHABLE ON THE CUSTOMER INFORMATION REPRESENTATIVE CIVIL SERVICE LIST ARE ELIGIBLE TO APPLY.
AGENCY DESCRIPTION
Established in 1805, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (the NYC Health Department) is the oldest and largest health department in the country. Our mission is to protect and improve the health of all New Yorkers, in service of a vision of a city in which all New Yorkers can realize their full health potential, regardless of who they are, how old they are, where they are from, or where they live.
As a world-renowned public health agency with a history of building transformative public health programming and infrastructure, innovating in science and scholarship to advance public health knowledge, and responding to urgent public health crises from New York City’s yellow fever outbreak in 1822, to the COVID-19 pandemic we are a hub for public health innovation, expertise, and programs, and services. We serve as the population health strategist, and policy, and planning authority for the City of New York, while also having a vast impact on national and international public policy, including programs and services focused on food and nutrition, anti-tobacco support, chronic disease prevention, HIV/AIDS treatment, family and child health, environmental health, mental health, and racial and social justice work, among others.
Our Agency’s five strategic priorities, building off a recently completed strategic planning process emerging from the COVID-19 emergency, are:
1) To re-envision how the Health Department prepares for and responds to health emergencies, with a focus on building a “response-ready” organization, with faster decision-making, transparent public communications, and stronger surveillance and bridges to healthcare systems
2) Address and prevent chronic and diet-related disease, including addressing rising rates of childhood obesity and the impact of diabetes, and transforming our food systems to improve nutrition and enhance access to healthy foods
3) Address the second pandemic of mental illness including: reducing overdose deaths, strengthening our youth mental health systems, and supporting people with serious mental illness
4) Reduce black maternal mortality and make New York a model city for women’s health
5) Mobilize against and combat the health impacts of climate change
Our 7,000-plus team members bring extraordinary diversity to the work of public health. True to our value of equity as a foundational element of all our work, and a critical foundation to achieving population health impact in New York City, the NYC Health Department has been a leader in recognizing and dismantling racism’s impacts on the health of New Yorkers and beyond. In 2021, the NYC Board of Health declared racism as a public health crisis. With commitment to advance anti-racist public health practices that dismantle systems that perpetuate inequitable power, opportunity and access, the NYC Health Department continues to work in and with communities and community organizations to increase their access to health services and decrease avoidable health outcomes.
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The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Call Center delivers enhanced customer service to the people of New York City by providing a single point of entry for all Department information and services. This mission is accomplished through a state-of-the-art customer service facility designed to provide clients, the general public, and the provider community with information about our services and programs; referrals, appointments and follow-up; health literature and education materials.
Duties will include but not be limited to:
- Communicating effectively on the telephone and through live chat to handle calls from different workgroups such as Dog License, Vital Records, Health Academy, Accela, STD results line, Provider Access Line (PAL), Literature Fulfillment and other/General Information queues. In addition, provide customer service by answering phones to ensure the public/customers are informed on the process and steps needed to order/correct birth certificates and or death certificates in person, online or via mail.
- Guiding customers on how to check the status of orders placed using new E-vital status portal or by sending an e-mail to the appropriate department for status.
- Answering Vital Records calls and chats may consist of customers who are calling regarding COVID-19 related matters such as inquiring about how to apply or obtain a death certificate, funeral related procedures and other matters that require the Customer Information Representative to transfer or direct accordingly to the appropriate entity.
- Assisting in placing literature orders for COVID-19 related materials such as posters, signs, pamphlets and information.
- Handling calls from the Provider Access Line (PAL) which is a workgroup that receive calls from Medical Providers to inform the agency’s Call Center of reportable illnesses and diseases such as Measles, Communicable Diseases, STDs and notifiable diseases and conditions that Providers are required to report to NYC DOHMH.
- Assisting and providing support for emergency related events such as COVID-19 when an activation is in place by utilizing FAQs/Q&As and resources provided by the corresponding program to ensure the public has the most up to date information / data approved and available.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION **IMPORTANT NOTES TO ALL CANDIDATES**
Please note: If you are called for an interview, you will be required to bring to your interview copies of original documentation, such as:
- A document that establishes identity for employment eligibility, such as: A Valid U.S. Passport, Permanent Resident Card/Green Card, or Driver’s license.
- Proof of Education according to the education requirements of the civil service title.
- Current Resume
- Proof of Address/NYC Residency dated within the last 60 days, such as: Recent Utility Bill (i.e., telephone, Cable, Mobile Phone)
Additional documentation may be required to evaluate your qualification as outlined in this posting’s “Minimum Qualification Requirements” section. Examples of additional documentation may be, but not limited to college transcript, experience verification or professional trade licenses.
If after your interview you are the selected candidate, you will be contacted to schedule an on-boarding appointment. By the time of this appointment, you will be asked to produce the originals of the above documents along with your original Social Security card.
"FINAL APPOINTMENTS ARE SUBJECT TO OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT & BUDGET APPROVAL”
TO APPLY
Apply online with a cover letter to https://a127-jobs.nyc.gov/. In the Job ID search bar, enter job ID number.
We appreciate the interest and thank all applicants who apply, but only those candidates under consideration will be contacted.
The NYC Health Department is committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse and culturally responsive workforce. We strongly encourage people of color, people with disabilities, veterans, women, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and gender non-conforming persons to apply.
All applicants will be considered without regard to actual or perceived race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, age, prior record of arrest; or any other basis prohibited by law.
Qualifications
1. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university; or
2. An associate degree from an accredited college or university and two years of satisfactory, full-time experience responding to inquiries utilizing computers, databases and information technology systems for researching the answers to questions in a customer service, help desk or public information capacity; or
3. A four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent and four years of satisfactory, full-time experience as described in "2" above; or
4. A satisfactory combination of education and experience. Satisfactory, full-time experience working for a New York City government agency responding to inquiries utilizing computers, databases and information technology systems for researching the answers to questions in a customer service, help desk or public information capacity may be substituted on the basis of one year of NYC government work experience for two years of the experience described in "2" above. College credit may be substituted for the experience in a customer service, help desk or public information capacity on the basis of 30 semester credits for each year of the experience described in "2" above. However, all candidates must possess a four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent.
To be eligible for assignment to Assignment Level II, candidates must have, in addition to meeting the above Qualification Requirements, one more year of the satisfactory full-time experience described in "2" above.
To be eligible for assignment to Assignment Level III, candidates must have, in addition to meeting the Qualification Requirements for Assignment Level I, two more years of the satisfactory full-time experience described in "2" above.
