Health Care Heroes: Personnel Security Office
Graphic illustration featuring the Personnel Security Office.
Thank You Thursday - Personnel Security Office
Their office is often the first stop for new Washington DC Veterans Affairs Medical Center employees. The Personnel Security Office has a very important mission, to ensure the medical center hires the best employees to care for the Nation’s Veterans.
The Personnel Security Office Team is responsible for employee background investigations and issuing PIV (Personal Identity Verification) badges as well as supporting the VA Central Office, VISN 5 and other local area federal agencies with courtesy fingerprinting and badging.
As the pandemic surged in March, many medical center employees were able to quickly convert their duties to telework; not the case for the Personnel Security Office Team. According to Personnel Security Officer Gordon Rock, who leads the Personnel Security Office, his team has seen a much higher volume of customers since the pandemic began.
“Throughout the pandemic, the medical center has been hiring new staff members and contractors. Our workload has actually increased and fingerprinting requires face-to-face contact. It can be a bit stressful.”
He says he and his staff have been diligent with thorough cleaning between customers. “Hats off to the Environmental Management Team who has done a great job in disinfecting our office multiple times a day,” Rock said.
Rock, who has been with the medical center for more than 15 years, says his team has a very strong level of expertise and knowledge about Personnel Security Suitability Adjudications. “This ensures that the medical center employees are suitable to uphold the departments mission to care for Veterans.
As the medical center staff continues their mission throughout the pandemic, they are also continuing their journey to become a high reliability organization, lead by teams such as Personnel Security Office, who support a culture of safety and always put the Veteran first.
