Learning and implementing best practices in operations can prevent mistakes, maintain a consistent flow of business to better meet patient demands and keep our clinical practice effective and productive. Below are a few updates of interest to our employees.

Masquerade Jewelry and Accessories $5 Fundraising Sale

Thursday, Mar. 7 - Friday, Mar. 8 in the UT Health Medical Arts & Research Center first floor lobby.

Click here to view or print the flyer

Floyd Curl closure effective through March 17

As of Friday, Feb. 22, and continuing through Sunday, March 17, Floyd Curl Drive—between Charles Katz Drive and Hamilton Wolfe Road—will be closed. Traffic in the area will be heavy during the closure, so please allow extra time to reach your destination safely. Learn more here.

New employee orientation

The next new employee orientation will be on Friday, March. 8. Contact Theresa Lomperski for more information.

Pediatric specialties moving to Westgate Medical Center

Four of UT Health Physicians' pediatric specialty practices will move to the Westgate Medical Center from the Medical Arts & Research Center on March 4. The specialty practices that will be housed at the Westgate Medical Center include:

• Pediatric allergy
• Pediatric neurology
• Pediatric hematology/oncology
• Pediatric pulmonology

Reproductive health and fertility services at UT Health Hill Country

Starting March 1, reproductive health and fertility services will be offered at UT Health Hill Country. Because we are an academic medical center, UT Health San Antonio's fertility services are more cost-efficient than other practices in our area. For more information, please contact Lynette Babilonia.

Your practice operations team is here to support all of you in your effort to provide exceptional care to UT Health San Antonio patients. If you have any questions or need assistance, please reach out to your practice operations leaders: Casey Peterson, senior director of practice operations; Jeanette Hernandez, director of practice operations; Johnna Nerios, director of practice operations; and Dina Wright, director of practice operations. 

Primary care at UT Health Physicians successfully renewed its National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH). The PCMH is a model of care that puts patients at the forefront of care by focusing on building strong relationships between patients and their clinical care team. The NCQA PCMH recognition program is the most widely adopted PCMH evaluation program in the country. UT Health’s primary care service first received recognition as a Level 2 PCMH in 2016.

The locations where PCMH status was renewed were UT Health Medical Arts & Research Center, UT Health Medical Drive, UT Health Geriatrics & Palliative Care, UT Health Westover Hills, and UT Health Shavano. In this process, UT Health Hill Country gained its first recognition as a PCMH. An application for our newest practice, UT Health Verde Hills, is in process.

“Our primary care service was designed from the start to deliver care in a patient-centered way,” says Ramon Cancino, M.D., MSc, Director of the Primary Care Center, UT Health Physicians. "All credit for the NCQA recognition goes to our primary care teams who, day-in and day-out, make sure the needs of our patients come first.”

The main concepts of PCMH are team-based care and practice organization, knowing and managing patients, patient-centered access and continuity, care management and support, care coordination and care transition, and performance measurement and quality improvement.

The NCQA criteria and recognition processes were updated in 2017. The update included doing away with PCMH “levels,” and, instead, adding more intensive “must-pass” requirements and frequent virtual check-ins with NCQA reviewers. Every location accomplished all the “must-pass” requirements in addition to achieving the required number of points to gain the distinction.

UT Health Physicians has always structured its primary care delivery around its patients. For example, each of the seven practices perform a patient-centered team huddle every morning to proactively address patient needs; on a quarterly basis, the practice assesses its capacity for organizational learning and development using the Adaptive Reserve survey; the division has also allocated resources towards integrated behavioral health, and has standardized many of its processes to ensure consistent high-quality patient care.

There is much evidence that the PCMH model of care is good for both patients and clinics. The PCMH enhances care to reduce fragmentation by emphasizing team-based care, communication and care coordination. Many payers acknowledge PCMH recognition as a hallmark of high-quality care. Importantly, the PCMH model is associated with better staff satisfaction, improved patient experience, better management of chronic conditions, improved access and lower health care costs.

Dr. Cancino said he expects further enhanced care delivery for all UT Health San Antonio patients. “As we continue to move towards a health care system focused on delivering high value care to patients, it will be important to see what components of the our primary care delivery approach can be applied successfully to specialty clinics and ACO participants.”

Pediatrician, Dr. Maria Fernandez Falcon, is now accepting new patients, newborn to adolescence, at UT Health Medical Drive, located at 3939 Medical Drive.

UT System employees with UT Select benefits receive prioritized appointment scheduling, reduced copay costs and can schedule their children’s visits today by calling 210-450-9090.

Dr. Fernandez Falcon is passionate about pediatric health care and is committed to providing family- centered care to each of her patients, from birth to adolescence. She strongly believes in prioritizing health maintenance; working hard with families on prevention (with periodic well-child visits and vaccinations), and the introduction of life-long good habits like healthy meals, play times, good sleeping habits and literacy in order to start children on their own path to wellness. She also recognizes the importance of compassionate care during illnesses and disease.

For UT Select prioritized appointment scheduling, call: 210-450-9090.

Learn more about Dr. Fernandez Falcon >

Learn more about UT Select benefits >

Learn more about UT Health Pediatrics >

UT Health Medical Drive

3939 Medical Drive
San Antonio, TX 78229 Map >

Leaders of UT Health Physicians presented this quarter’s WOW! Awards, High-Five Awards and the Patient Experience Practice Champion of the Quarter Award on Jan. 29.

WOW! Award Winners

The quarterly WOW! Awards were created to recognize practices, providers and employees who go above and beyond to ensure every patient has the best experience at UT Health Physicians. A committee formally recognizes WOW Award winners using the comments and kudos collected from patients and colleagues. Congratulate this quarter's WOW! Award winners when you see them, and thank them for living out our promise to provide exceptional care to our patients.

Congratulations to Christina Gonzales and Hillery Ramirez from the Imaging Center!

Patient Experience Practice Champion

During the WOW Award ceremony, the committee also names the quarter's Patient Experience Practice Champion. This champion is the practice that receives the highest scores on the National Research Corporation (NRC) survey question, "Would you recommend this office to a family or friend?" The goal is for every UT Health Physician practice to have their patients answer, "YES" to this question 95.2 percent of the time.

Congratulations to

Gynecologic Oncology

at UT Health Medical Arts & Research Center

98.9% of their patients said they would recommend their practice to a family or friend.

High-five Practice Awards

Following right behind the gynecologic oncology practice are this quarter’s High-five Practice winners – the five practices with the next highest percentage of patients who would recommend the practice to family and friends:

Congratulations to these High-five Practice winners:

CT surgery - 98.4%

Facial plastic surgery - 98%

Audiology - 96.3%

Colorectal surgery - 94.7%

UT Health Verde Hills - 94%

Imaging Center Receives Presidential Award

Also recognized during the ceremony, was the Imaging Center who was recently awarded the  2019 Presidential Team Excellence award for their exemplary performance and strong commitment to the mission and core values of UT Health San Antonio.. The team will be honored with a plaque and cash award at a special dinner on March 7.

Congratulations to the Imaging team!

The Special Events Council is looking for a few volunteers for the Masquerade Jewelry and Accessories Fundraising Sale on March 7-8. Volunteers who work one to two hours will get one piece of jewelry for free. Work three to four hours and you’ll get two free items in recognition of your help.

Thursday shifts are from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Friday shifts are from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

If you’re interested in volunteering, please contact Stephanie Cabello at  567-1406 or cabellos@uthscsa.edu. 

Download the flyer

We are recruiting people who are passionate about making lives better through exceptional health care. Meet the newest providers and staff joining UT Health San Antonio.

Lucinda Bowery, access center; Heather Busanet, psychiatry; Elizabeth Cantu, coding support; Raymond Cardona, orthotics/prosthetics; Victoria Chavez, psychiatry; Rosalinda Ferniz, Mays Cancer Center; Geneidra Flourence, pathology; Damaris Garcia Rodriguez, primary care coding; Irma Gomez, insurance follow up; Amanda Hernandez, clinical quality and safety; Victor Koretsky, Epic care team; Carolyn Lopez, coding support; Patricia Lozano, coding support; Titania Marchany Kim, pathology; Kathleen Marsanick, ob/gyn; Laura Norris Kouba, marketing communications & media; Stacy Rodriguez, psychiatry; Marcie Spiller, accounting; Lisa Torres, primary care; Michelle Zuniga-Ontiveros, Mays Cancer Center

Know someone who is passionate about making lives better? Let them know we are hiring at UTHealthSA.org/hr.