For the first time, UT Health Physicians and UT Dentistry won a 2023 Your SA Readers’ San Antonio Express-News Readers Choice Award in their categories.
“Congratulations to UT Health Physicians and UT Dentistry for this honor. This award is especially heartwarming because it came from our community and recognizes the staff and faculty dedicated to serving San Antonians,” said UT Health San Antonio President William L. Henrich, MD, MACP.
UT Health Physicians took the No. 1 spot in the medical category, and UT Dentistry placed No. 1 in the dental category. More than 260,000 voters chose this year’s winners in over 170 categories.
UT Health Physicians is the medical practice of the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine. With more than 1,400 providers in more than 100 specialties and subspecialties, UT Health Physicians is the largest physician group in San Antonio. The group of physicians conducts over 350,000 patient visits a year at its 20 locations across the city.
UT Dentistry, the region’s largest and most comprehensive dental center, is part of the School of Dentistry. With 400 dental operatories, UT Dentistry delivers care in general dentistry and nine dental specialties in its state-of-the-art, four-story location, which serves more than 120,000 patients annually. In order to better serve its patients with developmental and physical disabilities, UT Dentistry expects to open the Phil and Karen Hunke Special Care Clinic in early 2024.
“We are incredibly honored and grateful to receive this award from our patients and community. We strive to provide full scope expert, compassionate care of the highest quality, whether it a routine exam and cleaning or the most complex dental problem,” said Micaela Gibbs, DDS, MHA, UT Dentistry chief dental officer. “Most of all, we recognize that trust is the foundation of all patient relationships that we build and we will continue to incorporate that into our practice philosophy as we serve and grow with the San Antonio and surrounding communities.”
The main reason voters chose UT Health Physicians is the extra time and care its practitioners spend with their patients, said Robert Leverence, MD, vice dean for clinical affairs for UT Health San Antonio and executive director of UT Health Physicians.
“Exceptional health care is highly personal and it demands trust and excellent communication,” Leverence said. “Patients can always rely on these things from our practitioners and staff. In addition, at the end of each encounter, patients receive a visit summary, including their care plan and instructions on who to contact for questions. I’m thrilled the community that we have the honor and privilege to care for has voted UT Health Physicians as No.1.”
He said patients have 24/7 access to their medical records, including visit notes and test results through MyChart, an online patient portal.
The university is expanding its patient care services through several new primary care sites, and building and managing a hospital for the first time.
The UT Health San Antonio Multispecialty and Research Hospital is expected to open in 2024 and will offer specialty care in cancer, orthopaedics, urology and thoracic and bariatric surgery. The hospital will be connected to the Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson, through a sky bridge.
Joining the already-opened UT Health De Zavala primary care clinic and the UT Health Westgate clinic are the Gateway Medical Park clinic, scheduled to open this year, along with a multidisciplinary spine center and the UT Health Outpatient Surgery Center at Kyle Seale Parkway opening in 2024.