UT Health Physicians is made of up of primary care and specialist physicians. Most of the physicians are specialists, covering every branch of medicine and every system in the body. This includes things like neurosurgery, ophthalmology, OB/GYN, cardiology, pulmonology, orthopedics and more.
Most patients come to our specialists through a referral from another physician – whether inside our practice (UT Health) or outside, from a private practice. If you have ever been to a specialist, it was probably because you saw a primary care doctor first, or an urgent care or an emergency room doctor – and then they decided you needed to see a specialist. Orthopedics is one of the most common referrals we see. If you hurt your arm, hands, legs, back or feet, you are usually referred to an orthopedic specialist.
Jose Gamez
Making sure that other physicians know about all our practice physicians is the job of our newly-formed Physician Relations team. The team is led by Jose Gamez, who has 15 years’ experience in physician relations, including medical devices and practice/market development. He is a San Antonio native who recently moved back home from Denver.
Lisa King
Working with Jose is Lisa King, our newest addition to the team, who brings five years of practice marketing experience and was most recently with University Health System pediatrics – which is made up of UT Health physicians. This experience gives Lisa a great head start for working with our other specialists who focus on adult health care. Lisa covers our Hill Country service lines, providing direct support to orthopedics, urology, imaging, and primary care growth initiatives.
Valerie Rendon
The other member of the team is Valerie Rendon, who comes to us with more than 15 years of pharmaceutical sales experience and most recently worked with PVA Associates, a local vascular surgery group. Valerie covers our vascular surgery, surgical oncology and general surgery service lines.
The physician relations team is a part of the marketing group, with its focus directed by UT Health Physicians executive director, Dr. Carlos Rosende. The physician relations team provides referral development support to all areas of the practice, with a current emphasis on growth on the Hill Country service lines (ortho, urology, imaging and primary care) as well as vascular Surgery. The team is also working with our Accountable Care Organization efforts, known as the UT Health San Antonio Regional Physicians Network.
Jose, Lisa and Valerie often remark that the most important players on the team are the providers and staff in the clinics. The service, access and quality they provide is the key to our success.
The team is happy to meet with any physician or clinical group to help them learn how to build their practice. If you have any questions about Physician Relations or referral development, please contact Jose Gamez (210-450-8347, GamezJ4@uthscsa.edu).
Look for our next article on Best Practices in Optimizing your Referral Development Efforts.
