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

Save the date: WOW Ceremony

Plan on attending the quarterly WOW Award Ceremony on Tuesday, July 31. A reception with cake and refreshments will be held in the lobby of the Medical Arts & Research Center from noon to 1 p.m.

Benefits Annual Enrollment is now open

You can now make changes to your benefits using the My UT Benefits online system. Changes can be made through July 31. Learn more >

Design UT Health San Antonio's next Fiesta medal 

UT Health San Antonio is sponsoring a 2019 Fiesta medal contest, and you are invited to submit a design. Submit your design >

Dermatology and cardiology coming to UT Health Hill Country This fall, UT Health Hill Country will begin offering dermatology and cardiology specialty services. UT Health Hill country opened in March 2017 and currently offers primary care, orthopaedics, maternal-fetal medicine, urology, imaging, physical therapy and pain management. 

UT Health Physicians Verde Hills to open in September 

UT Health San Antonio is opening our newest primary care location in September. UT Health Physicians Verde Hills will be located in the shopping center at 10350 Bandera Road, Suite 140, San Antonio, Texas 78250. View a map >

UT Health Physicians Shavano is moving to a new location

In September, our primary care office near Shavano Park is moving just a couple of miles away to a location at the intersection of NW Military Highway and Huebner Road. This primary care practice is currently located at 4118 Pond Hill Rd #202, Shavano Park, TX 78231 and will be moving to 14530 NW Military Highway, San Antonio, TX 78231. The phone number will remain the same - 210-450-6620. View a map >

Your practice operations team is here to support all of you in your effort to provide exceptional care to UT Health 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. 

Timely appointments are critical to our patients’ wellness, but they are not the only ones who benefit when we provide care when and where it’s needed. Streamlined scheduling also helps our practice fulfill its goal of being the health care provider of choice for Central and South Texas with a focus on patient-centered care. Increasing access and simplifying scheduling supports our business model, grows our practice and allows us to hire more providers, open more locations and ultimately help more people.

UT Health Physicians has practice-wide access goals which are:

65 percent of primary care patients receiving an appointment within 7 days, 65 percent of patients needing specialty care receiving appointments within 14 days, an average of 95 percent slot utilization for all practices at all locations 

UT Health Physicians' access initiative has been hard at work to streamline scheduling and help our patients get the appointments they need, when they need them. Since its launch in October 2017, the Practice-to-Practice (P2P) scheduling program has been an integral part of the access initiative. Following the early success of the P2P pilot program at the primary care practice in the Medical Arts & Research Center, the program was quickly rolled out to every primary care practice location. In just six months, the P2P program has helped hundreds of our patients stay healthy. Each primary care practice is able to schedule appointments with 15 of our specialty practices before the patient leaves their office. The 15 specialty practices include: allergy, cardiology, dermatology, diabetes, endocrinology, ENT, gastroenterology, infectious disease, nephrology, Ob/Gyn, ophthalmology/optometry, orthopaedics, surgery – colorectal, general, plastics, vascular, and urology) 

A record 420 internal P2P specialty referrals were received from our primary care practices. This process improves patient compliance and continuum of care by relieving the patient of the responsibility of scheduling their own specialty appointments. It also decreases the total number of patients in our referral work queues, and allows practice operations to have a more accurate view of availability at each practice location.

Looking forward, the access team is planning to expand P2P scheduling and allow our specialty practices to schedule directly with our primary care practices. Every patient benefits from having a primary care physician and care team that serves as their medical home. By enabling specialty offices to schedule patients who need a primary care physician directly with one of our primary care locations, we will actively be helping more of our patients stay as healthy as possible.

For questions about the P2P program, contact Jeanette Hernandez, Director of Practice Operations, 210-450-9004.

As a UT Health San Antonio employee or retiree with UT Select medical insurance, you will automatically save on co-payments and other fees when you choose a doctor at UT Health Physicians or any other UT System medical practice.

Do you need to see a doctor? Make your appointment today with UT Health Physicians through our dedicated UT Health Network appointment number: 210-450-9090.

Learn more at: UTHealthcare.org/UTSELECT

UT Health Physicians makes a difference in our community every day. Your colleagues were recently featured for strides toward reducing maternal mortality rates, the effect of exercise on dementia, the suspected link between toothpaste and diabetes and much more.

Dr. Tamara Simpson - Health concerns about uptick in vaping among teenagers - News 4

Drs. Patrick Ramsey, Rajam Ramamurthy, S. Michelle Ogunwole - Issue on Maternal Mortality - San Antonio Medicine

Dr. Steven Pliszka - San Antonio State Hospital to add 40 beds for mental health patients - Express-News

Dr. Sudha Seshadri - For Your Patients-Dementia: Exercise May Actually Worsen Dementia, A New Study Suggests (That's Not Reason to Give Up on It, Neurologists Say) - Neurology Today

Dr. Bruce Adams - Fireworks-related injuries send more than 12,000 people to ERs, doctor says  -  News 4

Dr. Ralph DeFronzo - Fractyl Announces Presentation of Key Scientific Research at ADA 2018 Indicating That Modern Diets Durably Alter Duodenal Lining, Highlighting the Intestine's Role in Type 2 Diabetes and NASH - PR Newswire

Dr. Andrew Muck - Real Men Wear Gowns: Outdoor and wilderness safety - KENS 5

Dr. Jason Bowling - UTSA Researchers Aim for Better Accuracy in Detecting Infection - Rivard Report

Drs. Barbara Taylor and Waridibo Allison - Bexar County's HIV testing, treatment rates improve after uptick in diagnoses - Rivard Report

Dr. Ralph DeFronzo - UT-Austin study finds link between diabetes and toothpaste -  KENS 5

Drs. William Henrich, April Risinger, Myron Ignatius, Carolina Solis-Herrera, David Libich   - Voelcker Fund awards $2.3 million to UT Health SA - Express-News

Dr. Jason Bowling - Real Men Wear Gowns: Staying healthy while you fly -  KENS 5

Dr. Francisco Cigarroa - Distinguished surgeon and former Chancellor of The University of Texas System will lead Ford Foundation Board of Trustees  – Ford Foundation

Dr. Robert Svatek - One-time chemotherapy treatment drops bladder cancer recurrence significantly. - KSAT 12

Read more news about UT Health San Antonio in the Newsroom.

On Tuesday, July 3, members of UT Health San Antonio’s Emergency Response Team were recognized for their benevolent volunteer work in assisting anyone in distress at the Medical Arts & Research Center.

The team enjoyed a full breakfast and was joined by Dr. Leverence, the practice operations team. Each team member was formally recognized with a certificate of appreciation and a long-stem red rose.