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.

Holiday practice closures

All UT Health San Antonio practices will be closed on the following dates:

Monday, Dec. 24

Tuesday, Dec. 25

Wednesday, Dec. 26

Saturday, Dec. 29

Tuesday, Jan. 1

The phone operators at 210-450-9000 will be available to answer calls on these days.

New employee orientation

The next new employee orientation will be on Friday, Jan. 11. Contact Theresa Lomperski for more information.

Pediatric specialties moving in 2019

UT Health Physicians' pediatric specialty practices will be moving to the Westgate Medical Center from the Medical Arts & Research Center in early 2019. The specialty practices that will be housed at the Westgate Medical Center include:

• Pediatric allergy
• Pediatric neurology
• Pediatric hematology

Obstetrics and Gynecology practice expands sub-specialty services in 2019

Urogynecology (female pelvic health) services are now available at UT Health San Antonio's Stone Oak location in the Atrium at North Central Baptist Hospital. Early in 2019, reproductive health and fertility services will begin at UT Health Hill Country. 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. 

In 2016, UT Health San Antonio brought together an exciting new group of dedicated employees called Patient Experience Champions. The purpose of a Patient Experience Champion is to provide consistent patient-centered care by partnering with all team members at UT Health Physicians to exceed the expectations of patients and their families. The team of Patient Experience Champions includes one employee from each of UT Health Physicians’ practices and serves as an advisory resource for critical patient experience initiatives across UT Health Physicians. 

In 2017, the champions began conducting post-visit interviews of randomly selected patients as a means to learn about the perception of their visit, address any unanswered questions and ensure their expectations were met or exceeded. These interviews focus on the use of these two Studer tools: AIDET (Acknowledge, Introduce, Duration, Explanation and Thank you) and C.A.R.E. (Connect, Apologize, Repair and Exceed) for service recovery. This year’s goal was for each Patient Experience Champion to complete a minimum of five patient interviews every week (one per day). Champions were encouraged to empower other team members to assist with these interviews.  In the radiation oncology practice, Patient Experience Champion, Nora Villanueva, did just that.

Nora asked radiation oncology’s front desk specialist, Pam Hernandez, if she was interested in helping out with patient interviews. Pam, who is known for her compassion, readily agreed and interviewed her first patient. The results were positive — the patient felt valued to have been asked about the quality of her visit. Pam also felt valued because she was able to positively contribute to her practice and was able to make her patients feel recognized and important.

Pam conducted another interview, and another, and another. By the end of the day, Pam had interviewed 30 patients! Twenty-nine had only positive comments regarding their visit and the interview process. The one patient who wasn’t 100 percent positive recounted a piece of testing equipment that failed to work, which required the patient to be rescheduled. To remedy this lapse of service, Pam followed the C.A.R.E. guidelines: She Connected with the patient, then Apologized. Pam was able to Repair by rescheduling the patient and then Exceeded by providing the patient with a parking voucher.

Scenarios like the one above may seem too small to be significant, but to that patient, it meant the world. Many of our patients come to us experiencing what they interpret to be the worst day of their lives. Some are sick, others have pain, some are about to receive bad news, while some receive news of a clean bill of health. Pam demonstrated compassion and dignity where it otherwise might have gone unchecked. The patient left feeling respected, instead of feeling marginalized or like an inconvenience requiring to be rescheduled.

Our Patient Experience Champions are doing this great work every day, putting UT Health San Antonio's best foot forward, one patient at a time. It is these contributions to our continued standard of excellence that will continue to distinguish UT Health San Antonio as a leader in quality and respectful patient care. For questions or to learn more about the Patient Experience Champions, contact Reggie Regan.

Hello and happy holidays! We are the Resource Team, often referred to as the float pool. We are a team of medical assistants and medical receptionists who are part of the UT Health Physicians’ practice operations team. We have 11 members including three medical assistants, seven medical office receptionists and our manager, Theresa. We are actively recruiting, with plans to grow our team to 18 members.

The Resource Team is integral to the success of our practice operations. We are called upon daily to staff practices across all locations—to help keep them “a-float!” We provide support to all practices, including primary care, specialty practices and the UT Health MD Anderson Cancer Center. When practices are short-staffed, or when extra assistance is needed, we are ready to help. You may see us in your practice working alongside you when your fellow colleagues are out due to illness, FMLA, vacation or personal leave. You’ll also see us when your leadership is actively recruiting for new team members for your team.

We are a unique team; our skills and experiences are diverse and allow us to provide staffing assistance in all practices. And, as our skills grow with the needs of the enterprise, so too will the services we are able to provide. We look forward to working with you and providing you with the backup you need. We may be in your practice for just a day or two, but we’ll be back when you most need us.

Contact our manager, Theresa Lomperski, to request our added assistance for your practice. We are here to help. You can count on the Resource Team to provide excellent patient care and a five-star, positive patient experience.

Resource Team members include:

Manager – Theresa Lomperski

Medical Assistants – Krystal Delavega, Helena Ferreira and Amber Gonzales

Medical Receptionists – Raena Gelillo Smith, Barbara Mora, Skiler Hernandez, Tiffany Shaw, Alex Cabello, Taylor Gill and Sylvia Prieto

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: 

Rosalinda Carrejo, vascular surgery; Jaclyn Cuellar, obstetrics and gynecology; Jessica Esquivel, primary care; Margarita Flores, payment posting; Amber Gonzalez, float pool; Chistine Gonzales, radiology; Teresa Gonzales, patient services; April Herrera, ophthalmology; Raven Jimenez, neurology; Nelda Lefler, quality and safety; Jessica Lebron-Chisholm, psychiatry; Jeanette Lopez, urology; Chistina Martin, obstetrics and gynecology; Susana Martinez- Alcala, customer service; Adrian Mata, UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center; Sylvia Medrano, insurance follow up; Melody Morales, customer service; Isabel Soto, obstetrics and gynecology; Amelie Trevino, urology; Michael Vogt, server operations

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