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.

Tip of the month: Confirm your patient’s primary care provider

At check-in, confirm the name of your patient’s primary care provider. This quick verification promotes continuity of care by ensuring your patient’s medical record is up-to-date and that medical information is sent back to the correct primary care doctor following the appointment.

Sign up for training this month

Insurance Concepts and UT Health Physicians Collections training are underway. You may sign up for both of these using the Knowledge Center. Find them using these file paths:

• Electronic Medical Record/Insurance Concepts
• Administrative/UTHP Collections

The next UT Health Way Training and Certification class for new employees will be on Friday, April 5. Contact Theresa Lomperski for more information.

Personal and family vaccinations

With the recent increase in measles cases in Texas (including locally), please ensure that your personal vaccinations and those of your family members are current to prevent such severe diseases. Vaccinations can be provided by your primary care provider or at the employee health center. For questions, contact Nancy Mendicino, infection preventionist.

Fertility services are now offered at UT Health Hill Country

Reproductive Health and Fertility is now offering services at UT Health Hill Country. UT Health provides comprehensive fertility services including fertility treatment, fertility preservation, embryo storage, donor eggs/embryos, fertility care for before and after cancer treatment and a comprehensive range of advanced fertility services. Call 210-450-9500 for an appointment. For more information, click here.

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. 

National Doctors’ Day is March 30, but UT Health San Antonio will be celebrating doctors the entire week of March 25.

Sir William Osler, one of the four founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital once said, “The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.”

And so it is with our physicians.  We thank them and recognize them for their unwavering commitment to the mission and the sacrifices that go along with that dedication.

And don’t forget to pick up a free ice cream cone in either the ALTC courtyard or the Medical Arts & Research Center employee elevator bank from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, March 29. UT Health San Antonio’s practices that are off-site will also receive sweet treats on Friday!

We have developed a website populated with notes of appreciation from staff, faculty and students. Click here to view the website

Or go social be sending a quick message of thanks to your favorite UT Health San Antonio physician on Twitter by using the hashtag #UTHealthSADocsRock and tagging @UTHealthSA.

A notable milestone for UT Health San Antonio was reached in December. After more than a year of planning and construction, we are proud to announce that UT Health San Antonio’s Advanced Data Center was commissioned. The process of consolidating several of our aged data centers located throughout the campus into one state-of-the-art facility has begun. We are well on our way to achieving our objectives of:

• Supporting the mission of University Growth and Expansion for San Antonio and South Texas.
• Enhancing Compliance, Security and Availability of technology to support research, clinical and academic operations.
• Simplifying technology service offerings.
• Optimizing IT Costs and reducing on-campus IT space requirements.

One of our primary goals during this project is engineering to avoid as many potential impacts to operations as possible—from a fire or flood to power outages, from extreme heat to attempted security breaches. What we have achieved is greater reliability, efficiency and security to better support our vital research, clinical and academic operations.

Our next step is the migration of the applications, systems and data from the existing data centers into the Advanced Data Center. The project team is working diligently to develop a migration path that does not introduce any apparent change to you as a consumer of technology services or disrupt the university’s critical systems. The migration process will take place in stages, with anticipated completion by the end of the calendar year. We will continue to update you on the progress of the migration project as it unfolds.

As always, your concerns and questions are important to us. We have created a dedicated page within our My UT Health intranet to serve as your source of information on the project details, timelines and FAQs. It also provides an opportunity for you to ask us questions directly. You can access the site here.

We are grateful for the opportunity to build the most advanced data center that will allow us to be ever ready for the continued digital transformation of health care. As we pivot toward a more robust, standardized and secure digital infrastructure, this Advanced Data Center demonstrates our thought leadership for the future of academic health.

For direct questions, email DataCenterMigration@uthscsa.edu.

Submit WOW! Nominations

When you see a colleague living out our promise to provide exceptional care to our patients, nominate them for a WOW award by emailing a note describing why you believe they deserve recognition to: medinam11@uthscsa.edu. Or, you may deliver the note in person to the first floor administration offices at the Medical Arts & Research Center. A committee formally reviews and recognizes WOW Award winners using the letters submitted by patients, employees, managers, supervisors and providers during that quarter.

The next WOW! Awards will be held on Wednesday, April 24 at noon in the first floor lobby of the Medical Arts & Research Center

Plan to attend this quarter’s WOW! Awards where our leaders recognize the practices, providers and employees who have exceeded UT Health Physicians’ core values of quality, integrity, compassion, diversity and innovation, to ensure every patient has an exceptional experience at UT Health Physicians.

Every day, more than 1,000 patients come to UT Health Physicians to feel better. When our patients have a great experience with us, they feel better, their trust in us grows and they are more compliant. They also tell their family and friends to come to UT Health Physicians for excellent care. Every positive patient experience we provide propels our mission to make lives better and sets us apart as leaders in health care.

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.

Gaspar Apolinar, radiology; Susan Bernal, clinical quality & safety, Patricia Caldwell, vascular surgery; Misty Cardenas, float pool; Danielle Carranco, ophthalmology; Selene Chaudhry, clinical quality & safety; Yolanda Cortinas-Ortiz, bariatric surgery; Gabriel Davalos, radiology; Rebecca Dominguez, UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center; Dominique Dufek, bariatric surgery; Yvonne Enriquez, ophthalmology; Pamala Flores, primary care; Dana  Gaines, medical records; Lucinda Galvan, clinical quality & safety; Irma Garcia, urology; Brian Gilley, medical records; Abelardo Gonzalez, radiology; Anthony Gonzalez, clinical quality & safety; Angelica Gray, clinical quality & safety; Raymond Jimenez, orthotics and prosthetics; Julia Lopez, ophthalmology;  Robin Maldonado, urology; Trisha Mejia, clinical quality & safety; Torri Morris, coding support; Christopher  Naranjo, float pool; David Paulat, server operations; Elizabeth Powell, coding support; Priscilla Rodriguez, primary care; Stephanie Rodriguez, primary care; Cynthia Rogers, ACO; Pamela Romero, UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson  Cancer Center, Taylor Shaw, medical records; Melissa Stevens, physical and occupational therapy; Ana Trejo, bariatric surgery; Lorraine Uribe, ophthalmology; Meghan Varela, vascular surgery; Stephanie Warren, clinical quality & safety; Robbie Williams, clinical quality & safety; Keith Youngblood, general surgery coder; Erica Francisco, urology

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

UT Healthier TV is streaming 24/7 with videos created especially for you, our valued UT Health San Antonio family. And new videos are being added all the time. Like Netflix, UT Healthier TV lets you watch what interests you the most. View highlights from one of our events, catch the latest president’s message, or hear first-hand about the advancements we are making in research, education and patient care.

Watch UT Healthier TV directly from the My UT Health Intranet home page where you will find the featured video on the right hand side. Then, click on the UT Healthier TV button to start streaming the videos you want to see. Or, go  straight to UT Healthier TV using this link.

UT Healthier TV was created based on the feedback from our recent engagement survey of both faculty and staff. There we learned that offering additional and varied ways to communicate within our complex organization ranked as very important to everyone at UT Health San Antonio. With this in mind, UT Health San Antonio created this easy-to-use tool as a way to communicate, in short video segments, more about what’s happening in our organization and share important news.

We hope you enjoy UT Healthier TV. Have questions or want to offer feedback? Email UTHealthierTV@uthscsa.edu.