PPOA Patient Care Champion – Evidelsy Vazquez

EVIDELSY VAZQUEZ: AUTHORIZATIONS AND VERIFICATIONS TEAM LEAD, TAMPA

Our employees are all patient care champions, but some go the extra mile and we want to give them the recognition they deserve. They embody the PPOA values known as S.I.T.E. – Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Empathy – which informs our service to patients and the community through high quality health care. 

Evidelsy “Evi” Vazquez gets excited talking about insurance. Who does that? you might ask. Talk to her for a few minutes and you’ll understand why.

Vazquez is an authorization and verification specialist team lead, the one who tells patients what their insurance covers. She also leads the 18-member team responsible for clinics, procedure suites and ambulatory surgery centers. Her department’s goals are to deliver authorizations to the clinics, allowing physicians to perform needed procedures helping patients get out of pain.

“I love knowing what we can do to help someone,” she says. “We’re up against insurance companies. If they don’t want to pay, you’re limited. But an insurance verification and authorization specialist finds out why they don’t want to pay and finds out what can be done to get that claim paid. Knowing I can help really makes me keep pushing.”

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y. who moved to Bethlehem, Penn. at age 11, Vazquez has an innate desire to help others and was always drawn to healthcare. She earned her Certified Medical Assistant certificate at Star Technical Institute in Allentown, Penn., then began work at nearby Lehigh Valley Hospital.

The physician residents who staffed the facility had an all-hands-on-deck mentality that allowed medical assistants to learn a variety of tasks. “They let us do a lot of hands-on work because they were learning, too,” she says. “I worked the front desk doing insurance. I took out sutures. I assisted with injections. I scheduled patients. I loved being so involved,” she says, adding that she enjoyed working in the hospital’s pain clinic.

That experience helped her find her niche. Evidelsy Vazquez moved to St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem, Penn., and became a financial counselor. She loved helping patients understand changes in insurance plans, and getting referrals and authorizations.

“I Realized How Important Insurance Is”

From there, Vazquez moved to Florida and helped start up the verification team at the now-defunct Laser Spine Institute. After ten years of growing that part of the organization, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her work had taken a personal turn.

Out of work for 18 months, the company could not hold her job and the insurance coverage that came with it. She got by through grants, help from her family, and sacrifice. “I was self-pay for everything,” she recalls. “I tried to apply for grants, used pharmacy discounts, got fewer pills and stretched them out until someone could give me money,” she said. “I realized how important insurance is.”

As she got back on her feet, she she decided to start job-hunting. She found PPOA through am amazing coincidence.

“On the day I learned I was in remission, I was sitting in the waiting room at Florida Cancer Center and saw a commercial for Dr. James St. Louis,” she recalls. Dr. St. Louis had recently come from Laser Spine Institute to PPOA to head its laser spine division. Vazquez had enjoyed working with him at LSI and immediately applied to PPOA “for any job I could.”

Putting Patients First

Vazquez says she enjoys the patients-first environment at PPOA, and the unique challenges she handles every day: winter visitors with out-of-state insurance, the different specialties she works with, and trying to help people get insured for procedures.

“A lot of it is making sure our documentations meet the insurance requirements so they could cover what a patient can or can’t do physically. That can make all the difference,” she says. “So I work closely with the clinics.”

Her manager, Christopher Ripoli, enthusiastically nominated her as a PPOA Patient Care Champion.

“Evi’s leadership capabilities, caring not just for patients but for her coworkers and team members, demonstrates her exceptional understanding and qualities that are an asset to the department, as well as to PPOA’s mission and values,” he says.

In addition to helping others at work, Vazquez is a giver in her personal life. She is the wife of a pastor, the Rev. Miguel Marquez of Church of God Ebenezer in Tampa. They have a blended family of four daughters and a son.

Evidelsy Vazquez has founded her own ministry, Abby’s Heart Mission Ministries, inspired by her own late mother’s personal mission trips to the Dominican Republic. Vazquez and her ministry have helped feed and clothe hundreds in the impoverished Caribbean island for the past four years. The ministry also has delivered kids’ school backpacks and blankets to the homeless in Tampa.

 

Did you know that PPOA offers FREE online insurance verification? Click here for details.

 

 

 

 

 

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PPOA Florida to Sponsor Walk to Cure Arthritis

About 54 million Americans suffer from arthritis, including 300,000 children affected with this lifelong disease. Physician Partners of America treats many cases of spinal and osteoarthritis pain each year, and has a passion for this cause.

Therefore, we are honored to be a corporate sponsor for the Arthritis Foundation’s Walk to Cure Arthritis in Tampa and Orlando. This fun and family-friendly 5k and 1 mile walk will be on Saturday, May 4, at Al Lopez Park in Tampa and Saturday, May 11, at Lake Eola in Orlando.

In addition to being a corporate sponsor of both walks, Physician Partners of America is committed to having a large team of at least 30 participants in Tampa and 20 in Orlando.

With support, the Arthritis Foundation will continue its mission to boldly pursue a cure for arthritis America’s No. 1 cause of disability, while championing the fight against arthritis with life-changing resources, science, advocacy and community connections.

The community at large is invited to join PPOA staff at the Walk to Cure Arthritis on May 4 in Tampa or May 11 in Orlando. Contact team leads Connie Huber at @chuber@physicianpartnersoa.com or Angela Jimenez at ajimenez@physicianpartnersoa.com. Or visit the Arthritis Foundation Events page to get involved in your community.

 

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PPOA Patient Care Champions – Jessica Sutherland

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JESSICA SUTHERLAND – MEDICAL ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT, HURST, TX

Our employees are all patient care champions, but some go the extra mile and we want to give them the recognition they deserve. They embody the PPOA values known as S.I.T.E. – Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Empathy – which informs our service to patients and the community through high quality health care. 

Jessica Sutherland started her career making people look better, but then found her calling helping others feel better. She found the perfect fit at PPOA’s Precinct Ambulatory Surgery center in Hurst, Texas, and has never looked back.

“I love talking with people. I love the face-to-face and putting patients at ease,” she says.

According to her supervisor, Kristy Gildersleeve, Jessica Sutherland does more than that.

“She has been with PPOA since 2014 and has been my right hand. We are only as good as our parts and she makes PPOA look stellar,” says Gildersleeve.

“She knows every patient and vendor and they all love her. If you are at Precinct and have a question, doesn’t matter what it is, she knows the answer and who to put you in contact with,” Gildersleeve adds, “and Jessica does it all with the warmest most endearing smile.”

The pain management field also appeals to Jessica Sutherland because she, too, is a pain patient. A high school drill team stunt caused her to fall and hurt her back. After years of putting it off – like many pain patients, she was scared of treatment – she finally sought interventional procedures from Dr. Luis Nieves at PPOA’s Hurst clinic.

Later, she had a laminectomy decompression procedure by spine surgeon Dr. Phillip Kravetz. She is now pain free.

“I’ve been a pain patient as well, so I can relate to our patients,” she says. “When people tell me their stories, I can tell them I had the same procedure.”

An Army Brat born at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, Sutherland grew up mainly in Fort Polk, La., and the outskirts of Fort Worth, Texas. Like many young people, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do but knew she loved working with people.

Cosmetology school sounded appealing. She got her license in 2009 and worked as a stylist for a few years. Then the birth of her son, Daelan, in 2012 caused her to do some soul searching.

“I wanted something with more stability and more meaning. Good health insurance was also important to me as a mom,” she says.

The answer came from one of her clients, who was in the medical field.

“I always assumed that you were either a doctor or a nurse, and that’s all there was,” she says. “My client told me about all the many careers available. I was so happy to hear there were front desk positions I could train for. That seemed to be a perfect fit.”

Sutherland enrolled in Everest College and got her Medical Administrative Assistant diploma. She got a job at a hospital emergency room doing collections – and hated it.

“It filled me with anxiety; it was so intense,” Sutherland says. “It wasn’t for me.”

She went back into hair styling until a PPOA recruiting effort at Everest drew her back in. And she’s been the friendly face – and go-to person – at Precinct ever since.

“I am always amazed at how she can have someone on the phone, working the computer, while also checking in patients, and responding to the staff as they lay something else on her,” says Gildersleeve.

 

Sutherland is kept busy in her personal life, too. She and her fiancé, Brad, an Army veteran and construction worker, have a blended family of three sons: Grayson, 7; Daelan, who is now 6; and Braelan, 2.

“In the end I found my calling and I couldn’t be happier,” she says.

 

 

 

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PPOA Patient Care Champions – Marlene Chinchilla

MARLENE CHINCHILLA – PATIENT EXPERIENCE COORDINATOR TEAM LEAD, TAMPA

Our employees are all patient care champions, but some go the extra mile and we want to give them the recognition they deserve. They embody the PPOA values known as S.I.T.E. – Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Empathy – which informs our service to patients and the community through high quality health care. 

Marlene Chinchilla may not be the one who holds your hand at the doctor’s office; she’s the one who does it virtually, over the phone. She’s the comforting voice on the phone, the one who checks out your insurance, the one who patiently answers your questions about procedures; the one who calls every patient “honey.”

People like her, known as patient experience coordinators, are essential to a healthcare practice, and they have one of the most difficult jobs – plural.

At any given time, you will see Chinchilla working two or three phones and two computer screens, a trainee perched by her side. She juggles the calls effortlessly, pointing out what she’s doing to the newcomer. On one line is a patient who needs to reschedule a laser spine procedure; on another, someone who isn’t clear what his insurance covers; on the third is a doctor who wants to make a referral to one of PPOA’s 40-plus pain management specialists.

It’s a stressful, fastball environment that would break some people, but Chinchilla takes it all in stride. “I’m a natural multi-tasker” she says.

While her skills may come naturally, they were honed in a radically different first career. A native of Miami, Chinchilla earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in social work at Miami Gardens’s St. Thomas University and pursued a career in social services.

She worked at the Florida Department of Children and Families in various positions: case manager for drug-dependent clients, hospice services, and therapist for some of the state’s most troubled youth at G4S in Avon Park.

“Working in social services made me realize how precious life is. These kids – things happened to them that were not their fault, usually involving a parent’s drug use,” she says. “Sadly, many of these kids would do something to wind up back in jail as soon as they got out.”

After being attacked in a riot she hit the reset button in her life and made the career switch into medicine. “I was a single mom of two kids,” she says. Chinchilla became a receptionist at a medical group in Sebring, Fla., working her way up to insurance verification and records management.

She and her two children have always been extremely close; so when her son Nicholas Gillespie got into the National Aviation Academy in Tampa, she didn’t hesitate to look for work nearby.

Chinchilla started at PPOA’s Tampa headquarters in 2015. Her daughter, Yessenia Sanchez, also works as a PPOA patient care coordinator, while Nicholas works for Boeing in aircraft maintenance in Jacksonville, Fla.

With her children settled, Marlene Chinchilla can devote more time with her work family. As team lead, she keeps track of her fellow representatives’ patient interactions: the team of 12 to 15 handles up to 1,500 calls a day.

Chinchilla always tries to foster a cohesive, affirmative spirit. “I try to be positive and make sure we work together as a team,” she says. “And I always try to thank everyone at the end of the workday.”

The toughness and empathy she developed as a social worker helps her deal not only with her coworkers in a stressful environment, but with the unique needs of chronic pain patients.

“I just go with the flow,” she says. “At the end of the day, it’s all about the patients. I try to make them feel better.”

 

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Patient Care Champions – Gary Lindsey, APRN-C, DC

GARY LINDSEY, NURSE PRACTITIONER, RICHARDSON

Our employees are all patient care champions, but some go the extra mile and we want to give them the recognition they deserve. They embody the PPOA values known as S.I.T.E. – Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Empathy – which informs our service to patients and the community through high quality health care. 

Gary Lindsey, APRN-C, DC, has done many things with his life – sales, financial services, and chiropractor – but the theme that ties it altogether is caring for others. The nurse practitioner at the Physician Partners of America – Richardson, Texas, clinic is popular with patients for his knowledge and compassion.

“If you want to label my career, it’s service to others in any shape, form, or title,” he says. He comes into the clinic most days at 7 a.m. It’s a day filled with new patient visits, follow-up appointments, in-office procedures, referrals, documentations – and the dozens of other tasks to help chronic pain patients find relief. He works with pain management specialist Christopher Creighton, M.D.,

The best part of the job? Reaching people through their pain.

“It’s about giving people hope. I believe a great deal of the negative behaviors we see in people are just a reaction to fear,” he says. “It takes on many different presentations but it boils down to the same basic emotion.  If I can get past that and open their hearts and minds, then some real healing can take place.”

Lindsey learned about the value of compassionate healthcare early in life. A native of Jacksonville, North Carolina, he spent part of his childhood in Okinawa (he is of Okinawan descent). He remembers a particular physician who helped his father, a decorated war veteran of Korea and Vietnam, find relief.

“My dad had life-long debilitating back pain that would bring him to his knees. I remember vividly helping him off his knees so he could stand, get dressed and go to work,” Lindsey recalls. “It was a local doctor, Dr. John Dudley, who kept my father working for another 18 years past his 21 years of active duty military service.

Lindsey says Dr. Dudley inspired him to pursue a similar career path.

“My father retired with over 10,000 hours of sick leave and he never called in sick.  Dr. Dudley did this for many people in my hometown and made an indelible impact on me.  If I can do the same for others then my life is well lived.”

After working at a variety of jobs from service manager at a bicycle shop to top-rated sales rep for wireless phone companies and a financial services advisor, he returned to his first calling, healthcare.

Gary Lindsey earned his Doctor of Chiropractic from Parker University in 2002.  He ran a busy practice in Arlington, Texas, but saw its limitations. “I knew I wanted to know more about the entire continuum of care for the type of patients I treat, from conservative care to surgery to chronic management.  I looked at other various professions but knew that if I wanted to genuinely care for people nursing is about as close as you come,” he says. “So I started from scratch in my spare time, went back to school from an Associate’s through to a Master’s degree all over again.

He earned his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Nursing from Samford University and became a board-certified orthopedic nurse. He working at several healthcare companies and hospitals before coming to PPOA.

“I started in August 2016 and my second day on the job, our founder, Dr. Gari, handed me a laptop and said, ‘Go see patients; you know what to do,’ and I have not stopped since,” Lindsey recalls.

Gary Lindsey and his wife Tresia, recently celebrated their 26th anniversary. They are parents to Jacob, who is a 2016 United States Naval Academy graduate and naval aviator.  Gary Lindsey enjoys competitive cycling, the outdoors, and has driven high performance sports cars in Europe.

He has kept all his licenses active and continues his education current for both nursing and chiropractic.

“I am not done learning, growing, or advancing in my current field so my journey is to still keep putting tools in my toolbox,” he says. “My dream is to keep working, not retiring, and be able to confidently help others regardless of problems they bring me.  Also,” he adds with a smile, “because I have no idea how to play golf.”

 

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PPOA Laser Spine Institute Career Fair a Success

Over 180 Attend PPOA Laser Spine Institute Career Fair

They lined up an hour early, armed with resumes. They hugged colleagues. That was the scene on March 6 as nearly 200 displaced LSI employees attended a career fair at Physician Partners of America (PPOA).

Ten workers were offered jobs on the spot, with many follow-up interviews scheduled.

Tampa-based Laser Spine Institute abruptly closed its doors March 1, leaving about 600 local workers without a job. PPOA, which is growing rapidly and has been advertising 70 open positions, made an appeal through the media on Saturday. It urged both LSI workers and stranded chronic back pain patients to reach out.

The executive team met and quickly arranged the PPOA Laser Spine Institute Career Fair.

“We are so gratified to have the opportunity to help the community, this talented workforce, and Laser Spine Institute patients,” said Josh Helms, COO of Physician Partners of America. “We’re glad we could respond quickly to this sad turn of events.”

Physician Partners of America performs the same minimally invasive, laser-assisted procedures as Laser Spine Institute.

In addition, PPOA’s pain specialists are now performing laser procedures on facet arthritis patients. The company’s long-established pain management division also performs neuromodulation, intrathecal pain pumps and other non-opioid treatments for chronic pain.

Physician Partners of America has been responding to dozens of calls, emails and social media inquiries from former Laser Spine Institute patients, and scheduling them for consultations.

“We’re more than ready to help these displaced patients,” said Helms. “Even patients who are from out of state an find help with us. We’ve got the space, the technology and the expertise.”

For Laser Spine Institute career help, email hrdept@physicianpartnersoa.com or click here.

Displaced patients can call 855-25-LASER (855-255-2737) or visit the PPOA website.

 

 

 

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Laser Spine Institute Closing

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Physician Partners of America Offers Solutions to Displaced Laser Spine Institute Patients and Workers

Physician Partners of America (PPOA) will open its doors to hundreds of chronic pain patients left in the lurch after Laser Spine Institute shut down operations suddenly on Friday, March 1. Some of those patients had traveled to LSI’s flagship clinic in Tampa from other states. It is also helping displaced employees, who were blindsided by the closure, to find work at PPOA, beginning with a job fair on March 6.

“We are pleased to offer to perform minimally invasive laser spine procedures on patients who were scheduled for those procedures at Laser Spine Institute in Tampa,” said Josh Helms, PPOA Chief Operating Officer. “We welcome these patients and can put them on our schedule immediately.” PPOA accepts Medicare and most insurances for minimally invasive and laser spine procedures. The cost to patients is typically much lower than Laser Spine Institute.

TO SCHEDULE with Dr. St Louis please call: 1-855-25-LASER

Physician Partners of America, headquartered a few miles from LSI in Tampa, will also see LSI patients for consultations.

 

Laser Spine Institute Closing
Dr. James St. Louis, chief of PPOA’s Minimally Invasive Spine Division since January 2018

 

 

PPOA leadership expressed extreme sadness to hear that Laser Spine Institute shut down operations citing insurmountable financial difficulties. It had closed three surgical centers as a cost-cutting measure in recent years at the same time PPOA entered a period of dramatic expansion.

PPOA operates more than 30 pain management clinics, two laser spine operations, and six outpatient surgery centers in Florida and Texas.

“Laser Spine Institute has brought name recognition to the community in Tampa and other cities and it’s an unfortunate situation,” said Helms. “At Physician Partners of America, we take comfort in hiring many of the displaced LSI workers and our ability to care for those patients in need.”

Help for displaced Laser Spine Institute Employees

Helms added that given PPOA’s expansion and commitment to the Tampa Bay community, it is in a good position to hire some of the 500 employees who lost their jobs at LSI.

“We have many open positions for the type of experienced healthcare workers that contributed so much to the culture at LSI,” Helms said. “We can offer them a new home in a strong and stable company.”

Displaced Laser Spine Institute employees are invited to a career fair at Physician Partners Institute from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Wednesday, March 6 in its headquarters building, 550 N. Reo St. Tampa 33609. PPOA is hiring for 70-plus open positions, mainly in revenue cycle, collections, coding and clinical operations.

For information, they may contact hrdept@physicianpartnersoa.com.

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PPOA Patient Care Champions – Jennifer Vivar

JENNIFER VIVAR – LEAD MEDICAL ASSISTANT, MCKINNEY, TEXAS

Our employees are all patient care champions, but some go the extra mile and we want to give them the recognition they deserve. They embody the PPOA values known as S.I.T.E. – Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Empathy – which informs our service to patients and the community through high quality health care. 

Sometimes people find the medical profession by chance; others just seem born to do it. Jennifer Vivar, lead medical assistant based in the PPOA McKinney, Texas, clinic, falls into that category.

“I love helping people. It’s a gift I have. I put others before myself,” she says. “I’m very, very kindhearted.”

You’d be hard-pressed to find a single person who would disagree with her self-assessment.

“She’s very engaged in providing exceptional patient experiences for the patients in McKinney,” says her regional supervisor, Rhonda Boysen.

Born in Dallas and raised in the small town of Little Elm, Texas, Vivar was the first among her siblings to graduate from high school. She immediately enrolled in PCI Health Training Center and earned her Certified Medical Assistant certificate in 2015. She did her externship at PPOA in its now-defunct Prosper office and was hired full-time.

After working at a few PPOA clinics she came to McKinney in 2016.  Recently promoted to lead medical assistant, she now trains new hires for the role, but the McKinney clinic is her home base.

“Jennifer is always a team player and has a strong desire to grow her career path,” says her supervisor, Rhonda Boysen. “She has the respect of her teammates and they have wonderful collaboration amongst their team.”

“The clinic is our secondary home – actually more like our primary home because we spend more time here than anywhere else,” Jennifer Vivar laughs. “We get along so well. Patients see that and it makes them more comfortable.”

The patients – she always comes back to the patients.

“As a medical assistant you really do bond with patients,” she says. “They become like family because you see them every month and they tell you about their lives. Most important, you want them to be comfortable.”

 

 

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PPOA Patient Care Champions – Khiva Rogers

KHIVA ROGERS – PRACTICE MANAGER, DESOTO, TEXAS

Our employees are all patient care champions, but some go the extra mile and we want to give them the recognition they deserve. They embody the PPOA values known as S.I.T.E. – Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Empathy – which informs our service to patients and the community through high quality health care. 

If there is one thing Khiva Rogers has learned at the PPOA Desoto, Texas clinic she manages it’s that patients deserve compassion and respect – no matter how challenging they might be. And it’s something she instills in her staff.

“People in pain are not their normal selves. They’re hurting,” she says. “I treat them like I’d want my grandparents to be treated.”

That attitude comes easily to this mother of three grown sons and grandmother of four.

“My mother was a private duty nurse. She helped her patients and her patients fell in love with her,” Rogers recalls. “She always did above what was expected. I followed her into medicine and I try to follow her example every day.”

Rogers is known to keep a bucket of frozen water bottles outside the entrance for patients to sip on during scorching Texas summers. Her regional manager, Terica Cox, recalls one incident that typifies Rogers’s heart for patient care.

“One time there was a patient who was not acting normal; he was disoriented,” Cox recalls. “We checked on him. Khiva sat with him and took him into a room. She asked him, ‘Have you eaten today?’ ‘No.’ ‘Are you diabetic?’ ‘Yes.’ She went to the kitchen and gave this man her lunch. That’s outstanding.”

A native of Dallas, Rogers joined the U.S. Army after high school, which took her around the world. Her job: mortuary assistant in South Korea. It was her duty to identify the remains of fallen soldiers – a task both grisly and honorable. Still, the universe kept coaxing her into her mother’s footsteps.

Being stationed separately from her husband, Randall, a fellow soldier, was also difficult, especially as their family grew. They returned to the States, and Khiva Rogers enrolled in Lakeland Medical Academy (now Herzing University) in Minneapolis, Minn. She earned her medical assistant certificate and worked at the University of Minnesota’s hospital neurology department.

After five years, the family moved back to Dallas, where Rogers earned an A.S. in Science at Richland College and went to work as the office manager at the Ashland Ambulatory Surgery Center at the University of Texas.

She came to PPOA in 2016, first in the North Dallas clinic, moving into her current role in 2018. In addition to providing compassionate care, Rogers also believes in educating patients.

“I try to inform them at all levels; not only about their condition but about navigating paperwork,” she says. “What a deductible is, what a prior authorization is. It’s not easy for someone in the profession to understand it, so how can we expect patients to get it? I will pull them to the side and explain it. I’ll even write it down if they need it.”

Her willingness to go the extra mile ever day in her job makes Khiva Rogers a PPOA Patient Care Champion.

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PPOA Patient Care Champions – Noemy Salinas

PATIENT CARE CHAMPIONS – NOEMY SALINAS, TEXAS

Our employees are all patient care champions, but some go the extra mile and we want to give them the recognition they deserve. They embody the PPOA values known as S.I.T.E. – Safety, Integrity, Teamwork, Empathy – which informs our service to patients and the community through high quality health care. 

Noemy Salinas is the practice manager of the PPOA Hurst, Texas location. With about 80 patients walking through its doors every day, it is the busiest pain clinic in the company’s Dallas-Fort Worth service area; but she handles it with grace and compassion and gratitude.

“I love being able to help. Talking to patients – some of them have no family and no one to talk to,” she says. “They catch me up on what they’ve been up to. So it becomes kind of like a friendship.”

Born in South Carolina and raised in Fort Worth, Salinas earned her Certified Medical Assistant certificate from Everest College. Very recently, she wrapped up eight years in the U.S. Army Reserves.

She was among the first wave of PPOA hires, in March 2014, starting as a medical assistant, then promoted to clinical coordinator – the precursor of today’s practice manager position.

“Noemy is very engaged in supporting her providers and support team,” says her regional supervisor, Rhonda Boysen. “Her team leads in many of PPOA’s initiatives in Texas. She has the respect of her teammates and they have wonderful collaboration amongst the group.”

One reason for that closeness is that several of her co-workers have been at Hurst since the beginning.

“We’re like a family,” says Salinas. “A family that has grown.”

As for her own family, she and her husband, Ryan, have two daughters: Genesis, 6, and Sophia, 4. Family is paramount in her life, and she sees her role as a fulfillment of her parents’ dreams.

“My parents are from Mexico and didn’t have the resources to pursue studies. My mom really wanted to be a nurse. She’d talk about it with great excitement – how cool it would be. She was so excited about it that it got me excited about it,” Salinas says.

While the pace can be hectic, Noemy Salinas never forgets why she is there. “Seeing the transformation of patients is amazing. Some people come to us and can barely walk. Over time, you see them come in and they can stand up straight and walk,” she says. “Seeing that gives you a purpose.”

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