How long have you worked at UTMB?
Daisy Perez: 28 years
What do you do as a patient navigator?
DP: My role as a patient navigator is very diverse. My day usually starts at 7:15 a.m. and goes until 4 or 5 p.m. every day and sometimes can include weekends for community events.
Patient navigators help patients overcome barriers that may prevent them from delivering their children within the UTMB system. This could include financial screenings, hospital tours, transportation, childcare during medical visits, breast pumps, car seats and becoming more knowledgeable about their pregnancy or just overall support during the patient's pregnancy, the journey and what to expect during as well as after. We collaborate with patients and the health care team to support the patients’ journey and address all questions that they may have.
At what point do you start to interact with the patients?
DP: I start at their new OB appointment. That's when I start speaking to them about where we deliver and explain all the things that I could help them with if needed. And then I continue to talk to them because I give them my cards, they come back to me at six weeks, depending on the time frame of where they are. Sometimes they come already at 28 weeks, 36 weeks. It just depends, but I could continue through their whole pregnancy, and I follow them to where they deliver.
What is it that you find satisfying about your job?
DP: Building relationships with my patients is what I find the most satisfying about my job as a patient navigator. We look for opportunities to serve and build long-term rapports with our patients and often in the community through community engagements.
What kind of impact do you have on your patients and their experience?
DP: Patient experience is the best marketing tool we can ever have. If we pride ourselves on giving the patient what they need to get through what sometimes may be a difficult pregnancy or not an ideal one, we have established a long-term patient. I decided to always maintain open lines of communication with our patients by removing barriers they may face and helping them navigate through our health care services.
Do you have any stories that particularly moved you or affected you personally that involve working with your patients?
DP: I can't choose a particular story. All the patients are very special to me. I believe without the existence of the clinic, many patients would have a hard time finding medical care. And it gives me gratitude that I'm able to assist them to obtain the care for moms and babies.
Do your patients ever surprise you?
DP: Patients are always full of surprises here. They just walk in, and they tell me all their problems, and I guide them to get help. Like if they need clothes, if they need diapers, you know, or how to apply for the help when we can’t assist them any longer. Because you know babies that are not born here, we help them with the Title 5 medical assistance program, and they just come to me for everything. So, it's like when they walk in, everybody wants to talk to Daisy.
The patients who come in and see you … do they come in on their own or they referred by their doctors? How do they find their way to you?
DP: A lot of them are referred to me by other moms that have delivered with us years back at UTMB and they tell them to come to the Pasadena clinic to make sure that I'm still working here because they hear by word of mouth of neighbors and friends that I am still working here, and they tell them to ask for me.
What is the hardest part of your job?
DP: When they miscarry. When they lose their baby, and I can't ... I mean, they come to me, they cry. That's the hardest. I listen and then I let them speak to the provider or to a nurse or someone who can give them more information if they need counseling or other kind of help I can’t give them.
How do you build trust with your patients?
DP: I open my ears. I talk to them, and I sit down with them, and I always tell them if they ever have anything that I cannot answer, I will guide them as best that I can. If they have any complaints, anything, I will help them to the right path to see who can help them. That's what I do for my patients.
Do you have any heroes?
DP: My heroes are my parents and my family. They are the most supportive people that I have in my life. When we were little, my parents struggled very much, and we didn't have a vehicle and my Mama would take us walking to school and we just ate whatever was on the table. But they always struggled to give us food on the table and clothes. My dad is the same way as me. He will take off his shirt to give it to somebody if needed, and he will help somebody if they need anything and he can stay with nothing.
What do you do in your off hours?
DP: I enjoy spending time with my family, which is my husband and children. My two sons are grown, and my daughter, Catalina, is 11 and excels in competitive soccer. She plays for Deer Park. I love being around my family, and they really motivate me to be the best person I can be.
What is it about you personally that makes you good at your job?
DP: I know how to talk to my patients. My patients know me very well and they're always excited to talk to me. If I am busy or in a meeting or not here, they wait to see me, or I'll call the next day. I just love my clientele, that's just me. I'm loud, I'm outgoing, and I can sell UTMB.