Congratulations Teresa Barajas!

Teresa was nominated for this honor by her supervisor, Christina Toro, who called her a “rock star”. Indeed, it appears that is what she is! Christina said Teresa is “always willing to lend a helping hand. She also has a positive attitude and goes above and beyond to help patients, coworkers and leaders.” Teresa started working at CBHA in 2013. Her job title at that time was PSR (Patient Services Representative) in the Call Center; she also assisted with Centricity scheduling.

Her current title is PSR – Certified. She is also the lead of the centralized scheduling team in the contact center. Even with this lead position, she continues her day to day responsibilities as a PSR-Certified Medicare Specialist, providing coverage in Connell; she is a member of the QIT Standards of Behavior Committee and, most recently, Teresa is playing an important role in the paperless workflow project for dental. She is creating the electronic forms for waivers used in dental to be operational on iPads. Her department inputs all of the schedules for medical, dental, eye care and family services. “Teresa’s main priority on a daily basis is making sure our patients have the best experience possible at CBHA,” Christina said. “She is also very respectful and is always looking out for her employees and patients.”

She comes in at 7 a.m. and gets right to work checking e-mails, making changes due to provider call ins and dealing with changes to basically all centricity schedules including medical, dental, eye care and family services – “I like the challenge of coordinating what is going on and making sure nothing is missed,” Teresa said.

Her favorite part of the job involves being able to help others. “I like it when staff and patients call me with a question and I have the answer,” she said. “I also like learning something new every day. I need to remain flexible throughout the day to deal with people’s needs. For example, someone might need to make an adjustment to a schedule template, change their lunch, etc. We contact all the patients, take messages and make sure everyone knows what is going on.”

Teresa was shocked and surprised when she found out that she was the Firestarter of the Month. “Nieves came over to my desk and asked if I was on the phone,” she said. “I said ‘no’ and then he asked if I was available to discuss dental scheduling…that my input was needed.” She was amazed to discover a whole group of people waiting to congratulate her. “Administrative staff, Christina, Melinda one of my two sisters who also work at CBHA, and many others were on hand to wish me well. Nieves succeeded in really surprising me,” she said. She is grateful to be recognized and feels very special.

Time off from work is spent with her family who lives in Othello and Royal City. “We (three sisters, one brother and my ten year old daughter, Yulieth) like to get together at my parent’s house. I also like to participate at events at Yulieth’s school. They had a science project in Yulieth’s 4^th grade classroom last week where we were given materials to build a boat – one that would float!” Teresa said. “It took us a while to figure out how to do it but we were successful and our boat floated!”

She also likes to exercise and go on walks. She participates at CBHA events whenever possible. “We participated in the Color Run last fall - lots of fun. I also participate in Connell Days every year. I trained at the Connell Clinic for six months so I know a lot of people there. It is a small town, people are very close and everyone is so nice!”