Ambulatory Patient Care Manager, Pediatric Surgical Specialties

Overview of Journey at UCSF:

During Heidi's time at UCSF, she has revamped clinic workflows and design of Craniofacial Center to improve patient, family, staff, and provider satisfaction with significant improvements in clinic throughput, patient experience, and clinic capacity for greater than 200 visits in a single day for multi-disciplinary clinic. In order to improve upon photography and plan of care for Cleft Lip/Cleft Palate babies after only being with the organization for five weeks, Heidi applied for and was awarded the President's Innovation Fund-San Francisco which amounted to $31,349. 

Heidi's work increased clinic capacity for ambulatory procedures with subsequent increases in revenue and RVU’s for providers. She worked for 1.5 years to received approval and placement of a Pyxis machine in the ambulatory space to increase safety, reduce waste and diversion, and improve upon the mission, vision, and values of the organization. She assisted in the coordination and initiation of AWAKE Botox procedures in our Pediatric Surgical Specialties – Peds Urology to help reduce the number of times pediatric patients were being subjected to general anesthesia for serial studies and procedures with starting in April 2021. This resulted in the increase of sessions the clinic was able to offer over time. In a time where space is highly coveted, Heidi repurposed the clinic space to increase capacity and effectiveness. Some of the many process improvement projects Heidi intiated are to improve associate and provider engagement, patient experience, and outcomes. 

She is a member of Cross-Bay Patient Experience Committee, has participated in the UCSF Nursing Leadership Cohort 1 and the AONL Nursing Leadership Lab 7 over the past 1.5 years. She is currently working towards CNML Certification.

What advice would you give yourself early on in your career?  To a woman entering your field today?

The advice that I would give myself early on in my career would be to establish boundaries, maintain core morals and values regardless of what others do, and don’t stand for bullying by or to anyone.

To a woman entering my field today…the advice I would give would be to enter this field as if you will be learning for the rest of your life.Healthcare is rapidly advancing and changing and it is important to stay ahead of the curve, be involved in the positive changes, and give back to society.Nursing is a servant field and we need to be in for those that we are here to serve.

Can you tell us about an important role model or mentor in your life?

I have many important role models and mentors in my life, but the one that stands out above them all would be Donna Ammons.  Donna stood by me, mentored me, accepted me for who I was and what I brought to the table, and never once had any qualms about my intelligence and my passion in providing care to Women and Children.  Donna was a great leader and part of her greatness was surrounding herself with people as, if not more, intelligent than she was.  She did not feel threatened by numerous degrees or certifications and relied on our knowledge and strengths of the team to help propel us forward.  Donna always encouraged us to further our education and to this day, we still remain in close contact, although we have not worked together in over 13 years.  Donna is a people person and knows how to connect with individuals of all levels of an organization.  She has great insight and foresight to create a vision that is embraced and understood by all stakeholders.

If I could go anywhere for a day, where would you go?

If I had the opportunity to go anywhere in the world for a day, I would want to go to a third world country and help women and children, specifically pregnant women and young girls that are forced into marriages at early ages and made out to be baby factories.Just teaching the importance of self-care, diversity, equality, and inclusion and providing for a loving, caring environment that teaches these young women how to take care of themselves and their babies so they flourish in their environments.I know many do not have it as good as we do in the USA, but I hope to be able to give back one day in this arena after I retire and use my skills to help others.

What do I like to do outside of work?

Outside of work, I like to hang out with my four-legged children (Phoebe – German Shephard/Rottweiler mix; Skye – Golden Retriever; and Sarabi – Blue Nose Pit Bull).  I do a lot of work with the homeless in my local community on weekends, holidays, and evening.  I also volunteer with Street Medicine as a RN to do assessments, education on self-care, blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring, tobacco cessation, and more.   I also do some work with Pregnant mothers that are addicted to illicit drugs to provide education and resources to them to address their addictions and potentially get into rehab.  The biggest problem our communities face is there are very few rehabs that take pregnant women and/or once they delivery, they are not allowed to bring their child(ren).  There is a huge gap in care for this aggregate and one that we have to address if we want families to be whole and healthy.