Nick started his technical career after completing an Associate Degree in Computer Information Systems from Southwest Texas Junior College while working as a night shift data entry clerk at a manufacturing company/maquiladora, Douglas & Lomason (DYLSA). In 1990 Nick landed the computer technician position with United Medical Centers and has been with UMC for 25 years. Throughout his years at UMC he has participated and volunteered his time with many company committees and projects while also continuing his education and receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from Sul Ross State University.
Moving up the corporate ladder to IS Assistant Director, Nick is "self-taught" in Website and Graphic Design, developing and maintaining UMC's website, the company's Patient Portal and managing several Social Media Platforms.
In his free time, Nick enjoys spending time with his family and friends playing poker or Mexican Loteria. Nick is also an artist/painter and belongs to a group of artists friends called "Fusion" with whom he has shown his works during several exhibits in the city of Acuña Coahuila, Mexico.
A Music enthusiast Nick bring his eclectic listening style wherever he goes especially at work where he always has background music to brighten the day. An avid movie buff, he enjoys hanging out with friends catching up on the latest movies or watching classic movies on Netflix and Hulu.
Nick has recently gotten bitten by the theater bug and now frequently travels to San Antonio, TX, since NYC is too far, to The Broadway in San Antonio series at the Majestic Theater to view some of the top Broadway Shows in the country. Nick has had the opportunity to see "The Book of Mormon", "Wicked", "The Lion King", "Evita", "The Phantom of the Opera", and "Motown the Musical" to name a few. He hopes to continue these theater trips and plans on traveling to NYC to view "Hamilton" the musical.
As IS Assistant Director, I assist the CIO with the day-to-day operations of the department including compliance with requirements affecting UMC, such as TJC, HRSA, CPI, and other State/Federal Regulations. I am responsible for processing time cards, travel reimbursements, absence requests, monitoring overtime, assigning tasks to appropriate staff, and monitoring the timely completion of these tasks.
As IT purchaser, I direct the daily technology purchasing function, review technology purchasing decisions, orders, and vendors. I oversee the ordering of IT equipment, research, interview, and negotiate with vendors to obtain best prices and specifications. Following the UMC process I create requisitions/purchase orders to acquire these purchases and perform other related administrative tasks including receiving, shipping (to other UMC sites), and keeping an inventory of all purchases.
Self-taught in web content and graphic design, I learned to use Adobe Creative Cloud Apps such as Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Dreamweaver to further use both my creativity and technical experience to build or redesign websites. I have the ability to understand what makes a website functional and easy to use, and at the same time make it authentically appealing to the user. The aesthetic aspect is an important one and selecting the right colors, font, layout, and images create the whole personality of the website. In addition to the aesthetic element, the usability of the website has to be a priority since it is important to create a page that is relatable to the target market.
As Website Manager, I am responsible for the development, implementation and maintenance of the organization's website. I Monitor web traffic and oversee the development of web content and ensures that the site meets the business needs of the organization. Being familiar with a variety of the field's concepts, practices, and procedures really helps when relying on experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals where a wide degree of creativity and latitude is expected. Below is a "check-List" of what I perform on a daily basis to maintain UMC' Website up to date:
Although this is a new process at UMC, I do have hands on and course knowledge of Social Media Marketing, and have created a Social Media presence for the organization. My goals are to gain traffic or attention through social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and YouTube, etc. I tend to break down the daily tasks of Social Medial Marketing into fundamentals and long-term projects. The fundamentals are the minimum, the basics that must happen to promote our brand, create monthly health observances posts, promote UMC events, i.e., health fairs, preschool dental exams, school physicals, free pregnancy testing, etc., responding to inbound inquiries, seek opportunities to participate and add value, and track and report results. Some examples of long-term social media marketing projects are, having a social media strategy, select platforms and appropriate targeting, define a plan to use to achieve these goals, develop a content calendar that involves Executives, Manager, HR, CPI, and other Clinical leaders to establish a calendar of all content that supports UMC's involvement in core topics. I would like to create UMC's social media policies, practices, select platforms and facilitate education for employee involvement with social media marketing. I would also like to involve and work across departments and facilitate new adoption and integration of social media content that attracts UMC's target audience. I would like to establish a budget to improve our Website, Social Medial presence, and other content needed for digital or print, i.e., UMC Newspaper ads, and UMC's newsletter.
I have designed the look and feel of all internal and external PowerPoint Presentations. Working with the administrative team and other departments to ensure that all presentations are created to a high standard, liaising with management to create and update presentations, participating in brainstorming to improve presentation content, creating images, charts and infographics that more effectively communicate key messages and goals, and continual update of presentation content.
Setting up Greenway Health's Online Patient Portal & Messaging system was another project that called upon my creative and technical skills. Although a "boxed" system, after adding the essential data, i.e., UMC Locations, Providers, and Routing lists for Direct Messaging, I was able to add content similar to the UMC website with some patient engagement tools that links the patient back to the company site. The Online Patient Portal messaging and appointment reminders allow providers to effectively communicate with patients and provide them with tools to manage their own health.
I Setup and maintain the WASP Mobile Asset Pro on a dedicated PC located in the IS Building. UMC’s Jr. Network Administrator configured the express SQL database manager included with Mobile Asset Pro. I customized the path for Mobile Asset by entering UMC company information, user groups, adding users (IT Staff), assign privileges, assign site security, and other administrative settings. By defining UMC sites and buildings, we are able to track assets by specific locations then defining the assets, asset types, and asset tags. Setting up the label/tag printer was straight forward defining label size, label content and numbering structure.
As the purchaser of all IT equipment, I am responsible for receiving all purchased items. This process made it easier to generate Asset Tags for new IT equipment as it arrives. The Mobile Asset System will be carried out by the Software Support Team.
