Some families watch sports together. Others share recipes or go on hikes. But the Binzas have a unique tradition. For two generations, they have been tending to the needs of patients and residents at the San Francisco Campus for Jewish Living, each in their own way.
“My mom and brother both work here as nurses,” Nikki Binza said. “So even before I started, I could see there was something special happening here, and I wanted to be part of it.”
But Nikki chose a different path to serving our community. Upon graduating from college with a degree in sociology, she joined the SFCJL hoping to make an impact in healthcare. Toward that end, she soon found a place on our admissions team, where she learned that the teamwork aspect of the admissions process cannot be overstated.
“The best part of this job is getting to help families in need,” Nikki said. “But to do that effectively, we have to communicate and coordinate with a lot of different departments.” And they have to act fast. Because it can often be just a couple of hours from initial contact to the prospective new patient arriving on campus.
Quality care starts before admission. It’s the planning that helps ensure patients receive the support they need from day one.
Accordingly, before a new patient arrives, our intake team will not only have received insurance authorizations but will have spoken with the family, the hospital case manager, as well as our social services and nursing departments to ensure that the patient is assigned to the appropriate unit and has a plan in place for being discharged back home.
There are many moving pieces in Nikki’s day-to-day life as an intake coordinator. It’s a busy, hectic department. But she loves it. Especially when she hears back from the families she serves.
“The truth is, our whole team spends most of our time on the phone or computer coordinating with other departments, and we don’t often get to see the patients we are helping face to face,” she said. “But when we get calls from family members thanking us for getting them into our facility and taking care of their mom or dad or grandma and helping them recover, it’s an amazing feeling…especially when they swing by our office and bring us cookies,” she joked.
At the end of the day, it’s so rewarding to know that we are part of such a caring place.
“It’s much more than filling beds,” she said. “It’s about helping people get the care they want and need.”
So, from mother to son to daughter, the Binza family tradition is all about care. From the nursing floor to the front door.
