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nnie Chern, MD from Family Medicine Associates San Jose is being recognized as UHA’s first Culture Champion. Culture Champions are employees/affiliated providers who exemplify our culture — one of peer support, well-being, care, and teamwork. These may be employees who continually help others, give to the community, exhibit positivity, or inspire with their actions.
Thanks to Dr. Chern’s colleague, Dr. Grace Yu, for taking the time to recognize her. According to Dr. Yu, Dr. Chern exemplifies the culture with her uplifting spirit and efforts to engage not only her physician colleagues but also the whole patient care team. On a regular basis (before and after COVID-19) Annie organizes faculty group Camaraderie dinners while also being closely involved with clinic-wide efforts to improve and enhance culture and wellness – whether through organized social events, health & exercise challenges, and more. She does it spontaneously and energetically, and this energy and enthusiasm inspire all of her colleagues.
“When I came back to work at Stanford in 2016, one my wife’s first comments was, ‘Oh boy! You’ll get to work with Annie again!’ My wife is not a health care worker, but she knows how amazing Dr. Chern is at organizing social events that build community and morale among faculty, residents, clinic staff, and their families from back when Dr. Chern and I were residents together. So my wife and I both knew we would be in for great team-building , community-building experiences working with Dr.Chern again.”
“Dr. Chern is ambitiously committed to fitness, health and camaraderie-building activities among our physicians and clinic staff, such as steps challenges. She helps keep us healthy!”
“A lot of physicians keep their relationships with staff formal, socializing only with other physician colleagues. Dr. Chern breaks that down, and involves staff in so many of our community-building activities. She is beloved by our clinic staff for that reason.”“Dr. Chern regularly checks-in with colleagues and office staff – everyone knows that she cares. She helps shatter the barrier between physicians and our support staff by scheduling social events where we all come together. This has supported a family-feel for our practice even as we’ve become part of a large organization.”“Annie is our champion of wellness. She organizes all of our social and wellness events including Camaraderie dinners. She is definitely a glue that keeps us all together in a time of social distancing.”“Annie radiates positive energy and supportive interest in the lives of our clinic team members. She checks in regularly with everyone and genuinely cares about our well-being. She’s also a humble model of healthy living. During our UHA steps challenge, she motivated many members of our clinic to join the team and stay active.”