As an elementary school student at St. John Bosco on San Antonio’s West Side, Claudia A. Aguero remembers being turned away from the science club just because she was a girl. Instead, she was placed in a typing class. “I remember being so furious,” she says, adding that typing is still not her strong suit. In high school, though, a science teacher at the now-closed Ursuline Academy insisted girls not only belonged in science but could do anything they wanted.
Aguero followed her advice, enrolling at St. Mary’s University and then medical school at what was then the UT Health Science Center in Houston. A residency in family medicine brought her to the Rio Grande Valley, where she practiced until 2015 when she returned to her hometown to work with HealthTexas Medical Group at its Val Verde Clinic.
There, the bilingual doctor sees everyone from farmers commuting from nearby towns to elderly patients and families who live nearby, including those who primarily speak Spanish. She even has former patients who drive north from Harlingen to see her for care.
“We treat patients like our families,” Aguero says. “This office is my home away from home so I try to keep it peaceful and want patients to feel like they would if they were visitors coming over to my house.”
During the height of COVID-19, Aguero shifted some of her appointments to a virtual platform, but also set up a drive-through so she could assess individuals in the parking lot and determine if they needed further care.
A mom of two grown children, Aguero says preventative care is key to healthy living, which is something she emphasizes to patients even more since many have missed annual screenings during the pandemic.
She also knows patients are less likely to follow her advice if she’s not living it herself, so Aguero keeps her own appointments for things like mammograms and colonoscopies and stays active when she’s not working, practicing Pilates, walking and earning a black belt alongside her kids when they were younger.
The Val Verde clinic also acts as a teaching office for University of the Incarnate Word medical students, which Aguero says gives her the chance to teach students the importance of being caring while providing great care.