Specialty Urgent Care Facility Roseville Medical Center Department of Medicine Address 2025 Morse Avenue Sacramento CA 95825 1600 Eureka Road Roseville CA 95661 Telephone Appt/Advice: (916) 784-4050 E-mail your doctor View your preventive services

My Profession and Why I Chose It

I am a Family Physician. In theory this means that I see and take care of everyone in the entire family from pregnant women and small children to elderly great- grand parents. I chose Family Medicine because I wanted to work with many different kinds of people in all the various stages of life and development. I also was committed to working with undeserved populations both at home and abroad and I decided that as a Family Physician I would have skills, knowledge and flexibility needed to achieve that goal. Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente in the North Valley I spent several years working at County Hospitals and clinics in California as well as at rural and urban clinics in Nepal and at refuge camps in Thailand. While in Asia, I developed an interest in International and Travel medicine and pursued that back home while working for 2 years at the medical clinic in Yosemite National Park.

My Credentials

Medical school	Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC
Internship	San Joaquin General Hospital, French Camp, CA
Residency	San Joaquin General Hospital, French Camp, CA
Board certification	Family Medicine, American Board of Family Medicine

My Tenure with Kaiser Permanente

I formally joined Kaiser Permanente in August 1998 when I began working for the Medical Treatment Units (MTU) at the Sacramento and Roseville hospitals. These units are urgent care type settings and are much different than the typical Family Practice clinic setting. People who come to the MTU are actually referred to us from the Emergency Department and tend to have urgent or even emergent medical or surgical problems but are stable enough to be seen in a clinic setting. I really enjoy this type of practice because it offers a great deal of diversity. I get to treat people of all ages and from many different cultural, social and economic backgrounds. I find this work very interesting and gratifying, although by the very nature of the work I no longer get to know our patients and their families as well as I did when I worked in a traditional Family Practice setting.

Why I Like Practicing Medicine at Kaiser Permanente?

I started working for Kaiser Permanente approximately 10 years after I finished my Family Practice residency program. Prior to joining TPMG I worked in many different practice settings ranging from an urban private practice to a rural group practice in Yosemite National Park to urban and rural clinics in the Himalayan Mountains. What I appreciate most about TPMG is that patient care drives the system. Because this is essentially a huge group practice, I have the colleagues and resources easily available to me to address our member’s problems in a coordinated and integrated way. We can all communicate via phone, computerized records and e-mail to direct member care. There is better continuity for the members and the physicians. This is especially important for very ill members who have complex medical problems requiring the care of many specialists and subspecialists. I find this invaluable.

My Professional Interests and Affiliations

My professional interests in medicine are somewhat eclectic. I have been involved in international, travel and wilderness medicine, care for refuges, women's health care and alternative medicine. Now I concentrate mostly on urgent and emergency care. I belong to the Wilderness Medical Society and The Himalayan Rescue Association.

On a Personal Note…

I grew up in the Midwest, attended college in the Northwest and medical school in Washington, DC. In high school I was lucky enough to spend the summer as a volunteer in a rural medical clinic in Mexico. It was this experience that persuaded me that I wanted to be a doctor. Many years later I actually accomplished that goal and was able to pursue my dreams of working abroad in Third World countries. During the intervening years I developed a passion for outdoor adventuring and spent much of my free time kayaking, rafting, hiking, cycling, skiing, backpacking, sailing and traveling to far flung areas of the globe. Now, though, I own a house and live in the Foothills and pursue more sedate activities such as book club and yoga. Although I still enjoy all those other activities, I approach them with more caution.

Be sure to visit the New Kaiser Permanente Website for additional information regarding appointments, prescriptions, health education classes and other health-related topics. You can also click on my department link above to receive additional health information.

To choose your own personal physician, click here.

Checklist for New Members About Your Office Visit Prevention Information on Your Registration Slip

Disclaimer
If you think you have a MEDICAL OR PSYCHIATRIC EMERGENCY, CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY or go to the nearest hospital. DO NOT attempt to access emergency care through this web site. An emergency medical condition is a medical or psychiatric condition that manifests itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain) such that you could reasonably expect the absence of immediate medical attention to result in any of the following: serious jeopardy to your health, serious impairment to your bodily functions, or serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part. An emergency medical condition is also "active labor," which means a labor when there is inadequate time for safe transfer to a Plan hospital (or designated hospital) before delivery or if a transfer poses a threat to the health of the member or unborn child.

This site may contain links to other web sites outside of www.permanente.net. Kaiser Permanente has no control over the content or the availability of these sites, and is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such Web sites. Web links are provided as an educational tool, and should not be relied upon for personal diagnosis or treatment. A link or reference to a web site should not be construed as an endorsement of the site or its contents. Any medical content that you feel may be important to your health should always be discussed with your Kaiser Permanente physician.