Specialty Geriatric Medicine Internal Medicine Facility Sacramento Medical Center Department of Palliative Care Address 2025 Morse Avenue Sacramento CA 95825 Telephone (916) 973-7963 E-mail your doctor View your preventive services

My Qualifications

My undergraduate studies were in Religion and Music at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. I completed my medical degree and residency at the University of California, Davis. Following Medical School and my Internal Medicine residency, I completed a General Medicine fellowship at UC Davis. I joined the Permanente Medical Group in 1990.

My Credentials

Medical school	UC Davis School of Medicine, Davis, CA
Internship	University of Illinois Hospital and Clinics, Chicago, IL
Residency	UC Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA
Fellowship	UC Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA
Board certification	Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine
Board certification	Geriatric Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine

I am an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at UC Davis School of Medicine. I teach clinical medicine to residents at UC Davis and am part of the faculty for their Family Nurse Practitioner/Physicians Assistant Program. I provide clinical oversight for the Skilled Nursing Facility, Home Health and Palliative Care programs at Kaiser Permanente Sacramento/Roseville. I’ve served on the Utilization Management Committee and was the Chair of The End-of-Life Advisory Group. I am a member of the American College of Physicians, American Geriatrics Society, and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

My Healthcare Practice

Taking care of other people is a humble and noble calling. “To whom much is given, much is required” – “much” in the sense of ethics, commitment, expertise, ingenuity, and humor. At the same time, the role is impossible without grace, for we can’t control everything. Medicine gives me an opportunity to perform even as it compels me to search and grow, for it puts me in the middle of life, in all its beauty, energy, frustration, and dependence. I cannot imagine a richer opportunity.

My practice is very unique. I see patients in Skilled Nursing Facilities and as a Palliative Care consultant in the hospitals. I do not have an outpatient practice. I am regularly involved in physician education, especially in the fields of Geriatrics and Palliative Care. I have managed responsibilities in Elder Care, Palliative Care, and Home Health, and do regular liaison work with multiple departments and functions in our Medical Center.

I chose this specific field of medicine because I enjoy caring for older patients. Work in Geriatrics (and in Skilled Nursing Facilities) is as challenging as it is abundant; there’s a great need for expertise and compassion, with important implications for quality of life for both patients and their families. Palliative Medicine affords unique opportunities and rewards in making the end-of-life experience as good as it can be. Teaching has always appealed to me as a means of making the world a better place, as well as a means of keeping me honest and appropriately cautious.

Receiving Your Healthcare From Kaiser Permanente

There is an obsession with the quality that pervades the KP system. Physicians, nurses, administrative staff, and managers at all levels are consistently occupied with making the member’s experience better in every way.

My Outside Interests

I enjoy music, art, running and anything you can do in the mountains. I’m married and have three kids who say they enjoy my cooking. I still change my own oil, listen to records, and write with a fountain pen. In my dream life I play the saxophone like Trane, run like Carl Lewis, and can climb rocks like Tom Cruise in that scene out of “Mission Impossible.” In reality though, I think I just hurt my left knee from - - oh, never mind. . .

I participate regularly in my church, and went on a short-term mission to Albania with several others in July 2003. I have worked on projects with Sacramento HealthCare Decisions, including presentations to clergy on end-of-life care.

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