Specialty Hospital Medicine Internal Medicine Facility Sacramento Medical Center Department of Palliative Care Telephone Office: 916-474-6590 E-mail your doctor View your preventive services

My Qualifications

I received my medical degree from Tulane University in 1995. I completed my Internal Medicine residency at UC Davis Medical center in 1998 and then worked for a year as a pulmonary fellow at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. I joined Kaiser Permanente in 1999 and now work full time as a Palliative Care physician. In addition to my clinical work, I serve as the northern California leader for Palliative Care within Kaiser Permanente, as the Chief of Quality here in Sacramento, a liaison to our hospital coders, and an Assistant Professor for Clinical Medicine at UC Davis Medical Center. I am board certified in Internal Medicine and in Hospice and Palliative Medicine; and I am a member of the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Hospice & Palliative Medicine. I now also spend a great deal of time teaching my colleagues, both physicians and non-physicians, about compassionate and comprehensive patient-centered care for our members who must live with chronic illness.

I have received an Extra Mile Hero Nomination and a Gold Star Award.

My Healthcare Practice

As a Palliative Care doctor, my clinical interests center around helping my patients and their families live well. I specialize in the care of folks who must live with chronic and progressive illnesses. I also care for people who are dying, to ensure they live as well as possible until the time they die. I seek to ensure both my patients and their families are fully informed about the disease process, all available treatment options, and the likely outcome of each option; thereby allowing my patients to make decisions about their health care that make sense to them. I enjoy this work of empowering my patients, so they may make the most of the meaning and purpose in their lives. I also find myself continually grateful to my patients for reminding me of the fragility of the human body, the beauty of life, and the absolute vastness of love. My patients repeatedly remind me to "seize the day" and fully appreciate the moments I have right now. I chose this field of medicine due to the realization that modern medicine, despite the fabulous technology, can lose sight of the people it seeks to treat - their spiritual journeys, their emotions, and their stories (both past and future). Aligning a patient's health care choices with his personal goals and beliefs is the most rewarding work I do. As the Northern California leader for Palliative Care within Kaiser Permanente, I am also deeply rewarded to watch all of our medical centers create Palliative Care teams and make this same amazing care available to all of our chronically ill members.

In my non-clinical work as the Chief of Quality, I oversee the quality of care we deliver to our members in the North Sacramento Valley. In partnership with medical group and hospital leaders, I seek to ensure that every member gets the care he needs at the time he needs it and in the place he needs it. Healthcare is a very complex system and one can easily become overwhelmed by the challenges of not only coping with illness, but also trying to navigate the system to get the illness treated. In working with both physicians and non-physicians, I seek to create a safer more "user-friendly" system in which you access your care.

Receiving Your Healthcare From Kaiser Permanente

The single greatest benefit of care at Kaiser Permanente is our integration. Ensuring that you receive the necessary care at the right time in the right place is a benefit exceeding measurement. Our integration allows us a quality and efficiency others cannot provide. Additionally, we now have a powerful electronic medical record enabling all of us who treat you to see what your care plan is and how things are progressing in visit with other providers. We strive to provide you timely access to specialists and enable your primary doctor the ability to review all of your visits with those specialists so as to help you coordinate your care and get your needs met.

My Outside Interests

When I am not at work, I enjoy spending time with my husband, my stepchildren and my two cats. I have been taking ballet lessons since I was six years old and I still dance now as a way to fully disengage from the stressors and entanglements of life. I've added tap dancing to my routine of dance lessons for a new way of having fun and expressing myself. In addition to dancing and maintaining the calluses on my feet (which my husband refers to as "hardworking feet"), I also truly enjoy going to the theaters here in Sacramento. I try to stay physically fit and find reading novels while on my Stairmaster is a good way to keep me motivated.

Sousou	Lunge

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My Credentials

Medical school	Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA
Internship	UC Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA
Residency	UC Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA
Fellowship	Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
Board certification	Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine
Board certification	Hospice and Palliative Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine

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