Specialty Emergency Medicine Facility Sacramento Medical Center Department of Emergency Medicine Address 2025 Morse Avenue Sacramento CA 95825 Map & Directions Telephone (916) 973-6600 E-mail your doctor View your preventive services

My Healthcare Practice

I am an Emergency Medicine physician. I knew I wanted to specialize in this exciting and complex field before medical school. While in college at UC Berkeley, I volunteered at Highland Hospital in Oakland in the Emergency Department. This was my first exposure to both medicine and patients. My first experiences definitely shaped my interest in the variety and complexity only seen in the ER. The diversity of treating trauma, pediatric, and medical patients was a key factor in choosing this field. While working at Highland the evening of the Loma Prieta earthquake in the late 1980’s, I had hands-on experience working with disaster patients in the scope of emergency medicine. The following years in medical school gave me exposure to all the specialties: internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, etc. I then decided that my first choice was the right choice.

My practice philosophy is three-fold: to practice evidence-based medicine, to communicate with the patient and family while doing so, and to be compassionate during their often stressful visit in the ED. Most people don’t want to be in the ED and are seeing a doctor who is not their regular provider. This can be challenging for both the physician and the patient. We also deal with many chronic medical conditions that must be treated, not just the emergency that brought them in. By providing research-based clinical medicine and keeping the lines of communication open between me and the patient, good care can be achieved in an often chaotic environment.

Also at Kaiser Permanente, I work on the Domestic Violence and Member Grievance committees. Through the joining of social workers, nurses, and doctors, we have a Domestic Violence Task Force that provides education and resources to patients and their families. This means that the Emergency Department has joined forces with Psychiatry, Gynecology, Pediatrics, and Internal Medicine to coordinate care and preventive information to patients with regards to family and domestic violence. On the Member Services Grievance committee, I am involved with any patient complaints that may arise regarding their ED visit: all complaints are reviewed by either me or another ER doctor.

Outside of Kaiser Permanente, I am a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Practicing Medicine at Kaiser Permanente

I joined Kaiser Permanente in 2000. I had a lot of exposure to Kaiser Permanente while in medical school at UC Davis in Sacramento. I rotated through Kaiser as a medical student and saw first-hand how the Medical Center works. I also have been a Kaiser member since childhood in the Bay Area. I practice at both the Sacramento and Roseville facilities.

I like being a Kaiser Permanente physician because I have the autonomy to treat the patient and order the tests I deem appropriate, without the strict restraints seen with some HMOs. I like working with a competent nursing staff. We also have residents rotate through the ED from UC Davis School of Medicine, with whom I can participate in their training. All the major specialties are available here so I do not have to transfer patients outside of the Kaiser system. There is also active research being conducted by many of the specialties here, including the department of Emergency Medicine.

About Me

I am married with two daughters. I worked in a family business with my husband until my late twenties when I decided to go to college to pursue medicine. After graduating in my early thirties, I attended medical school here in Sacramento while my husband Jack also went back to school, being a late-bloomer like me. We moved to New York City so I could complete my internship and residency in Emergency Medicine while my husband completed his Master’s degree in Social Work at Fordham University. Because we both grew up in the Bay Area but prefer the River City, we returned to Sacramento to establish our practices. Jack is an LCSW with Sacramento County and also has his own practice in downtown Sacramento. We like kayaking, traveling, dancing, and I am studying piano. At this time, our oldest daughter is currently on active duty in the US Army and is serving in Iraq.

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My Credentials

Medical school	UC Davis School of Medicine, Davis, CA
Internship	Bellevue Hospital Center, New York, NY
Residency	Bellevue Hospital Center, New York, NY
Board certification	Emergency Medicine, American Board of Emergency Medicine

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.

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