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

Who am I and what do I do

I am an emergency physician. This means that I do not keep my own panel of regular patients. Instead I work in the emergency department of a hospital where I treat anybody with any illness who comes to the door 24 hours a day. My typical day might consist of treating minor cuts and flu-like syndromes or it might be filled with serious trauma victims and life threatening heart attacks. At any minute I could be treating only one patient or I could be taking care of a dozen patients at the same time. The wide variety of illnesses that I have to treat and the ever changing pace of the work make my job a difficult one, but it is exactly because of its dynamic nature that I chose to devote my career to the emergency department.

Many people seem to think that because I work in the ER, I must be doing general training until I can move on to some other specialty or practice. I wish to take a minute to correct this common misconception. The days when young physicians used to moonlight in the ER to gain experience or to earn an extra dollar have been over for decades. Like all of the emergency physicians today, I have undergone special training and received a board certification that prepares me to deal with the unique situations that arise from caring for people in the emergency setting. If you are seen by me or any of my colleagues in one of our Kaiser emergency departments, feel confident that you are receiving the fastest and most appropriate care possible given the acuity of your condition and the state of the ER at the present time.

My Practice Philosophy

I believe that a trip to the emergency department is a trying experience for anyone. None of you feel well when you decide to go to the ER, and inevitably you have to wait to be seen because there are no appointments. My goal as your emergency physician is to make this encounter go as smoothly for you as possible. Even before you see me, your care will already have begun. I will have familiarized myself with your Kaiser medical record in order to personalize your treatment, and my nurses will have started necessary diagnostic tests based on your complaint. My focus by the time we meet face to face will be to understand what you are looking for in your visit and, if possible, to do my best to provide it for you.

My priority, first and foremost, will always be to make sure that you do not have a life threatening or debilitating illness that must be immediately addressed. Beyond this, I will do my best to accurately identify your condition and formulate an appropriate plan of care for you. If you leave my ER without a definite diagnosis, it is important to me that you understand why a diagnosis could not be reached with the diagnostic equipment and time available in the ER setting. In this situation I strongly encourage you to keep with the follow-up instructions that you are given prior to discharge.

Receiving Your Healthcare From Kaiser Permanente

I have been a part of Kaiser Permanente since November 2002. Since that time I have come to realize that there are definite advantages to being cared for within a comprehensive healthcare system like Kaiser. One of the biggest advantages of receiving healthcare through Kaiser is the unified medical information system. No matter where you go within the Kaiser system, your record follows you and is easily accessible so that your physician can tailor care specific to your needs and your background.

There is also the advantage of established, open lines of communication between doctors within Kaiser. If I see you one day, and I need to get a message to your doctor or one of your specialists, I usually only have to make one phone call or send a short note over our computer system. What this means for you is that you will receive better care because all of your doctors are on the same page.

Last but not least, Kaiser works very hard to keep its physicians happy, healthy and up to date on the latest changes in medicine. Because Kaiser offers things such as competitive compensation packages, autonomy over individual practice decisions, physician wellness and stress management programs, and a multitude of opportunities for continuing medical education, most of the physicians that I have met since joining Kaiser have spent, or are planning to spend, their entire medical careers with Kaiser. The result of this high retention is that Kaiser is able to be selective and hire the best and the brightest to take care of you.

My Professional Affiliations

I am a diplomate of the American Board of Emergency Medicine. I am also an active member of the Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. I also devote some of my time as a voting member on the Sacramento County Emergency Medical Services Medical Control Committee.

My Outside Interests

When I am not at work, I spend most of my free time staying fit and enjoying the outdoors. You can see some pictures of me and my friends in the great outdoors if you click here. My leisure activity of choice is rock climbing, which I have been doing quite avidly for over 10 years now. If you don’t find me on the side of a rock, you will likely see me hiking a backcountry trail, or riding my road bike or mountain bike, or playing in my whitewater kayak down one of our local rivers. During the winter, I volunteer my time as a ski patroller at Sugar Bowl ski resort. Hopefully we might run into each other sometime out on the trail or up on the slopes. I just love it when I get to see former patients healthy and happy and living life somewhere other than within the walls of a hospital!!!

How to Get the Most Out of This Webpage

The links on the left side of this page are brimming with useful information. You will find that the headings are self-explanatory. All of the web pages, except for eMedicine, are created for you by Kaiser Permanente professionals. eMedicine is an independently maintained site that you will also find valuable because it contains a plethora of reference material for both doctors and patients. If you are interested, you can even find a chapter that I wrote for eMedicine back in the days before I came to Kaiser. Just look up “Pediatrics, Diaper Rash” in the Emergency Medicine specialty reference. Whether you want to learn a little bit about a certain medical condition or you want aftercare instructions for the diagnosis you were given in the emergency department today, click the links on the left side of this page and browse around. You will be glad that you did.

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.

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About Your Office Visit

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My Credentials

Medical school	UC Irvine School of Medicine, Irvine, CA
Internship	Kern Medical Center, Bakersfield, CA
Residency	Kern Medical Center, Bakersfield, CA
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.

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.