Why Us?
We realize that the choice of where you do your residency is an intensely personal one. As you ponder that decision, here are our Top 10 reasons to do your EM residency at Kaweah Health.
1. Expert faculty
Our EM core and clinical faculty are experienced clinicians, educators, researchers, medical writers, and leaders committed to your medical education and success in EM. Our off-service Attendings are excellent as well and just as committed to resident education.
2. Abundant diverse pathology
Kaweah Health is the only hospital in Visalia. Additionally, we service a huge catchment area. This means that most of the ill and injured in the area come to us for medical attention. You'll have primary responsibility for these patients - sick children, transplant recipients, neurosurgical cases, critical trauma victims, plus all the usual patients one would expect to see in an extremely busy community hospital. This translates into great training for an “ER Doc.”
3. Young innovative EM residency program
Your initiative, your ideas, your imagination are welcome here. They’ll help shape our future. Since we are still a fairly new program, you’ll have the chance to be part of building something new in medical education. We’re already brainstorming about: adding new faculty as residents graduate from our program, starting a research fellowship and an ultrasound fellowship, opening an observation medicine unit in our ED, and more. You can get in on the ground floor of all these changes.
4. New helipad with neurosurgical services We recently signed a group of neurosurgeons to provide 24/7 neurosurgical services. As we expand to welcome our new surgery residency program, we will apply for Level 2 ACS Trauma designation.
5. Research and medical writing opportunities Our office of research is rapidly building a strong research infrastructure at Kaweah Health. You’ll have the opportunity to conduct clinical research, write and publish interesting cases, and learn research methodology -- all in a supportive, nurturing academic environment.
6. Vituity
All of Kaweah Health’s emergency physicians are Vituity partners. This means you’ll benefit from Attending-level expertise and supervision on every case. Additionally, you'll work within and learn a system of delivering emergency care that generates successful scores for Kaweah Health's emergency department when compared to others across the nation. The partnership’s vision statement is: “Vituity strives to be the recognized leader in Emergency Medicine and to exceed the expectations of our patients, partners, and customers in ambulatory and emergency care.” That vision extends to our training programs and beyond.
7. The great California lifestyle
We’re located in the heart of California, the Central Valley. We have great seasons with great weather, excellent restaurants, shopping, movies, schools, parks, sports and gyms. Plus we’re in the middle of everything:
8. LA, San Francisco, and more
Visalia www.ci.visalia.ca.us is a friendly, safe community of 125,000 people with a very reasonable cost of living. There’s plenty to do locally during off hours and phenomenal day trips and weekend excursions are within a short drive.
9. In its commitment to GME, Kaweah Health has made an enormous investment in personnel, time and capital to bring graduate medical education to Visalia. Among many other commitments, Kaweah Health has:
- Helped build an ED faculty
- Created a research program
- Purchased ultrasound machines for the ED
- Built a medical simulation laboratory/training center
- Built program offices, new classrooms, call rooms, and a resident lounge
- Built a new medical library
10. The future
It has been said that, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” We’re working in graduate medical education at Kaweah Health because we all believe in our dreams. If you have dreams you believe in—for yourself, for emergency medicine, and for your future—bring them to Kaweah Health. Together, we can craft your dreams into realities. And … the bonus benefits of an EM residency at Kaweah Health (it’s hard for us to stop at just 10):
11.Community EM education program
With a limited number of other residents, no fellows, and few medical students, it’ll be you, Attendings and the patients (and—as we grow—senior residents). You’ll always be first to the bedside – to care for the patient, make critical decisions, do procedures, and learn unopposed. You’ll also experience firsthand how EM works in the “real world.” The majority of emergency medicine actually occurs in the community, far away from tertiary care centers where 24/7 specialists swarm every interesting case. Bottom line: you’ll have all the back-up and consultation you’ll need, and the freedom and access to learn. And you will be scheduled to work 19 shifts during your EM rotation.
12. Centralized educational experience
We rotate residents to only one other hospital, Children’s Hospital Central California for PICU and Peds EM. You’ll stay near your home, your family and your friends in Visalia for the majority of the time, learning without the hassles of commuting while on a busy schedule.
13. Outstanding resident support