Each year Catalina Island Medical Center is able to bring a fresh set of new faces to our community through its work with the Family Practice Internship and Residency Program at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital Health-Downey (formerly called Downey Regional Medical Center). Second and third year residents are selected to serve a one month stretch of shifts on Catalina Island.
These doctors see patients in the Catalina Island Medical Group Office, spend time “on-call” in the emergency room and provide care to the facility’s resident patients.
Each year Catalina Island Medical Center is able to bring a fresh set of new faces to our community through its work with the Family Practice Internship and Residency Program at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital Health-Downey (formerly called Downey Regional Medical Center). Second and third year residents are selected to serve a one month stretch of shifts on Catalina Island.
These doctors see patients in the Catalina Island Medical Group Office, spend time “on-call” in the emergency room and provide care to the facility’s resident patients.
This successful program of long years standing enable these California-licensed osteopathic medical practitioners to gain experience in a rural environment and gives the medical center additional personalized physician coverage in a very busy season.
Between March and October doctors from PIH Health-Downey work to augment the care provided by Medical Center staff physicians and nurse practitioners and complete their residency requirements prior to taking their final rigorous tests for the State of California. Family medicine doctors see patients of all ages, from newborns through adults and the elderly.
They provide personalized attention—helping patients stay well or get better when sick or injured.
If a medical or surgical specialist is needed a family medicine doctor can refer their patients to an expert clinician and assist in coordinating their overall medical care.
PIH Health-Downey is a non-profit community-based hospital affiliated with Western University of Health Sciences.
In addition to its tertiary level medical services the hospital operates a family medicine residency program for newly graduated osteopathic physicians.
The physicians of the PIH Health-Downey Residency Program meet an important need at the Medical Center.
Experienced physicians at the hospital in Avalon mentor and collaborate with the medical residents during their one month tenure on the Island.
It’s a reciprocal learning process for the resident, the hospital’s physicians as well as its nursing staff.
“The PIH Health-Downey Residency placements are beneficial for the hospital, our patients and our community. Our practice setting with its mixture of clinic, emergency room and acute care patients give these doctors an opportunity to thrive in a setting where they get to know and care about people on a first-hand basis without some of the rush of larger metropolitan settings,” said Bryan Ballard, CEO of the Medical Center.
The Medical Center continues to pursue its vision to be the destination for excellence in patient centered care and health enrichment.
To learn more about medical services offered at Catalina Island Medical Center please call 310-510-0700.
