I'm very pleased to tell you more about why we're gathered today
This past January, Valley Children's announced that we would establish our own residency
and fellowship program and we're here today to describe in more detail
exactly how we're going to do that.
Our aim with our residency is to train the next generation of
pediatricians and pediatric specialists with an eye towards
helping more kids
have access to a pediatric doctor that have not had access
ever before, and that'll be at the core of
our future residency program.
Our team has been working really hard
these last several months
I'm very, very pleased and
excited to announce that Valley Children's and Stanford University School of Medicine are now
partners on this exciting and important program.
Stanford, as all of you know,
is one of the best universities in the country
as rated in many different ways and certainly in the pediatric residency arena.
They are one of the finest
in the West.
More importantly,
as I said, at the core of this program will be
an aim to get kids access to a doctor
have never had access before.
So with that,
I'd like to welcome my partners from Valley Children's
that are behind me now to step forward, with Doctor Christensen first.
He is going to give you a lot more detail about our program
and what the future holds.
Thanks very much.
Thank you, Todd.
This is truly a special day for us here at Valley Children's.
Some call it transformational and I believe that is an accurate statement.
In the 60 years plus that this hospital has been here,
this is one of those defining moments of this hospital
What makes it truly special
is the fact that it's all about kids.
That this residency program and fellowship program
that we're going to be developing is truly all about developing
access for the kids throughout the Valley
access that sometimes they don't get today.
So as we develop the new
physicians, the new leaders, in the Valley to take over this program
and to lead into the future, they're gonna be out there
taking care of these kids.
So that's what this program is all about.
It's also a sign that this hospital has taken on a
responsibility to take over financial and academic
responsibly for a program that
really is going to take a lot of time, effort and finances to do.
So kudos to this hospital in that
it is taking on this responsibility as a sponsor of this program
it has ultimate financial and academic responsibility for the program.
We're partners in this as an affiliate of Stanford University School of Medicine
and I must tell you that it has been a wonderful experience working with them
But it truly is an experience where we both share positives
They bring obviously
to table the academic and
research incredible skills and
reputation that they have. We bring a lot to the table as well
including amazing patients, a volume of patients that is
basically unrivaled in California.
For instance, our Emergency Department saw over a hundred thousand patients last year, so
So Stanford is going to be able to, from an academic standpoint,
have access to the patients, and we'll have access to
the academic side of Stanford, and our physicians will also receive academic
faculty appointments at Stanford as well, so
that's all a real big plus for everybody here.
The evidence is that residents and fellows stay where they train.
Part of the challenge we have here in the Valley is there aren't any
fellowships for pediatrics.
So this program will establish some fellowships
Currently, if a doctor
finishes up and does their
pediatric residency, to do a fellowship they have to leave the area
They may go out of state, even.
With our new fellowship opportunities they'll be able to stay here.
The goal is that they will enjoy the atmosphere that we provide here
from a teaching perspective, and that they'll want to stay here.
We have partnerships that we're establishing here.
These partnerships will allow residents to have all sorts of
experiences that they wouldn't get if just stayed here in the hospital.
Our partnerships include Kaiser Fresno
So the doctors can have rotations
through that hospital as well and see what Kaiser's about
They can have rotations at Saint Agnes Medical Center
They can also have experiences at Dignity Health, and then also the local pediatricians
in the area are intended that these pediatricians will open up their offices
and have these residents rotate through and experience what it truly is like to be a
a pediatrician in a small town.
The hope is that they'll fall in love with that experience and stay here in the Valley
and continue to provide services for the next forty years.
Stanford also wants to exchange residents, so we'll have residents from Stanford come out here
to experience things we offer that they can't get in Palo Alto
and then we'll be sending residents out to Palo Alto as well.
It truly is a team effort,
an effort that's going to take us forward as one of the
finest pediatric residency and fellowship programs in the country
The other thing to understand is that we do
currently teach numerous residents
up and down the Valley, including residents in family practice
programs, orthopaedic surgery residents
and will continue to train those people.
We understand the commitment and how important that is for everyone
in the Valley, so will continue to be a training site for those other programs as well.
I am very pleased to announce
and introduce to you our Chief of Pediatrics
who will be taking this program forward into the future
and that is Dr. Jolie Limon.
Thank you. I was told this will be an opportunity to introduce myself
but I also want to take this opportunity to thank
Todd and Dr. Christensen and this organization for honoring me with
this role as Chief of Pediatrics.
I think this is a really exciting time for Valley Children's Hospital
I have been with this family, if you will, for fifteen years
and have been actively involved in resident training during that time.
It's one of my passions. I am completely committed to
moving forward with this new program
I think not only do we plan to train outstanding clinicians and pediatricians,
but even more importantly, true leaders in pediatric care
and people who will stay and serve our children in the Central Valley.
I'm supposed to tell you a little bit more about myself.
I trained at UCSF School of Medicine
and then did my residency at UC Davis pediatric residency.
And then Chief Resident up at UCD and then came here in 2000.
It's an honor, thank you, and I look forward to everybody's support.
I think you all agree with me that Dr. Limon is the perfect choice for our
Valley Children's Residency Program, and we're very excited to
have her leading the way with Dr. Christensen.
I want to publicly acknowledge Wes Segal's work. He's here at Valley Children's,
been very involved
in the hard work since January that I described.
But more importantly, if I can just leave you with one thought.
Dr. Christensen mentioned
our partners being Kaiser,
community pediatricians,
Saint Agnes, Dignity Health. Our residency really has
the ability, unlike any that I'm aware of currently,
and that may change, or I may just not be aware,
but certainly in California, I'm not aware of a residency
that will have as broad a reach.
Our residents will have the opportunity in the future
as the program matures
to live and work as part of their rotation in
Bakersfield, possibly Visalia, possibly Porterville.
As Dr. Christensen said, in many different locations around the Valley
through our extended physician network and also through
our partners that we're working with to create access.
Again, the goal is, for our residency,
to provide more doctors so the kids that have not had
a pediatric doctor in the past will be able to have one in the future.
Because we believe that our mission demands that.
That it's all about improving the health and well-being of children
and that's what we will spend our time doing as we develop this
pediatric residency at Valley Children's in the coming years.
So once again, thank you very much for coming and
it's truly our pleasure to be able to share this with you today. Thanks again.