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NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

2024 Physician Wellness Leadership awards announced

Nominations and award recipients were announced at the Physician Wellness EXPO and Dinner on April 26, 2024, in Petaluma. Awards were presented to physicians in six categories of wellness leadership achievement. Click here or the icon below for the full dinner program, which includes photographs and statements from each of the nominees. Additional details and list of awardees may be viewed in May 2024 News Briefs.

2024 Physician Wellness Expo & Dinner

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

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October 2012

Drs. Haney, Netherda, Gutfreund and Dervin to receive SCMA awards

Four well-known local physicians will receive Outstanding Contribution and Lifetime Achievement awards at the annual SCMA Awards Dinner in December. The awards will be presented to:

  • Dr. Jeff Haney, program director of the Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency, for Outstanding Contribution to the Community.
  • Dr. Mark Netherda, the former deputy public health officer, for Outstanding Contribution to Sonoma County Medicine.
  • Dr. Catherine Gutfreund, a family physician at Kaiser Santa Rosa, for Outstanding Contribution to SCMA.
  • Dr. John Dervin, a longtime Santa Rosa family physician, for Lifetime Achievement.

In addition, a Recognition of Achievement award will be presented to the Redwood Community Health Coalition. The Article of the Year award will also be presented, but the winner has yet to be determined.

All local physicians are invited to the Awards Dinner, which runs from 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 6. The event will be held at the Vintner’s Inn, 4350 Barnes Rd., Santa Rosa.

Tickets are free for SCMA members; spouses, guests and nonmembers are $50 each.

The evening begins with a social hour at 6 p.m., followed by dinner and the awards presentation. Dinner choices include “duet” (prawns and steak) or vegetable lasagna. To RSVP, or to purchase tickets, contact Rachel Pandolfi at 707-525-4375 or rachel@scma.org. Mail orders can be sent to SCMA, 2901 Cleveland Ave. #202, Santa Rosa, CA 95403. Please indicate dinner choice.

For more details, click on the link below.
SCMA Awards Dinner flyer

PFMC grant applications due Oct. 1

Time is short before the next deadline, but nonprofit health organizations in Sonoma County are encouraged to apply for Community Grants from the Pacific Foundation for Medical Care. The grants, generally in the $10,000 range, are awarded twice a year by the nonprofit foundation to support local projects that enhance health services. The application deadline for the next round of grants is Oct. 1. If that’s too close, the deadline for the subsequent round of grants is April 2, 2013.

For application materials, contact Kathy Pass at 525-4281 or kpass@rhs.org. For more information, visit www.pfmc.org

Celebration for Dr. Menachof on Oct. 6

Local physicians and their families are invited to a celebration in honor of legendary pediatrician Dr. Lou Menachof’s 50 years of teaching at the Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency. The celebration--scheduled for 2 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 6--will be held at the Vista Family Health Center, 3569 Round Barn Circle, Santa Rosa. Everyone will be given an opportunity to say a few words about Dr. Menachof. Snacks and beverages will be served, and music will be played. Musicians are encouraged to bring an instrument and join in the festivities.

To RSVP, contact Beth Pardo at 707-583-8801 or pardob@sutterhealth.org.

You’re invited to meet Assembly candidates on Oct. 9

On Thursday evening, Oct. 9, physicians are invited to a meet-and-greet with Michael Allen and Marc Levin, the two candidates in the 10th Assembly District, which includes Petaluma, Santa Rosa and Marin County. The event will be held in a private home at 159 La Cuesta Dr. in Greenbrae. The evening begins with wine and hors d’oeuvres at 6:30 p.m., followed by candidate interviews with Allen (7 to 7:30) and Levine (7:30 to 8).

The event is free, but RSVPs are required. To RSVP, contact Rachel at 415-924-3891 or rachel@marinmedicalsociety.org. The event is cosponsored by SCMA, the Marin Medical Society, and the Marin and Sonoma chapters of the California Academy of Family Physicians. For more information, see the attached flyer.

Assembly flyer

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Heart & Brain Symposium in Santa Rosa on Oct. 13

Physicians throughout the North Bay are invited to attend a free half-day symposium, “Regional Care Coordination: Treating the Heart & Brain,” on Saturday, Oct. 13, at the Vintners Inn in Santa Rosa. The keynote presenter is Dr. Frank Kim, who will discuss multi-disciplinary regional coordination of neurocritical care. Other presenters include Drs. John Reed, Thomas Dunlap, Tucker Bierbaum, Patrick Coleman, Emily Conway, Peter Chang-Sing, Ramzi Deeik, and Jay Hunter, as well as Christo Brockway, RN.

The symposium, which is worth 3.5 CME hours, begins with breakfast at 8 a.m., followed by speakers until 12:15 p.m., and then lunch. To RSVP, contact Janette Lablue at Janette.Lablue@stjoe.org or 707-525-5300, ext. 3389. The Vintners Inn is located at 4350 Barnes Road in Santa Rosa.

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Still time to register for Latino Health Forum

Registration is open for the 20th annual Latino Health Forum, to be held at the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa on Oct. 11, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The conference, which is cosponsored by SCMA and several other local organizations, has sold out the past two years, so early registration is recommended. To register, visit www.latinohealthforum.org.

The theme of this year’s forum is “Living a Healthy Life: Now and in the Future.” Speakers include Francisco Gonzalez, a professor of Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins University; Herb Schultz, regional director of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services; and Robert Garcia, founding director of The City Project, an advocacy organization in Los Angeles. Breakout sessions will cover perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, diabetes research, and several other medical and political topics. For a complete list of topics, see the attached brochure.

Latino Health Forum brochure

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SCMA Alliance Give-a-Gift program benefits foster children

Believe it or not, the holidays are just around the corner, and local foster children of all ages are hoping to receive gifts from the SCMA Alliance Give-a-Gift program. For almost six decades, this program has brought a little holiday cheer into the lives of local foster children, and the Alliance is hoping to distribute more gifts this year than ever before.

Signing up for Give-a-Gift is simplicity itself. To make a secure donation, just visit www.scmaa.org/support/children.html. Alliance volunteers will then purchase, wrap and deliver a wonderful gift in your name to a deserving foster child who otherwise might not receive a present. Last year the Alliance delivered gifts to more than 200 foster children.

For volunteer opportunities with Give-a-Gift, contact Laura Robertson at giveagiftteam@yahoo.com.

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Physicians invited to Oktoberfest at Wild Oak on Oct. 6

All local physicians and their spouses or guests are invited to an Oktoberfest celebration at the Wild Oak Saddle Club on Saturday evening, Oct. 6. The event, which is sponsored by the SCMA Alliance, features authentic German beer, buffet and music. The cost is just $45 per person. To purchase tickets, click here or contact Lynn Rambach at lramb@sbcglobal.net or 707-523-4250.

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PEOPLE

With the high school football season in full swing, Santa Rosa sports medicine physicians Dr. Ty Affleck and Dr. Robert Nied were the featured medical experts in a Sept. 15 Press Democrat article on concussions, and Dr. Affleck was interviewed for a subsequent Channel 5 News story on the same topic. The Summer issue of Sonoma Medicine includes an article by Dr. Nied about diagnosing and treating concussions, along with information about the ImPACT concussion testing program that Dr. Affleck has implemented at Santa Rosa Junior College and Sonoma State University.

Dr. Gary Pace, of the West County Health Centers, received a “physician leader” award at the annual Northern California Center for Well-Being “Celebration of Dreams” luncheon on Sept. 14. Dr. Pace is a family physician at the Sebastopol Community Health Center and also serves as medical director of the Forestville Wellness Center.
 
Dr. Mark Friedman, an orthopedic surgeon, has joined Sebastopol Orthopedics and the medical staff of Palm Drive Hospital. He specializes in shoulder and knee arthroscopy and in shoulder, hip and knee replacement.

Dr. Michael Gregg, a general practitioner in Santa Rosa for almost 50 years, died in September at the age of 86. Born in Italy, Gregg immigrated to Illinois as a child and then worked multiple jobs to put himself through medical school at the University of Illinois. He served in the Air Force during the Korean War and subsequently moved to Santa Rosa, where he established a practice at Doctors Park and bought a 1958 Ford Thunderbird, a car that he continued to use until he retired in 2009. He is survived by his wife of 62 years (Martha) and their four children.

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MEDICAL FACILITIES

Western Health Advantage, an HMO based in Sacramento, plans to expand to Sonoma, Marin and Napa counties in January 2013. The network for the HMO will include the 600-physician Meritage Medical Network (formerly called the Marin-Sonoma IPA), all the district hospitals (Sonoma Valley, Palm Drive, Healdsburg and Marin General), and three hospitals affiliated with St. Joseph Health (Santa Rosa Memorial, Petaluma Valley and Queen of the Valley). The HMO will target small employers and individuals and hopes to receive a major boost from the California Health Benefits Exchange mandated by the Affordable Care Act. Western Health currently has 92,000 members in the Sacramento area.

Both Kaiser Santa Rosa and Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa have been named “top performers” by the Joint Commission. They were among the 620 hospitals in the United States recognized by the Commission for “exemplary performance” in using evidence-based guidelines to improve care for certain conditions, such as heart attack, pneumonia and children’s asthma.

Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital has received $2 million from the Finley Foundation to support an ongoing campaign to expand the hospital’s emergency department and regional trauma center. The expansion is scheduled for completion in early 2014.

Even though construction is still underway, the Santa Rosa Surgery Center and Sutter Pacific Medical Foundation plan to be the first tenants for the medical office building next to the new Sutter hospital in northern Santa Rosa. The office building is expected to open in summer 2014 and to include family medicine, ambulatory services and specialty surgeons.

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RESOURCES

Medicare’s Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) enables eligible fee-for-service Part B providers to qualify for payment incentives. Providers who successfully submit PQRS data to Medicare may be eligible to receive an incentive of up to 0.5% of their Medicare fee-for-service billing. Providers who are otherwise eligible to report to PQRS but are not doing so starting January 1, 2013, will see a Medicare payment reduction of 1.5% in 2015, increasing to 2% in 2016. The Health Services Advisory Group is providing free technical assistance to providers to help them successfully report PQRS measures to Medicare. To learn more, contact Shanti Wilson at swilson@hsag.com.

The following CMA webinars are scheduled for October. Webinars begin at 12:15 p.m. and run until 1:15 or later. To register, visit www.cmanet.org. Seminars are free for CMA members and their staff; cost for nonmembers is $99 per person.

* Protect your practice from payor abuse (Oct. 3)

* Impact of ICD-10 (Oct. 10)

* Establishing expectations for high performance from medical staff (Oct. 17)

* Managing your medical school debt (Oct. 24)

Need help improving practice efficiency and viability? Try a free subscription to CMA Practice Resources (CPR), a monthly bulletin full of tips and tools for physicians and their office staff. To subscribe, visit www.cmanet.org/cpr.

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CLASSIFIEDS

Family medicine positions available
Family medicine positions available with Annadel Medical Group in Sonoma County. Contact James.DeVore@stjoe.org.

Office space needed, Petaluma
Medical office space needed in Petaluma near Petaluma Valley Hospital for physician to see patients, no staff needed. Need one day a week, Monday or Thursday. Contact Tammy at 707-252-8407 or nvna@napanet.net.
 
Office space, Santa Rosa
Small suite for lease. 800 sf. Reception, business office, 3 rooms, Summerfield Rd. on Sutter/Warrack campus. Contact Connie, 707-525-0211.

Skull model needed
I am a student in need of an inexpensive skull model. 541-597-4904.

SCMA members get free classifieds!
SCMA members can place free classified ads in News Briefs or Sonoma Medicine. Cost for nonmember physicians and the general public is $1 per word. To place a classified ad, contact Erika Goodwin at erika@scma.org or 707-548-6491.

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APPLICANTS

Todd Antenucci, DO, Family Medicine*, 401 Bicentennial Way, Santa Rosa 95403, 393-5481, Fax 393-4298, nucc1212@yahoo.com, New York Med Coll 2009

Eugene Hong, MD, Urology*, 401 Bicentennial Way, Santa Rosa 95403, 393-4064, Fax 393-4872, eugene.k.hong@kp.org, New York Univ 1999

Tinh Hua, DO, Emergency Medicine*, Internal Medicine*, 401 Bicentennial Way, Santa Rosa 95403, 393-4800, Fax 393-4174, Tinh.q.hua@kp.org, Chicago Coll Osteo Med 2000

Marisha Lockwood-Chilcott, MD, Family Medicine*, 500 Doyle Park Dr. #G04, Santa Rosa 95405, 303-8360, Fax 303-8361, marisha.chilcott@stjoe.org, UC Davis 2003

Cathryn Ross, MD, Pediatrics*, 1144 Sonoma Ave. #113, Santa Rosa 95405, 545-2082, Fax 545-2083, cathryn.ross@stjoe.org, Harvard Med Sch 1972

Anish Shah, MD, Psychiatry, 1049 4th St. #G, Santa Rosa 95404, 206-7268, Fax 206-7254, siyanclinical@gmail.com, Sardar Patel Univ 1996

Jun Yang, MD, Internal Medicine, 401 Bicentennial Way #250, Santa Rosa 95403, 393-5482, Fax 393-4298, jun.x.yang@kp.org, Henan Med Univ 1994

* board certified

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ABOUT SCMA

The Sonoma County Medical Association, a 501(c)(6) nonprofit association, supports local physicians and their efforts to enhance the health of the community. Founded in 1858, SCMA is affiliated with the California Medical Association and the American Medical Association.

© 2012 SCMA, 2901 Cleveland Ave. #202, Santa Rosa, CA 95403

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