The Free Clinic of Simi Valley also provides a unique opportunity for first-year residents of another one of Kaiser Permanente’s programs, the Pharmacy Residency Program. According to Dr. Mitchell Pelter, Clinical Operations Manager for Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center and Ventura County, the opportunity to do a rotation at the Free Clinic of Simi Valley “is a draw to the Residency Program due to the opportunity it provides to have a direct ‘hands on’ patient care experience where residents can assume primary care responsibility for their own group of patients for an entire year.” “Contrary to what many people believe, pharmacists do not just count out pills and tablets,” said Pelter. The Ambulatory Pharmaceutical Care (APC) volunteer residents from the Woodland Hills and Panorama City Kaiser Permanente medical facilities, work with Free Clinic patients to help with the management of such maladies as: diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and thyroid disease. APC residents also teach patient education classes to improve patients’ disease knowledge, medication use, and lifestyle-management for their conditions. All the work of these residents is done under volunteer attending ambulatory care pharmacists from both Kaiser Woodland Hills and Panorama City Medical Centers. The program is supervised by Dr. Robert Deamer, a longtime volunteer at the Free Clinic.
The Free Clinic of Simi Valley says congratulations and farewell to graduating residents from the Family Medicine Residency Program: Dr. Curtis Buck, Dr. Monique George, Dr. Sharon Hartmans, Dr. Kwasi Osei and Dr. Andrew Roquiz; and from the Pharmacy Residency program: Dr. Arman Haghightgoo, Dr. Kimberly Low, Dr. Jody Santos and Dr. Jennifer Yang.
About The Free Clinic of Simi Valley The Free Clinic of Simi Valley has provided continuous service since its establishment in 1971 as a non-profit, volunteer-based charitable community service organization. The mission of the Free Clinic of Simi Valley is to provide medical care, counseling, dental, and legal assistance to individuals and families, regardless of their ability to pay. This includes those of all ages, ethnicities, religions and socioeconomic backgrounds, who are unable to use traditional sources within the community. The Free Clinic of Simi Valley is a GuideStar Gold Exchange participant, a status awarded for exemplary nonprofit transparency, and is also a 2014 Top-Rated Nonprofit according to GreatNonprofits.org, based on multiple 5-Star User Reviews. For more information, visit: www.FreeClinicSV.com and follow the Free Clinic on Facebook www.Facebook.com/FreeClinicSV and on Twitter www.Twitter.com/FreeClinicSimi
About Kaiser Permanente Southern California Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. Kaiser Permanente is recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, its mission is to provide high quality, affordable health care services to improve the health of members and the communities it serves. There are currently more than 3.7 million members in Southern California. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: http://www.kp.org/share.