Kaweah Delta Moves Forward With Anesthesia Residency And High-Risk Pregnancy Program
VISALIA – The Kaweah Delta Board of Directors has approved development
of its sixth residency program and a program to care for high-risk pregnancies.
The board voted in February to move forward with development of both programs.
The anesthesia residency would be Kaweah Delta’s sixth residency
program. The district is currently gathering resources and building the
faculty necessary to support the residency. It will be a four-year program
with six resident physicians per class resulting in a program size, when
fully developed, of 24 residents. It will begin on July 1, 2017.
Dr. Lori Winston, Designated Institutional Official for Kaweah Delta’s
residency program, said the anesthesia residency will add more physicians
to the institution and put more doctors at the patients' bedside.
“Anesthesia is very much a critical care field. The program will
augment the services provided in those areas and it will increase the
number of physicians in operating rooms,” she said. “We are
able to add this residency because it already has the essential elements
for a successful program - the patient population, many qualified and
interested physician faculty and the physician group structure that will
be able to ensure that all of the requirements are met for it to become
accredited.”
Kaweah Delta will seek accreditation from the Accreditation Council for
Graduate Medical Education.
Maternal and Fetal Medicine Program
The board has also approved development of perinatology services at Kaweah
Delta for patients with high-risk pregnancies. The program will be developed
in conjunction with Valley Children’s Hospital. It will bring two
full-time perinatologists to Kaweah Delta Medical Staff, who will practice
at a Valley Children’s Akers Specialty Care Center located at the
corner of Mineral King and Akers Street in Visalia. It’s expected
that the program will begin in late 2016.
“This program will allow patients and their families to remain in
our own community for these essential services,” said Lindsay Mann,
Chief Executive Officer of Kaweah Delta Health Care District.