Making the Rounds 24

Spring 2024

I am proud to announce the addition of a new ACGME-accredited Addiction Medicine Fellowship Program under the direction of Dr. Sarah Gonzalez, a former graduate of our program. Dr. Gonzalez and her team will be providing a vital resource to our community by addressing the rising epidemic of opioid addiction through a multi-disciplinary approach in the treatment of substance use disorders.

Over the past three years, an average of a third of our graduating residents and fellows have chosen to start their medical practice in our community, with several of the most qualified joining us as faculty. Our mission remains simple: recruit and retain future physicians into our community. Over the last several years, we have been able to recruit a diverse and specialized faculty base who serve as outstanding clinical educators for our trainees. Despite the hardships of the pandemic, our residency programs continue to thrive with the addition of new trainee complements and accredited programs. Scholarly activity remains a prime component of our sponsored programs as witnessed with the 94 digital abstracts submitted to our annual regional Research Forum. This June we will graduate our 67th class of resident and fellows, our largest class ever! This past year Kern Medical also received accreditation for new training programs from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). “This June we will graduate our 67th class of resident and fellows, our largest class ever!”

Dr. Amber Jones, also a graduate of our program, will lead our newly ACGME accredited General Surgery Residency Program. Over the last four decades, half of the general surgeons that practiced in our community trained at our institution. With the re-accreditation of this program, we will once again provide a vital resource to the community by recruiting outstanding and well-qualified surgical residents, who, in turn, will choose to practice in Bakersfield and Kern County.