MDs Pictured L to R: Faramaz Mottalei, Andrew Nothmann, Nicholas Lopez, Andrew Fenton, Tim Smith, Seric Cusick, Nick Sawyer
In August of last year Sonoma Valley Hospital began staffing the Emergency Department with a new, highly skilled group of emergency physicians.
CEO John Hennelly contracted the Napa Valley Emergency Medical Group, a private medical group with no corporate connection, which has been contracting services with Queen of the Valley Hospital in Napa for the past 50 years – before some of the current emergency doctors were born. All seven partners of NVEMG who began working locally in August 2023 continue to serve as well at the Emergency Center at Queen of the Valley.
Seric Cusick, MD is currently the medical director of the Emergency Department at SVH and spends the majority of his time here. The young medical director highlighted that it is “unique for a tiny hospital to be staffed by current trauma center physicians. They are using here the same skills that they are using in that regional Trauma Center,” he affirmed. Cusick went on to explain that “stroke readiness” is an exciting piece of emergency care here. A patient coming in with a stroke will be treated by a team comprised of the emergency medicine physician on duty, an on-site radiologist, and a stroke neurologist from UCSF who is connected directly through telemedicine. The neurologist has full access to the patient’s imaging on a big screen and talks directly with the ED doctor, and can prescribe treatment. The patient has been “greeted with UCSF care that is otherwise a helicopter ride away.”
Cusick also praised the collaboration with Sonoma Valley Fire District, especially Battalion Chief Brian Cyr and Chief Steve Akre. The local emergency doctors coordinate with the Fire District about which patients to keep here in the Valley and which should go directly to a Trauma Center in Napa or Santa Rosa.
Another important piece of care for our Valley is the recognition of SVH as an Age-Friendly Health System, under the direction of Geriatric Nurse Practitioner, Dr Rebecca Spear. This is a preventive, care-based plan for the elderly throughout the hospital, involving pro-active measures and education, as well as screenings and interventions. The ED is working to attain Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation, as it refocuses the entire department to patient-centered care sensitive to the needs of older adults. NVEMG has that accreditation at Queen of the Valley.
But Cusick is quick to point out that the Emergency Department is child- friendly as well. All the emergency doctors here received special training in Pediatric ICU and Pediatric Emergency Medicine during their residency. And Sonoma Valley Emergency Department has a direct connection with Oakland Children’s Hospital, now merged with UCSF Benioff.
So what motivated these highly-trained specialists to come to our small local hospital? Five of the seven doctors now working at Sonoma Valley’s ED live here in the Valley. They have raised or are currently raising their families here. Dr. Cusick, born and raised in Sonoma, says four generations of Cusicks have been cared for at Sonoma Valley Hospital. He acknowledges that coming with his partners from NVEMG to Sonoma has a selfish aspect: he knows that people with the highest skill set will be taking care of his family and friends. His fellow physicians share his appreciation for this benefit of working locally. Cusick pointed out that all seven doctors working at the local ED are not only Emergency Medicine specialists, but they have the highest certification, as Fellows of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Cusick, who received his MD at UCSF, did his residency in Emergency Medicine through Harvard. All these doctors have impressive credentials. (See their bios . . . link to CVs of NVEMG.)
The hospital’s interim Chief Medical Officer Dr Sabrina Kidd told the Sun, “We are pleased with the extremely high level of care our new emergency room group provides for our community. Made up primarily of Sonoma Valley residents, the physicians feel the personal connection of helping their friends, neighbors and community.”
One of the challenges ahead is how to expand the trust in the community, case by case. With regard to the large Latinx population in the Valley, Cusick says that for native Spanish speakers three of the seven ED doctors are fully bilingual; and the ED offers instantaneous 24/7 audio/visual interpretation by live interpreters in Spanish, or any other language. And the physicians group is already addressing gender imbalance with the recent additional hire of two female emergency doctors, equally highly qualified, joining the group soon.
The local ED director, who before he came to Queen of the Valley served in that role at Hoag Hospital, Irvine, described this past year at Sonoma Valley as an exciting one, and one of hard work. He added, “We are working now with the staff we want, and we have hit our stride.”
Story by Anna Pier
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