July 26, 2016
Aloha!
Our five new residents recently celebrated their rite of passage from medical school graduates to official PGY-1 interns as part of our Internal Medicine Residency Program. The annual white coat ceremony, held at the Hawaii Permanente Medical Group’s Professional Development Day in June, was a major milestone for these talented physicians.
To ensure a smooth transition into their residency, the first three weeks were dedicated to orientation and onboarding activities, including training on KP HealthConnect® – our exceptional electronic medical records system. Onboarding is a wonderful opportunity to share our values including the priority we place on putting our patients and their families at the center of everything we do.
We see our residents as colleagues, and we want to confidently be able to refer our family and friends who need care to them, knowing our loved ones are in good hands. Our rotations are intentionally designed to be rigorous. We cover the full gamut of ambulatory and inpatient experiences at our Mapunapuna Medical Office and Moanalua Medical Center.
As a result of the intimate size of our program, we’re able to offer our residents personalized attention. They get to know their physician mentors, not just in internal medicine, but all of its subspecialties, including cardiology, nephrology, infectious disease, and pulmonary care. There are also rotations in ophthalmology, gynecology, urology, orthopaedics, podiatry, and sports medicine.
Our PGY-2 residents have told us that having access to physicians representing multiple disciplines and specialties is one of the strengths of our residency program. Our doctors are always willing to listen and share their insights. We’ll continue to factor in more time for structured interaction between residents and the medical staff.
Having another class of residents on our team is a milestone for Kaiser Permanente Hawaii. It’s rewarding to see our program expand its reach in perpetuating a compassionate culture of continuous learning and quality process improvements. As with all new programs, we’ve been able to continually refine our internal medicine residency program during the first year, thanks to the feedback from our first residents as well as our staff and patients.
We look forward to another fantastic year at KP Hawaii as we dedicate ourselves to caring for our members, patients, their families, and the community.
Mahalo,
Mitch Motooka, MD, FACP
Program Director,
Kaiser Permanente Hawaii Internal Medicine Residency Program