Stockton is severely underserved for gastroenterologists. There are 13 gastroenterologists in Stockton, a community of 322,000 people with a catchment area of close to 1 million. We currently have a 90 day wait for new consults, which is causing patients to out-migrate to the Bay Area cities an hour away, for care.
This position is primarily at the main hospital, St. Joseph’s Medical Center. St. Joseph’s is a 355-bed hospital with 8 ORs, daVinci Xi robot and an outpatient surgical center with 4 ORs and 3 endoscopy suites. The GI clinic is less than a half mile from the hospital and it is very easy to travel between the two if needed.
The basic work week is 5 days. The GIs in the group currently spend 3 days per week in the endoscopy suite, 1.5 days seeing patients in clinic and have a half day of protected admin time. You can expect to be ramped up very quickly since we have such a profound need and strong referral base from our Dignity primary care physicians.
The current team is 5 gastroenterologists. 3 are employed through Dignity and 2 are in private practice but are part of our call rotation. Call is 1:6 weekends and weekdays, which is about 5 days of call per month. The hospitalist team admits and manages patients that present in the ED and phone consult with the GI on call as needed, then usually schedule a procedure for the morning. They rarely have to come into the hospital to address a case, most of the time they can see it in the morning. Dr. Malhi mentioned that “switching call days is very easy, just make a call to someone and they always say yes. I have never had anyone say no when I asked to switch a call day.”