“The value of the CHOC hospitalist program is that we can see the patient several times a day, if necessary,” said Sameer Pathare, M.D., who directs the CHOC Hospitalist Division. “It allows us to make a connection with the family and stay in communication with them. And it helps them to know there is always a doctor around.”
Dr. Pathare joined the CHOC Hospitalist Division in 2004 immediately after completing his internship, residency and chief residency at CHOC. At that time, there were only three hospitalists in the division. Soon there will be 18. The program doubled in size last July when CHOC combined programs with CHOC at Mission Hospital.
And not only has the program grown in size, the complexity of patients has also increased. CHOC hospitalists may not see patients on an outpatient basis, but Dr. Pathare said they do have a major role in providing continuity of care, especially for the chronically ill. He still sees some of the CHOC patients he met in 2001 when he was an intern.
“Our focus is taking good care of patients while they are hospitalized, and then returning them to the community pediatricians so they can take over the continuum of care,” Dr. Pathare said. “If we do our piece well, it frees up the pediatricians out in the community.”
A Passion for Teaching
A board-certified pediatrician, Dr. Pathare grew up in the Los Angeles area and graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles. He completed his medical degree at the Medical College of Wisconsin, in Milwaukee.
Electing to continue as a CHOC hospitalist after completing his residency has allowed Dr. Pathare to further pursue a passion for teaching. He has been training CHOC residents since 2005, and they selected him as “Teacher of the Year” in 2006, 2007 and 2008. He has been similarly honored by the University of California, Irvine, medical students, most recently this past winter. In addition to the CHOC, UC Irvine and combined residency classes, Dr. Pathare trains Kaiser Family Medicine residents and the third-year Dartmouth College medical students who rotate at CHOC throughout the year.
“It is just a joy to teach,” Dr. Pathare said, noting that it is especially rewarding to now be teaching alongside some of his own mentors, Antonio Arrieta, M.D.; Nick Anas, M.D.; Troy McGuire, M.D.; and Jasjit Singh, M.D., just to name a few. “It’s not just education, it is the supervision of the residents. We can teach the next generation how to take care of the patients, and not from the ‘30,000-foot level.’ We are actually in there helping them.”
In addition to supervising CHOC hospitalists and training residents, Sameer Pathare, M.D., makes time to serve on both the CHOC Medical Executive Committee and the CHOC PSF Board of Directors. To contact him, please call: (714) 509-8826.
