Kaiser Permanente Southern California Program

Program Identity & Fit

This is the founding Kaiser Permanente Emergency Medicine residency program (est. 2014), a 1-2-3 format based at the San Diego Medical Center within an integrated managed-care system, emphasizing operational and leadership competencies alongside core clinical training. The curriculum explicitly builds skills in leadership, operations management, physician wellness, innovation/technology, patient safety, and health care delivery systems—reflecting an identity oriented toward physicians who will shape emergency care systems, not just staff them. Scholarly activity and evidence-based medicine are cited as career-enrichment tools rather than a central research mandate, consistent with a Kaiser system that supports research infrastructure (KPSC Research) without an academic-tertiary research mission. The program values clinicians positioned to lead in operations, technology, and systems-level practice within a closed-panel HMO environment, small class size (6/year) and integrated EHR/informatics culture.