Arrowhead Regional Medical Center-Kaiser Permanente Fontana Program

Program Identity & Fit

This is a 5-year ACGME-accredited general surgery program built on a distinctive dual-institution model pairing Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, a 456-bed county-operated Level I Trauma Center and Regional Burn Center serving an underserved, socioeconomically diverse Inland Empire population, with Kaiser Permanente Fontana, a large managed-care system offering a contrasting, resourced clinical environment. Graduate outcomes show a heavy fellowship trajectory (vascular, cardiothoracic, colorectal, plastics, surgical critical care, breast oncology) alongside a meaningful minority entering private practice directly, indicating the program produces both fellowship-bound subspecialists and practice-ready general surgeons. Resident scholarly output is steady and case-report/case-series heavy with a dedicated research resident year, reflecting research as an available and supported but not singularly defining pillar of training. The program explicitly emphasizes holistic review valuing clinical performance narratives, reliability, teamwork, service to diverse communities, and mission fit over pure metrics, and frames its identity around training surgeons comfortable across both safety-net trauma/burn care and structured managed-care practice.