Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) Residency
About the OPTI-West Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency Program
Located in Eastern Los Angeles County with accreditation by ACGME, the
OPTI-West Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency Program at Casa
Colina Hospital and Centers for Healthcare is a three-year, comprehensive,
structured training and educational program. It is associated with the
OPTI-West Medical Education Consortium.
Our program offers extraordinary training experiences and a
curriculum that includes learning about and working with the latest rehabilitation
therapies and technologies. As they progress in the program, our residents
work one-on-one with attending faculty members from Casa Colina’s
medical staff, treating patients with increasing autonomy. Because of
our comprehensive continuum of medical-surgical and rehabilitative care,
patients often remain with Casa Colina for extended periods, giving our
residents the ability to track their progress for weeks or even months
at a time. Our outpatient rotations provide residents exposure to long-term
follow-up for many of the inpatient conditions treated at Casa Colina
Hospital, as well as the opportunity to treat musculoskeletal conditions
and perform a variety of procedures important to their training, including
electrodiagnostic studies, Botox for spasticity management, ultrasound
examinations, and peripheral joint injections.
Residents are exposed to a wide variety of traumatic brain injury, spinal
cord injury, and stroke cases—Casa Colina’s signature programs—as
well as many other neurological and orthopedic diagnoses. A typical case
load is 10-12 patients per resident. Residents have no difficulty exceeding
200 electrodiagnostic studies during their time at Casa Colina. The resident
call schedule involves home call Monday through Friday and weekend coverage
with an attending physician.
(See a typical rotation schedule.)
We accept three post-graduate, year-two (PGY-2) physicians each year. At
Casa Colina, residents participate in a biweekly journal club, and board
review is done on a weekly basis, led by the chief resident. Residents
also learn the nuances of biomechanics and contribute to multidisciplinary
gait rounds with therapists and a prosthetist.
Inpatient Care
Residents receive much of their training in our state-of-the-art hospital.
Casa Colina Hospital’s
Acute Rehabilitation Wing is a 68-bed unit with a high percentage of CVA, TBI, SCI, and orthopedic
inpatients. Opened in 2016, the adjacent
Medical-Surgical Wing includes 25 private medical-surgical beds and six ICU beds, offering a
preferred surgical facility for physicians who specialize in a wide range
of procedures, from orthopedic and neurosurgery to gastroenterology, urology,
and more. We are less than two miles from Pomona Valley Hospital Medical
Center, a Level 1 Trauma Center.
Transitional Rehabilitation
Located on campus, our
Transitional Living Center (TLC) provides an especially valuable long-term follow-up experience for our
PM&R residents. Overseen by physiatrists, this multidisciplinary program
helps clients develop the necessary skills for successful home and community
re-integration after their neurological injury or illness. This 46-bed
residential treatment facility treats patients with acquired brain injury,
stroke, SCI, multiple trauma, and more.
Outpatient Rehabilitation and Physician Clinics
Casa Colina’s
Outpatient Services Center features state-of-the-art equipment and is home to many innovative programs
and services.
Our
Physician Clinics are adjacent to well-appointed orthopedic and neurological gyms, where
residents work closely with physical, occupational, and speech therapists
with a variety of specialty certifications.
Casa Colina 's Medical Office Building is home
Garey Orthopedics, which offers comprehensive care for a wide range of orthopedic injuries,
using the most advanced non-surgical and surgical treatments available.
Pediatrics
The pediatric rehabilitation rotation is a two-month rotation at Children’s
Hospital Los Angeles, which
US News & World Report ranks the No. 1 children’s hospital in California and No. 5 in the nation.
State-of-the-Art Technology
Casa Colina is home to a broad variety of
assistive and treatment technologies that help patients to maximize their recovery and functional independence.
Residents use state-of-the-art equipment, including EMG and ultrasound
machines. Residents are also exposed to therapeutic tools like exoskeleton
technology and Functional Electrical Stimulation technology such as RTI-Stim
bikes and Bioness devices.
Experienced Faculty
Attending faculty participating in residency training are board-certified
in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R), with years of experience
treating rehabilitation patients. Physicians in other medical disciplines,
as well as rehabilitation-related healthcare professionals and research
faculty, provide additional teaching and training for residents. (Learn about our faculty.)
As part of the rotation schedule, our residents will gain experience at
other notable PM&R practices located in Southern California, including the
Pasadena Center for Neuromuscular Medicine, led by Sharon Yegiaian, MD, and
ISCORE, Inc., led by Maxim Moradian, MD and Revik Vartanian, DO.
Residents can participate in a
wide range of events throughout the year, including volunteering for our renowned
Outdoor Adventures program, which empowers people with disabilities to participate in adaptive sports
and recreation like water skiing, skydiving, and more.
