The holidays are here, and to celebrate, many will be visiting homes of loved ones. Parents and guardians often have a list of questions they ask before their children visit other homes, whether about pets in the house, allergies, or internet supervision. Swapna Kudtarkar, MD, a pediatrician with Dignity Health Medical Group — Inland Empire, asks parents to add another question to their safety checklist: “Is there an unlocked gun in your home?”

Dignity Health Medical Network — Santa Cruz and Dignity Health Mercy Medical Group are recipients of the 2022 Excellence in Healthcare Award from the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA) for top performance on clinical quality, patient experience and cost measures. Dignity Health Mercy Medical Group also scored in the top 10% in clinical quality for their commercial HMO populations.

Dignity Health Mercy Medical Group and Dignity Health Woodland Clinic have been awarded Elite Status from America's Physician Groups (APG), the nation's leading professional association for accountable physician groups. The medical groups are two of just 72 organizations nationally to achieve Elite Status (the highest recognition) in 2022.

Elite Status is earned through participation in APG's Standards of Excellence Survey, which evaluates the coordinated care infrastructure and value-based care performance of the organization’s physician group members.

We are proud to announce that 56 physicians from Dignity Health Mercy Medical Group, and 26 from Dignity Health Woodland Clinic have been voted Sacramento Magazine’s Top Doctors in 2022. The “Top Docs” honor is an annual list of the area’s best doctors as voted by their peers.

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. According to the American Lung Association, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States for both men and women.

This month, we talked to Seth Robinson, MD, a pulmonologist with Woodland Clinic, about ways to decrease your risk of lung cancer.