In 2009, for the third consecutive year, Cedars-Sinai Medical Group received the distinction of being named one of the top 20 physician groups in Southern California by Integrated Healthcare Associates (IHA) for provision of recommended care, patient satisfaction, and investment in information technologies (IT) that support quality care. Cedars-Sinai Medical Group was selected out of 225 participating physician groups in California for this distinguished ranking.

The Cedars-Sinai Medical Group has a long-standing relationship with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for your inpatient care. In addition, the group accepts most health insurance plans and Medicare. Check with your doctor's office or your health plan to see if your insurance is accepted.

Our board certified physicians work closely with your other physicians to provide the highest quality of surgical and non-surgical care in a comfortable and service oriented environment. Despite being surgeons by training, they pride themselves in being surgically conservative and realize that surgery is not always the most appropriate treatment option. When suitable, however, our physicians do not hesitate to use their technical expertise to treat the problem at hand. In addition, our doctors also work closely with Raquel Vasquez, M.S., a Certified Physician Assitant, to facilitate prompt evaluation and treatment.

After hours, your urgent messages are received directly by the physician on call and are not routed through an answering service. We feel strongly that given the subspecialized nature of our practice, this provides the highest level of care to you, the patient. We ask, however, that you not abuse this relatively unfettered access to the doctor and try to handle non-emergent issues during the day. Most problems can typically be evaluated in the office at a reasonable hour before it becomes an emergency in the middle of the night and/or can frequently wait until morning.

Helping to take care of patients with serious medical conditions and urgent/emergent problems gives us great satisfaction. Taking care of sick patients, however, can be a somewhat unpredictable undertaking. We do our best to predict how long each patient will need with the doctor during their visit and always leave openings in our schedule to accommodate some unexpected problems as they arise.

Despite this, we realize that there are sometimes delays in the schedule and ask for your patience and understanding if and when they occur. We are confident that should you ever find yourself the one in need of an urgent visit or extra time with the doctor for a more complicated medical issue, you would appreciate our efforts.