Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Celebrating 50 Years of Care
Southwest Medical, part of Optum Care, was
founded with a single cardiology practice in 1972. Today, we are southern Nevada’s largest
multispecialty medical group with 38 clinics, including six urgent care facilities and five
complete health care centers, a 24/7 virtual doctor service, and more than 450 providers
throughout the valley.
As we mark our 50th year of service to the community, we are recognizing some of our longstanding physicians who embody our passion for providing quality care. Here, Dr. Neil Gokal, Medical Director of Clinical Education for Southwest Medical Associates, addresses the challenges posed by the critically low number of primary care physicians per
capita in our state—and what he and his colleagues are doing to prepare and retain a greater number of young doctors.
Meet Dr. Neil Gokal Addressing Nevada’s doctor shortage
The doctor shortage we face in Nevada is not a new problem, but it needs to be solved directly. Given my position here, ensuring the good health of this community by making certain there are enough physicians to handle its health care needs is my number one priority. We do know that residents tend to end up practicing where they train. It follows, then, that we need to expand our physician training capabilities here in southern Nevada. That’s why Southwest Medical partnered
with Valley Hospital to create the Family Medicine Continuity Clinic. After only a few years, the clinic is the largest family medicine residency program in the state—before becoming full-fledged doctors, physician residents care for clinic patients under the supervision of an attending physician. And I’m proud to say that our program graduated its first class of ten primary care physicians earlier this month.
Clinic as classroom
We are a family medicine clinic, so we see anything and everything. We manage a lot of chronic diseases and see patients of all ages. With primary care physicians as instructors, and a primary care health center as a home base, each student becomes a key member of an interdisciplinary team providing comprehensive care to patients.
Why this program matters
In a program like ours, residents immerse themselves in the community and become very familiar with the local health system, the patient population, and the
resources available in southern Nevada. As the program has grown, several improvement projects have been started, including the use of telehealth platforms, a cost analysis of lab testing, and a more comprehensive and efficient approach to improving the course of certain
conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes.
About Dr. Gokal
Dr. Gokal received a degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Southern California. He attained his medical degree from St. George’s University in Grenada, West Indies, and is also an Adjunct Clinical Faculty member at the UNLV School of Medicine.