In summer 2025, services at the Deran Koligian Ambulatory Care Center and Surgical Services Center on the Community Regional Medical Center campus in downtown Fresno transitioned to United Health Centers of the San Joaquin Valley. The move created a partnership among UCSF Fresno, Community, and United Health Centers that builds on a shared commitment to provide high-quality care and train physicians, especially for the San Joaquin Valley.
“United Health Centers shares our commitment to medical education and supports all aspects of our mission from meeting the needs of patients to research to continuous quality improvement,” said Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education and Designated Institutional Official Stacy Sawtelle Vohra, MD.
Nearly all UCSF Fresno residents and fellows rotate at United Health Centers Ambulatory Care Center or the Surgical Services Center.
“Our partnership reflects our long-standing commitment to medical education and high-quality patient care,” said Justin Preas, President and Chief Executive Officer, United Health Centers of the San Joaquin Valley. “By training the next generation of physicians right here in the Valley, we are improving access today and building a healthier tomorrow.”
UCSF Fresno trainees benefit from learning and caring for patients in an outpatient setting as well as gain experience with inpatient and outpatient continuity of care. The connection with Community ensures patients have access to pre-operative and post-operative care.
“An internal medicine resident, for example, may care for a patient in their primary care clinic, one of our specialty clinics like cardiology, and in the inpatient setting at Community Regional Medical Center if the patient were to need hospitalization,” said Sawtelle Vohra. “The opportunity to provide care that spans different acuity of illnesses is important to patient care and physician education.”
In addition, United Health Centers’ Urgent Care facility provides new educational opportunities for UCSF Fresno Emergency Medicine and Family and Community Medicine residents.
While the downtown collaboration is new, residents in the UCSF Fresno Family and Community Medicine Residency Program have been training at United Health Center, Parlier since 2017.
“We started with six residents and now we are up to 15,” said Juan Ruvalcaba, MD, UCSF clinical professor, and UHC Parlier Pathway Director. “United Health Centers is very supportive of our residents.”
United Health Centers operates nearly 40 locations in Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties.
“United Health Centers also has an Internal Medicine residency program, which we support, and together, we’re training more physicians for the region,” said Sawtelle Vohra. “They are wonderful partners who want to do what’s right for patients and learners.”
