Rosalia Mendoza, a bilingual Bay Area doctor who has worked in community health for a decade and logged time overseas, began a new post this week as one of the Coastal Health Alliance’s four physicians. She will serve patients of all ages at the Point Reyes Station, Bolinas and Stinson Beach clinics.
“It’s exciting. I’m now going to be part of a community in a place I generally spend my free time,” said Dr. Mendoza, who is moving from San Francisco to Bolinas for the job.
At the Coastal Health Alliance, which serves about 8,000 patients, she will work under a newly implemented team system designed to take a bit of the load off overworked doctors. According to Steven Siegel, the nonprofit’s executive director, those teams consist of a lead doctor or nurse practitioner, a nurse and medical assistants. The leader can delegate tasks—like filling out medical records or calling patients about lab results—to improve patient care while freeing up more time for the doctor or nurse practitioner to see patients.
“Often doctors don’t lead the lifestyles we’re pushing for people—like more rest and taking care of yourself,” said Mike Witte, the center’s founding medical director.
About a quarter of the alliance’s patients identify as Latino, Mr. Siegel said, and all the doctors and nurse practitioners speak Spanish. Still, Dr. Witte emphasized the importance of hiring someone who is not only bilingual, but also bicultural.
Dr. Mendoza grew up in the Coachella Valley, near Joshua Tree National Park, in the 1980s. Her interest in medicine sprung up early; as an adolescent at a leadership camp at Big Bear Lake, she remembers discussions about the urgent need for bilingual leaders in health care, law and education. “That kind of charge, combined with my own interest in giving back to communities and love of science, was a perfect marriage,” she said.
She earned a bachelor’s in integrative biology and entomology at the University of California, Berkeley before pursuing a medical degree at the University of Washington. She says she knew at the outset of medical school that she would practice primary care; her relationships with patients give her the opportunity to provide not just treatment, but education, preventative care and assistance navigating the complexities of medical treatments.
She co-authored an article in a health care policy journal about the lack of diversity in the health care profession; although Latinos, African Americans and American Indians comprised about a quarter of the country’s population in 2000, only 8.7 percent of physicians identified as an underrepresented minority in 2005, according to the article.
Within her passion for community-based health care, she has particular interests in oral health and women’s care. She helped develop an oral health training program during a fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, and her clinical experiences taught her that treating women—who are often charged with caring and making decisions for their children and partners—often benefits the whole family. (Mr. Siegel noted that her experience in oral health will be a particular asset to the alliance as it expands a two-day-a-week dental clinic for low-income patients that opened last year.)
Dr. Mendoza’s approach is also informed by time she has spent abroad. A month-long rotation at a pediatric H.I.V. center in Uganda during her residency opened her eyes to the importance of general practitioners, she said. Although she was responsible for young H.I.V. patients, she often ran into villagers outside the clinic walls who needed help with other ailments. “I realized the importance of the skill set that I had trained for, that this can be applied in so many different settings,” she said.
During her last year of medical school, she spent a stint in Xi’an, China. She knew at the time that she wanted to return to the Bay Area, and she hoped her experience in a place that practiced both traditional Chinese and modern Western medicine would help her understand her Asian and Asian-American patients. “What are the alternative options that people around the world are practicing in communities where I work? It was another international experience that helped me become a better clinician, and [taught me] how to ask about other modalities. Not everyone finds Western medicine to be the be-all, end-all,” she said.
After earning a master’s degree in community health from Harvard University’s School of Public Health, Dr. Mendoza returned to the West Coast. During the past decade, she has practiced at community health centers around Bay Area. Now, after years in cities, she looks forward to returning to a more rural setting.
Mr. Siegel said it is not always easy to find someone like Dr. Mendoza: a candidate with a strong background in community health who has published a number of scholarly articles—and wants to live in West Marin. “She fits in so many ways,” he said. “West Marin’s not for everyone. But this was what she wanted to do, so I’m happy about that. Rosalia is an amazing hire for us.”