After decades of service to Merced County, two longtime health providers retire

After years of postponing their departures due to concern for their patients, Dr. Salvador Sandoval and physician assistant Jerry Lewis finally have stepped into retirement.

The two Golden Valley Health Centers medical practitioners closed out 2016 with a celebration of their more than 35 years of service to the area.

Both said concern over the shortage of medical professionals in Merced County had kept them working longer than they’d anticipated.

“I saw the need and that’s why I wanted to stay,” Lewis said. “It became a real mission. It wasn’t just a job.”

Finding a doctor in Merced County is no easy feat. Of California’s 58 counties, Merced County has the 43rd worst physician-to-patient-ratio, with just 45.4 primary care physicians per 100,000 residents. That’s far less than California’s statewide ratio of 77.3 doctors per 100,000 residents. The Merced County 2016 Community Health Assessment says the entire county is considered a health-professional shortage area.

Sandoval, 67, focused much of his four-decade career on serving the greater Merced area’s most vulnerable populations, including the homeless, the elderly and migrant field workers.

He was one of the few care providers who offered house calls and used Golden Valley’s Medical Outreach Mobile, better known as the MOM mobile, to go to some of the hardest-to-reach residents. In 2015, he was honored by the Migrant Clinicians Network, which named him as one of their “physicians making a difference.”

Sandoval said that, even in retirement, he will continue his weekly visits to the D Street Homeless Shelter in Merced until another provider is found to take over.

Sandoval and Lewis, 65, were longtime providers at the Golden Valley clinic in Planada, where Lewis had worked full time since its opening in 1986. Sandoval, who joined Golden Valley in 1980, spent the last seven years in Planada.

Golden Valley says the Planada clinic will be staffed four times a week by two of its medical professionals, Dr. Kip Johnson and family nurse practitioner Diane Renteria, said Dr. Ellen Piernot, chief medical officer for Golden Valley.

“They asked to be transferred to that site,” she said. “We’re still actively recruiting for a full-time family practitioner.”

On average, the process of finding a new provider can mean up to 18 months goes by before the new person is ready to start seeing patients, she said.

Over the past year, Golden Valley has hired 20 physicians who are expected to begin seeing patients in the coming months, she said.

The Valley has several obstacles when it comes to recruiting and keeping medical professionals, such as its location and the high population on Medi-Cal, which doesn’t compensate physicians as much as other insurance, according to Merced County health officials.

Sandoval said the mission of helping underserved populations, such as the Latino community, is what drew him to the area.

“I never had to worry about not taking patients with the right insurance or no insurance at all,” the Sacramento native said.

Doctors can find higher-paying assignments in nearby cities such as San Francisco or Los Angeles, a key issue when it comes to repaying school loans. On top of that, Piernot said, “I think the biggest thing is, when you think of California, the Valley is not as well-known as other areas.”

The first step to keeping providers in the area is “getting them here and getting them to experience it and see what the Valley has to offer,” she said.

Mary-Michal Rawling, director of governmental affairs at Golden Valley, said it’s “unusual” to have practitioners stay in the area three or four decades in any position, and Golden Valley has several long-term providers.

Individuals believing strongly in Golden Valley’s mission to provide care to underserved populations is another aspect that keeps providers with them.

Lewis said the mission of Golden Valley is what kept him serving in the area.

“I’ve taken the goal as far as I can take it,” he said. “There’s still people out there that need health care and access to opportunities.”

“The mission is not all complete, but we’re a little bit closer.”

Lewis said he’ll help out where he’s needed and will continue working part time in medicine, perhaps through some type of missionary work.

“I’m just going to try and help as much as I can, whatever I can do,” Lewis said.

During their decades with Golden Valley, Sandoval and Lewis have seen many of their young patients grow up, get married and have kids who, in turn, have come to them as a new generation of patients.

Lorena Perez, front office supervisor for Golden Valley, said the duo’s presence is what she’ll miss the most because they were with her throughout some of the biggest moments in her life.

“It’s going to take time to replace them,” Perez said.

Tom Martinez, Golden Valley’s board chairman, said he’s been a patient of Sandoval and Lewis for almost their entire careers. He made a point to be at their farewell dinner in December even though he’d just been discharged from the hospital.

“Broken hip or not, I was going to be there because they mean so much to me,” he said. “We’re losing the best of the best.”

This story was originally published January 16, 2017 at 2:36 PM with the headline "After decades of service to Merced County, two longtime health providers retire."