The residents came from around the country—Chicago and South Elgin, Thousand Oaks and Inglewood and Los Angeles. They came from different backgrounds: Some were the first in their families to attend college. A few had known they wanted to be doctors from a young age. Some were intimately familiar with South LA, and others were excited to put down roots in a new place. Together, they became the very first doctors to graduate from the internal medicine residency program at MLK Community Healthcare.
Since MLKCH opened its doors ten years ago, launching an internal medicine residency program has always been part of its intention, says Crystal Lee, Director of Physician Relations and Graduate Medical Education. South LA has a physician shortage of 1,500 doctors, with ten times fewer physicians than more affluent parts of Los Angeles. Training doctors at MLKCH would be one way of addressing that shortage while also preparing doctors to work in similar communities. Says Dr. Maita Kuvhenguhwa, Assistant Program Director, “We want to train people who will stay here and want to provide quality care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. Having doctors who have trained here and understand the system are crucial for filling the physician gap.”
MLKCH began interviewing residents for the new program in 2021, while the health system was still reeling from the overwhelming number of COVID-19 patients that made South LA an epicenter of the pandemic. Those who interviewed for the residency did so taking several leaps of faith. “They had to believe in the people they met on Zoom. And they had to really believe in the hospital as an institution and want to be part of this community,” says Crystal. Like the people who founded the hospital, they had to want to be on the frontiers of a vision.
Program faculty, in turn, were seeking doctors who were passionate about learning to serve a community denied access to medical care for decades. “We’re looking for the best—socially conscious physicians who are committed to improving the healthcare of an underserved community,” said Dr. John Fisher, Chief Medical Officer at MLKCH. Underlying all of their training would be the same vision that guides the health system: to provide high-quality and equitable care to medically-underserved patients.
The first five residents each had their own reasons for being drawn to MLKCH. For some, it was the promise of making meaningful change in a community. For Dr. Amy Morioka, who volunteered with migrant caravans in Mexico and at free clinics across the country as a medical student, it was MLKCH’s emphasis on the social determinants of medicine that drew her in.
Dr. Jeffrey Shibata, who’d lost a family member at a young age, knew that serving the medically-underserved was his passion. “I want to be a voice, an advocate, for the underserved who live here,” he says.
Dr. Jae Kim had initially been a surgical resident, but found that his favorite part of the day was speaking to patients before surgery. MLKCH offered him the opportunity to have more conversations with his patients. “I get to take the time to talk about their problems,” says Dr. Kim, who has found a knack for breaking down complex diagnoses into easily digestible language for his patients. Watching understanding bloom across his patients’ faces felt meaningful to him in a new way.
For others, the community felt familiar. For Dr. Sam Zhang Huang, who grew up in Chicago’s Chinatown as the son of Chinese immigrants, working with South LA patients felt comfortable. As a young adult, he had watched his father battle cancer and struggle to navigate an understaffed medical system. “I see myself in them,” says Dr. Huang. “I feel like I’m able to be myself.” And he’s seen how that familiarity opens up a space for trust with his patients.
For Dr. Casey Charlton, growing up in Inglewood gave him firsthand experience of seeing the effects of poor healthcare on his community. For his residency, he knew he wanted to give back directly to his community. “A lot of times people just need someone to listen, [it’s] the number one thing that shows you care,” said Dr. Charlton, “So having someone who’s willing to listen to you—it can mean everything.”
The residents’ core training is conducted at MLKCH in areas that include critical care, endocrinology and cardiology, while partnerships with larger hospital systems—Cedars-Sinai, Harbor-UCLA, UCLA, and UC Irvine—allow residents to rotate through specialty fields such as neurology, geriatrics, gastroenterology, and more. One unique component of the education residents receive at MLKCH is dedicated time spent in the Street Medicine Department, serving as primary care physicians for unhoused patients that they visit on street corners and in encampments around South LA.
Now, the years of training and the leap of faith the residents took four years ago have led to an historic accomplishment—becoming the first graduating class of internal medicine residents from MLKCH. “More than any other class, [the graduating cohort] partnered with us to shape this program,” said Crystal.
The conditions that shaped the devastating effects of COVID-19 on the community—generations of poor access to healthcare and inequitable treatment—have joined new threats—funding cuts that threaten Medicaid access for thousands of patients. Advocacy, philanthropy, and the strong support of the community have provided resources for the healthcare system, but the residency program also points towards a long-term hope for the future. Three residents, Drs. Amy Morioka, Sam Zhang Huang, and Casey Charlton, will continue serving the South LA community, while the other graduates plan to study for their board examinations and continue practicing in Los Angeles.
Following in their footsteps are three more cohorts of internal medicine residents—fifteen more doctors learning to listen to, care for, and serve the patients of South LA. And with each year, a stronger groundwork laid for compassionate care, now and into the future.