About the OPTI-West Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency Program

Located in Eastern Los Angeles County with accreditation by the Council for Graduate Medical Education, the OPTI-West Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency Program at Casa Colina Hospital and Centers for Healthcare is a three-year, comprehensive, structured training and educational program. It is associated with the OPTI-West Medical Education Consortium.

Our program offers extraordinary training experiences that include learning about and working with the latest rehabilitation therapies and technologies. As they progress in the program, our residents work one-on-one with attending faculty members from Casa Colina’s medical staff, treating patients with increasing autonomy. Because of our comprehensive continuum of medical-surgical and rehabilitative care, patients often remain with Casa Colina for extended periods, giving our residents the ability to track their progress for weeks or even months at a time. Our outpatient rotation provides residents exposure to long-term follow-up for many of the inpatient conditions treated at Casa Colina Hospital, as well as the opportunity to treat musculoskeletal conditions and perform a variety of procedures important to their training, including electrodiagnostic studies, Botox for spasticity management, ultrasound examinations, and peripheral joint injections.

Residents are exposed to a wide variety of traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and stroke diagnoses—Casa Colina’s signature programs—as well as many other neurological and orthopedic diagnoses. A typical case load is 10-12 patients per resident. Residents typically exceed 200 electrodiagnostic studies during their time at Casa Colina. The resident call schedule involves home call Monday through Friday and weekend coverage with an attending physician.(See a typical rotation schedule.)

We accept three post-graduate, year-two (PGY-2) physicians each year. At Casa Colina, residents participate in a biweekly journal club, and board review is done on a weekly basis, led by the chief resident. Residents also learn the nuances of biomechanics and contribute to multidisciplinary gait rounds with therapists and a prosthetist.

Inpatient Care
Residents receive much of their training in our state-of-the-art hospital. Casa Colina Hospital’s Acute Rehabilitation Wing is a 68-bed unit with a high percentage of CVA, TBI, SCI, and orthopedic inpatients. Opened in 2016, the adjacent Medical-Surgical Wing includes 25 private medical-surgical beds and six ICU beds, offering a preferred surgical facility for physicians who specialize in a wide range of procedures, from orthopedic and neurosurgery to gastroenterology, urology, and more. We are less than two miles from Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, a Level 1 Trauma Center.

Short-term Residential Rehabilitation
Located on campus, our Transitional Living Center (TLC) provides an especially valuable long-term follow-up experience for our PM&R residents. Overseen by physiatrists, this multidisciplinary program helps clients develop the necessary skills for successful home and community re-integration after their neurological injury or illness. This 46-bed residential treatment facility treats patients with acquired brain injury, stroke, SCI, multiple trauma, and more.

Outpatient Rehabilitation and Physician Clinics
Casa Colina’s Outpatient Services Center features state-of-the-art equipment and is home to many innovative programs and services.

Our Physician Clinics are adjacent to well-appointed orthopedic and neurological gyms, where you’ll work closely with physical, occupational, and speech therapists with a variety of specialty certifications.

Pediatrics
The pediatric rehabilitation rotation is a two-month rotation at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which US News & World Report ranks the No. 1 children’s hospital in California and No. 5 in the nation.

State-of-the-art Technology
Casa Colina is home to a broad variety of assistive and treatment technologies that help patients to maximize their recovery and functional independence. As a resident, you’ll get to use state-of-the-art equipment like a new Natus EMG machine and Mindray M8 Elite ultrasound machine. You will also see patients work with exoskeleton technology and Functional Electrical Stimulation technology like RTI-Stim bikes and Bioness devices.

Experienced Faculty
Attending faculty participating in residency training are board-certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R), with years of experience treating rehabilitation patients. Physicians in other medical disciplines, as well as rehabilitation-related healthcare professionals and research faculty, provide additional teaching and training for residents. (Learn about our faculty.)

Additional Opportunities
Our residents have the opportunity to work with other unique services at Casa Colina, including Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care Centers, Adult Day Healthcare Center, and Children’s Services Center. Residents can participate in a wide range of events throughout the year, including volunteering for our renowned Outdoor Adventures program, which empowers people with disabilities to participate in adaptive sports and recreation like water skiing, skydiving, and more.

Program Administration
For additional information on the OPTI-West Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency Program, please contact Karla Cairoli, Program Coordinator, at pmrrp@casacolina.org or 909/596-7733, ext. 2211.