Natividad Medical Center

Natividad Medical Center (NMC) is a 172-bed acute-care teaching hospital located in Salinas, California.^[1][2] The hospital is owned and operated by Monterey County and the hospital's emergency room receives approximately 52,000 visits per year.^[1][2]

As the safety-net hospital providing healthcare to the residents of Monterey County for over 129 years, Natividad provides healthcare access to all patients regardless of their ability to pay. The hospital operates with a medical staff of over 300 physicians and has several specialty clinics and outpatient primary care clinics operated by the Monterey County Health Department.;

Natividad Medical Center is a Level II Trauma Center providing the immediate availability of specialized personnel, equipment, and services to treat the most severe and critical injuries.

Natividad is the only teaching hospital on the Central Coast, through its affiliation with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Recognized nationally and internationally as a model program, Natividad’s Family Medicine Residency Program is postgraduate training for physicians specializing in family medicine. About 1/3 of the graduates remain on the central coast to establish a practice.

Natividad is fully accredited by The Joint Commission and is governed by a Board of Trustees, under the guidance of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors.

NMC is fully accredited by the American College of Surgeons and the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery as a level 2 accredited bariatric surgery center.^[3][4][5] Natividad Medical Center is accredited by the Joint Commission.^[5] In 2015, the hospital was formally classified as a level II trauma center.^[6]

Highlights of Natividad

• Safety Net Hospitals like Natividad make up only 15 of California’s more than 450 hospitals and health care systems and provide 50% of all hospital care for California’s 6.6 million uninsured and train nearly half of all new doctors in the state.
• Natividad’s innovative and compassionate care team delivers more than 2,700 newborns each year, and more than 1,000 of these babies’ mothers had gestational diabetes.
• Natividad’s comprehensive women’s health program is evolving to include a model birthing program tailored to the individual needs of all women, including the county’s only vaginal birth after cesarean section (VBAC) service.
• Natividad's Trauma Center is a vital community service locally that saves lives and eliminates the need to fly critically injured patients to a distant trauma center.
• Natividad has more than 52,000 Emergency Department visits each year, one-third of which are children.
• Natividad has the Central Coast’s only inpatient and outpatient acute rehabilitation program.
• Natividad has the county’s only child sexual abuse clinic providing medical-forensic examinations, serving more than 225 children each year with a 95% conviction rate for cases that go to trial.
• Natividad offers the NIDO (Natividad Immunology Division Outpatient) Clinic, a comprehensive disease and HIV/AIDS clinic which provides primary care, HIV testing and counseling, laboratory, case management, health education, behavioral health, and outreach services.

Graduate medical education

NMC operates a residency program to train recently graduated physicians in family medicine.^[7] The residency is affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco.^[7]

References