Dr. Robert Francis Erickson, MD

Greetings!

Thank you for visiting my home page. Perhaps you are visiting because you were my patient in the emergency department. The busy pace of the ED usually doesn’t allow much time for personal interaction, so perhaps this page will allow us to get better acquainted, even if it is after the fact.

I understand that my patients may not share my enthusiasm for the emergency department. Our time together likely represents the worst day of your year. I always try to keep that in mind and welcome the opportunity to offer comfort and relief. Hopefully, you’re feeling better!

Being an Emergency Physician

I love emergency medicine. It surprises me to find that many people still do not realize emergency medicine is a true specialty, just like cardiology, general surgery or internal medicine. As an emergency physician, I specialize in the care of acute traumatic or medical illness. As you might imagine, we have to be ready for just about anything– from major trauma to a newborn with …congenital heart disease. This makes my job both exciting and challenging. More important to me, however, is the opportunity to offer care and comfort when patients need it most. That is why I chose this specialty.

Being hospital based 24 hours a day, we have access to comprehensive lab services, X-ray and CAT scan, maximizing our ability to diagnose and treat our patients. While we are able to treat many illnesses right in the emergency department, we are but a phone call away from our specialty physicians. Whether you need to be seen right away or can follow up in clinic, arrangements can be made and confirmed during your emergency visit.

Practicing at Kaiser Permanente

As a relatively new physician to the Kaiser Permanente system, I am constantly impressed with our organization – not because of what it offers me, the physician (although it is a great place to practice), but what it offers you, the member. Kaiser Permanente is constantly working to streamline and improve our members’ experience.

Through the integration of the Kaiser Permanente system I have immediate access to your computer records, which tell me your medical issues, your current medications and your medication allergies. At the end of your visit, I can send an e-mail to your primary doctor, and when she sees you next she’ll have ready access to your labs and X-ray results. And I can make a followup appointment before you leave the department.

With regards to my personal medical practice, Kaiser Permanente physicians are bound only by the charge to practice good medicine, and are given the tools and resources to do just that. We are all free to make medical decisions based on one simple thing – what is best for the patient. Just the way I want to practice medicine.

My Background and Qualifications

Medicine is a second career for me. I earned my degree in business just down the road at California State University, Sacramento. I worked for seven years in property and casualty insurance, but my love of science and my desire to be of service drew me towards a career in medicine. Starting from scratch, I worked by day and completed my medical prerequisites at night. I subsequently attended medical school at beautiful UC San Diego and trained in Emergency Medicine one exit down from Disneyland at UC Irvine Medical Center – a fine academic institution and Level I trauma center. During my last year of residency, I served as academic chief resident.


Personal Interests

Both my wife and I originally hail from the Sacramento area, and we are very excited to be ‘home’ again. Although I consider myself a physician first, my second love (next to my wife, of course) is music composition. My parents put me behind the keys of a piano early in life and something seemed to stick, although now I’m usually behind an electronic keyboard. I also have found myself to be fairly handy with a computer and find family and friends asking me to fix their computer problems – almost as often as they ask me about their medical conditions! Isn’t life funny?

Thank Y