Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fontana Medical Center - Faculty
Jason Ngo, MD
Program Director
Jason Ngo, MD
Program Director
Medical School
Albany Medical College
Residency Training
Family Medicine, UCLA Santa Monica
Fellowship Training
Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center
Dr. Jason Ngo is the Program Director for the Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship program at the Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center (San Bernardino County). Dr. Ngo’s clinical practice involves inpatient palliative consultations, outpatient palliative clinic, and the continuity of care inherent when patients with serious illness transition care from each of those clinical settings.
Dr. Ngo received his BS in Psychobiology from the University of California, Los Angeles. He wanted to explore more outside of his home state of California, so he went across the country to attain his MD degree at the Albany Medical College in Albany, New York. During his clinical rotations, Dr. Ngo was impressed with how patients and their families needed focus on their entire physical, mental, and family well-being – particularly during serious illness and at the end-of-life. He decided to return to California to complete residency training in Family Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. His interest in symptom management in cancer and other serious illness led him to complete Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship training at the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, where he saw the value of providing full-spectrum palliative medicine services to our vulnerable patient population. He has been in the Kaiser Permanente Fontana and Ontario Medical Centers ever since.
Dr. Ngo’s research interests include studying advanced care planning (ACP) implementation, end-of-life issues, medical aid-in-dying, and symptom management. He has been a speaker at the End of Life Option Act conference in KP, and has published articles on Kaiser Permanente’s implementation of advanced care planning in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. Dr. Ngo also serves as a reviewer for the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, subject matter expert for the Kaiser Permanente Emerging Therapeutics Strategy Program, and subject matter expert for the Kaiser Permanente Excellence in Cancer Care symptom management e-Visit committee. He lives with his wife and his golden retriever Kilo (as he seems to eat a kilo of food a day). In his off time, Dr. Ngo experiments with baking ube cookies and blowtorching steaks while trying not to burn his house down.
Chirag Gandhi, DO
Associate Program Director
Chirag Gandhi, DO
Associate Program Director
Medical School
Western University of Health Sciences
Residency Training
Family Medicine, Natividad Medical Center
Fellowship Training
Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center
Dr. Chirag Gandhi is the Associate Program Director for the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program at the Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center (San Bernardino County. Dr. Gandhi’s clinical practice includes the Outpatient Palliative Care Clinic and the Inpatient Palliative Care Service. His Particular interests include transitions of care for the palliative patient, goal concordant care, bioethics, and resident education in palliative care.
Dr. Gandhi received his BS in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine, and his DO degree from Western University of Health Sciences. He completed his residency in Family Medicine at Natividad Medical Center in Salinas California and his Fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles and West Los Angeles Medical Centers.
Sarah Hernandez, MD
Sarah Hernandez, MD
Medical School
Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicine, La Habana, Cuba
Residency Training
Family Medicine, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center
Fellowship Training
Hospice and Palliative Medicine, City of Hope
From an early age, I learned by strong example from my single mother, mentors, and community leaders to share the values of love, humanity, and integrity and most of all, to give back to my community that has given me so much. I thrived studying medicine at the Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina, in Havana, Cuba, a social justice–minded medical school whose mission is to provide equal access to health care as it is a human right. I eventually migrated to Southern California, where I completed my family medicine residency training locally at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center and hospice and palliative medicine fellowship at City of Hope.
Hospice and palliative medicine is an outlet to break down health care barriers within the most vulnerable of populations. It is an honor to be entrusted to care for members and their families in such a vulnerable moment of their lives. I am grateful for the beautiful complexity of guiding and supporting each member and family through the course of advanced medical and oncological illness, and end-of-life care.
I truly believe that wellness is created by a balance between our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual realms. I strive on a daily basis to stay grounded and be mindful of how I may actively find a balance in the space I am in.
Michael Ma, MD
Michael Ma, MD
Medical School
St. George’s University
Residency Training
Internal Medicine, University of Medicine and Dentistry, New Jersey
Fellowship Training
Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center
I joined the Southern California Permanente Medical Group in 2010. I serve as the Assistant Chief of Service for the Department of Geriatrics, Palliative Care and Continuing Care and the director of the inpatient and clinic based Palliative Medicine service in San Bernardino County.
I was born in Vietnam but grew up in Los Angeles, California. I received my bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from the University of California Berkeley in 2002. I later traveled to St. George’s University in the Caribbean for medical school and completed my Internal Medicine residency in 2009 in Newark, New Jersey from the University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey. I later found my way back to Southern California and finished the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship, Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles in 2010.
Mukti Patel, MD
Mukti Patel, MD
Medical School
University of California, Irvine
Residency Training
Internal Medicine, University of California, Irvine
Fellowship Training
Hospice and Palliative Medicine, University of California, Irvine
I joined the Kaiser Permanente San Bernardino County Palliative Medicine Team in 2021. I completed my undergraduate, medical, residency and fellowship education at the University of California, Irvine. I received my bachelor’s degree in Neurobiology in 2008 and completed my Internal Medicine residency in 2020 followed by Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship in 2021. Thereafter, I joined the Palliative Medicine group at Kaiser Permanente San Bernardino County. I currently live in Orange County, California with my family. I am particularly interested in resident and fellow education and excited to mentor our learners.
Purvi Patel, MD
Purvi Patel, MD
Medical School
American University of Antigua
Residency Training
Family Medicine North Shore Long Island Jewish Medical Center
Fellowship Training
Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. Purvi Patel received her BS in Biological Sciences and BA in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine. Prior to starting her career in medicine she worked in various fields including accounting/loan processing for commercial buildings, as well as in purchasing for a solar company. She then went on to pursue medicine and attended medical school at the American University of Antigua. She completed Family Medicine residency, serving 1 year as chief resident, with North Shore Long Island Jewish Medical Center- Hofstra University (now known as Northwell Health). After residency she went on to complete a fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NY.
Dr. Patel became an attending physician at City of Hope Cancer Center (Duarte, CA) where she worked in both the inpatient and outpatient settings (seeing adult and pediatric patients), as well as participating in various research projects. Most of her work is focused on cancer pain, cancer treatment related pain, and end of life care/practices. She has been a member of the institution’s ethics committee, medication safety management committee and a speaker for the End of Life Symposium, in the Los Angeles and Las Vegas conferences. She has also authored several publications and book chapters.
She is now part of Kaiser Permanente’s SBC Palliative Medicine team, working in the both the inpatient and outpatient setting.
In her time off she enjoys reading, eating, shopping, and spending time with her husband and 3 children.
Maria Arevalo-Ramirez, RN
Maria Arevalo-Ramirez, RN
Why Kaiser?
I am a RN Case Manager for the outpatient clinics and inpatient consult team rounding at Kaiser Permanente Palliative Medicine. Inpatient Liaison RNs are part of the inpatient Interdisciplinary Team, acting as a clinical extension to provide nursing level medical assessments and supportive care to patients. I have worked in other Palliative Medicine departments at Kaiser Permanente Riverside, as well as acted as an Utilization Review manager for Kaiser Permanente as well.
Heather Toms, LCSW
Heather Toms, LCSW
Undergraduate School
B.A. Psychology, University of California, Riverside
Graduate School
Masters of Social Work, California State University, San Bernardino
Why Kaiser?
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Work for the Kaiser Permanente Palliative Medicine Department. I have had the tremendous pleasure of working as a Social Worker for over 20 years in various fields including Geriatrics, Mental Health, Medical/Dialysis, Foster/Adoption, and for the Developmentally Disabled. I am able to pull from my various employment experiences and skillset including strong interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills, organizational skills, and empathy, all of which are necessary when dealing with Patients, their Families, and Physicians. When working with the Palliative Patient, not only are providing resources, developing a treatment plan, and working with the interdisciplinary team important, so is compassion, recognizing a Patient/Family in crisis, and providing counseling and support to the Patient and their loved ones to assist during a most difficult and challenging time. I look forward to continuing my work with Kaiser Permanente, using my extensive experience to help Patients and their loved ones “thrive”!