Santa Maria Sun / News

Local hospital talent offers ease of mind

BY HENRY HOUSTON

With the recent addition of a new doctor for an Intensive Center and Critical Care Unit, and a nurse who has passed the Certified Breast Care Nurse examination, Central Coast hospitals are proving themselves to be a place of refuge for the ill.

Dr. Robert Hinds will now be working at Arroyo Grande Community Hospital in the Intensive Care Unit, and at Marian Medical Center in Santa Maria, where he’ll be stationed in the Critical Care Unit.

“I’m pleased to return to where I did my undergraduate work,” he said in a press release.

Hinds earned his bachelor’s degrees from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and his doctor of osteopathic medicine degree from Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona. He put his education to the test through an internship at Pacific Hospital in Long Beach. Hinds was also fellowship trained at Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center, as well as Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the UCLA Medical Center.

Hinds will also have a private practice in Pismo Beach.

In other local health-care news, Michelle Ellis, a registered nurse at Arroyo Grande Community Hospital and French Hospital Medical Center, recently passed the stringent Certified Breast Care Nurse examination.

Ellis completed the exam in May of 2010, and she was one of 44 people associated with medicine to pass the exam—a total of 83 percent passed the test. Ellis is only one of 403 nurses who hold the certification.

“I am honored to have the opportunity every day to make the difficult journey just a little easier for cancer survivors and their families in my community,” Ellis said in a statement.

Intern Henry Houston compiled this week’s Community Corner. Send comments or ideas to the Sun via e-mail at intern@santamariasun.com.