Direct Primary Care for Individuals and Families
Dr. Bretsky is an American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) certified physician, having completed his MD as part of a joint MD/PhD training program at the University of Southern California (USC). He then went on to a residency program in Internal Medicine at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and first entered clinical practice in June 2008. From 2008 to 2010, his practice was based in Century City and moved to Santa Monica in 2010 where it was renamed Santa Monica Primary Care. He has been continuously board certified since 2008. In 2017 he became a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP) a designation given to recognize his ongoing individual service and contributions to the practice of Medicine.
More information on the specifics of Dr. Bretsky’s clinical practice can be found at our companion website www.santamonicaprimarycare.com. But, briefly, Dr. Bretsky maintains an independent, full service Internal Medicine practice located adjacent to Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California at 1301 20th Street (corner of 20th and Arizona).
Dr. Bretsky and the staff at Santa Monica Primary Care take a traditional, but now an increasingly unique approach to patient care, insofar as it is entirely MD driven. Patients see Dr. Bretsky for office visits as well as for laboratory and imaging review. Consultative efforts have expanded to include telehealth and video modalities which were particularly useful during shelter-in-place restrictions for SARS-CoV-2 mitigation efforts. While generally Dr. Bretsky is on call after hours (plus weekends and holidays), any coverage is always with another physician 24 hours / 7 days a week.
He also is responsible for both outpatient and inpatient healthcare for patients, which is a more traditional and now less commonplace approach to Medicine. Dr. Bretsky maintains staff privileges at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica. He also takes care of patients at nearby Skilled Nursing Berkley East and Brentwood Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation. This approach enables Dr. Bretsky to maintain a continuity of care for patients from the office, to the hospital, to a nursing center, and then back home.
In addition to individual care, one of the great joys of medical practice is the opportunity to care for families. We have some families where three generations are under Dr. Bretsky’s care (as an adult practice, only those over the age of 18 are able to be seen). Using a concierge model of care, patients have longer appointment times and improved availability of care. In Medicine, we often speak about a ‘standard’ of care. In Dr. Bretsky’s practice at Santa Monica Primary Care, his overall mission is to provide medical care to a higher level than is the community standard. There are no shortcuts to high quality care and it requires a daily commitment to maintain such. Thus the origin of his Twitter bio description – “Serious Medicine.”
If joining Dr. Bretsky’s clinical practice is something that is of interest to you, your family or somebody you know – please feel free to call us directly at (310) 828-4411 for more information. Or drop us an email at social@drbretsky.com