Show: On The Town Station: KNCO File: 10:12.mp3 Air date: 2026-10-12 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 26.3 MB to 5.3 MB --- transcript --- It's 1137, 60 degrees, and time for our once a month visit. Second Monday of the month with Dr. Tyler Hill, Chief Medical Officer with Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, Dignity Health. Good morning, Doctor. Good morning. And you always bring in a very impressive guest. Looks like you did once again today. Yes. Before we get into it, though, you have some kids, right? I do. Do they have some costumes picked out for Halloween yet? I think so. You know what? Man, you're putting me on the spot. All right. Well, I'm sure there will be something. Maybe doctors. They should be doctors. You know, we tried that one time. I got one of my kids Dr. Hill scrubs, and they wore it a couple of times, but I don't think any of them actually want to do what I do. Whenever I talk about blood or any of the fun stories from the emergency department, they seem to get a little squeamish, and so does my wife. So, you know, I think they may go into different fields. Well, my son never dressed as a radio person, so he's also safe. Anyway, welcome, Doctor. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You know, beautiful day. We're in October, baseball season at the peak. You know, life is good. So today I'm privileged to have Dr. Sonia Behati, and she's joining us. She recently joined our medical foundation, our Dignity Health Medical Foundation, and primarily working in our local urgent care. So thank you for being on the show today. Thank you for having me. So this is a very special guest to introduce to our audience, and you have quite an impressive and fun background, and your experiences are very exciting. I feel like there's some paragliding in Nepal and some trips across multiple countries on your own and long road trips and all that stuff that you've done outside of work, but your work excitement is really not that much different than some of those other things that I just talked about. So you've been all over the world, both, I imagine, for fun as well as your education, as well as your work experience. So I hope to give our audience a little glimpse into just how exciting and diverse of an individual that you are with all of your experiences throughout your life. But I'm going to start with just a little bit. You finished your residency not too long ago, and for our listeners, you go through medical school for several years. Then you decide what kind of doctor do I want to be, specifically family medicine, internal medicine, emergency medicine, surgeon, et cetera, et cetera. And you finished that residency in family medicine in 2025 in Arkansas, and now you're here in our community doing urgent care. So with everything that's going on in health care right now, the emergency department here locally is exploding. We're seeing record volumes, continuing to see that go up, and we often talk about the right care at the right time. But in very basic terms, how would you describe the difference between the emergency department and the urgent care? Yeah, that's actually a really good question, because sometimes patients do not know where to go to urgent care or ER, and the simplest way I can summarize it is urgent care. You should come to urgent care for conditions that cannot wait for a routine appointment, and you should go to the ER for life-threatening conditions that can lead to permanent harm. So, for example, like a UTI, laceration, simple infection, I think you should go to the urgent care. But if you're clearly having chest pain, shortness of breath, or you can't breathe, can't walk, or you're confused, given the limited resources in the urgent care, I think it's best to go to the ER for those conditions. That's great differentiation, very simple terms there. So let's get a little more specific. When we say bread and butter, those are your basic things. What are the bread-and-butter conditions that you're seeing that really highlight how efficient the urgent care is? What are the most common, I guess, complaints that y'all are seeing? Yeah, now that we're hitting the flu season, we're seeing a lot of upper respiratory infections, I would say UTIs, skin infections, wounds, lacerations, toenail removals, a lot of those type of conditions I feel like is what we see. And honestly, we see a lot of patients who can't get into their primary care doctor as well. And I think that's where your background in family medicine really helps, because urgent care, and oftentimes emergency departments, we're the safety net for a community, and in a rural area like ours, there is a lack of primary care physicians out there. It can be very difficult for a lot of individuals to get that routine care, or maybe something pops up that would be appropriate to go to a primary care, but they don't have that, so then there's you who's well-trained to take care of those things. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I feel like our urgent care feels that there is a global deficiency of physicians all over the world, especially in the U.S., but Grass Valley definitely feels it a lot. There aren't enough physicians here to serve the community, and a lot of patients, when they come in, they're either emotional, frustrated that, hey, we're not able to see our PCP for another four to six months. And we at urgent care definitely recognize that there is a deficiency of doctors here, and we're more than happy to help until the patient can get into their primary care doctor. You know, when you were just talking about toenail removals, we did a lot of that in my emergency medicine training, and I remember describing that to my kids one time, and I think they almost all passed out because it is a little bit of a barbaric procedure. You numb the entire digit up, the entire toe up, but just the removal itself and getting it off can look a little barbaric, and so as I was describing that, they didn't appreciate that. Anyway, it made me laugh a little bit. So what are some of the benefits to a patient when they appropriately choose urgent care? Yeah, so especially I find great gratification in knowing that I can help a patient in urgent care and save them a massive ER bill. I would have to say, you know, simple laceration, sprains, broken bones, you know, just vertigo, dizziness, figuring out is this, you know, emergent or non-emergent, is this a stroke or is this just simple vertigo? I think we're not always going to know the answer to urgent care, but just to know that, hey, there's a big chance that this patient will go home to their bed and sleep safely, I think just having those tools available at urgent care definitely do make an impact financially and emotionally to the patient and long waiting times. And you mentioned respiratory season. It's upon us getting closer. I'm seeing a lot of trends across the country right now, especially in the Northeast, that flu season is hitting much earlier than normal and much harder at this time. So that's something to keep in mind is, you know, urgent care is a good option for seeking evaluation for some respiratory illnesses coming up. Yeah, I agree. And so even though you may not be able to do all the testing, say, that a hospital can or an emergency department can, there are still some opportunities to order tests that can be done, not necessarily in a delayed fashion, but kind of in the near future. Is that correct? Yes. So, for example, sometimes patients, you know, it's not obvious what's wrong or what's going on. I think just ordering those tests and having close follow-up is definitely helpful for the patient. Yeah, I would say, you know, the tests that we are able to do, we do order those. But if it's something like a heart attack, we obviously can't order troponins in the urgent care or D-dimers for a blood clot. That's when we send the patient to the ER. So what are some of the enjoyable things for you? You know, you talked a little bit about the gratification of being able to help people, save a massive bill, things like that, or maybe a laceration coming in and you're able to close that wound. And no one else can really do that kind of thing, you know, outside of some of those settings. You nailed it. That's it. Just knowing that a patient came in with, you know, like a crushed nail with a laceration, and after putting in sutures, they're going out with a fixed finger. I mean, that saved them time. That saved them money in the ER. That saved them just so much, I feel like, comes out for the patient in a positive manner compared to them going to the ER. I mean, if they have to go to the ER, you have to go to the ER. But, yeah. So what are some of the biggest things you would like our community to know or maybe wish our community knew when it comes to our urgent care and the work that you do? This is your soapbox moment to tell our community. I just want to let people in this community know we recognize that urgent care, that there is a deficiency of doctors, and you're not able to go to the doctor as needed. So we're more than happy to help. But because of this, sometimes our wait times are – we always hear patients, I could have just gone to the ER. No, we understand that, but we're trying to help every single person the best that we can, and we're more than happy. So if you're not able to get in to see your doctor, please come to urgent care, and we will help as much as we can. I love it. That's a great message. So let's back up a little bit. You've done a lot of medical work leading up to your residency. And, for example, you did medical school in China. Yeah. You've done clinics all over the world. You've taught English in Chinese villages and towns. Again, like I said at the beginning of the show, you've been all over the world, some of it related to your education and training. How do you think all of that experience and training in different settings all over the world has made you a better physician and ultimately led you here to rural northern California? Yeah, so actually I was born and raised in San Francisco. This is something I actually thought about. I wonder where my global curiosity spiked from. I actually lived in Sunset District right by Ocean Beach, about 100 steps from Ocean Beach, and my family and I used to walk almost every day along the Ocean Beach Highway Road, and we used to watch the sunsets. And I was always curious which country that sun was going to hit next. And I'm like, wow, it's going to Japan. They're able to see Japan. The reason why I became a doctor is because I always wanted to work internationally. We used to get these National Geographic magazines at home, and I would see these medical workers working in villages, and I was like, wow, this is something I want to do. By faith, I ended up going to medical school in China, and I was taught. There was two sections of the school. One was for international students. There was international students from 48 different countries, and they taught in English. And then there was a separate section for the Chinese students, and they were taught in Mandarin. After that, I stayed an additional two years to teach English in the villages, came back to the U.S., gave my boards test, moved to Champaign, Illinois to study there, and then did rotations in Chicago. One of the rotations I did was in Harlingen, Texas, which is at the border of Mexico and Texas. And on the weekends, we used to cross the border to Mexico and buy cheap medicine and bring it back to the free clinic. And then I did my training in Arkansas, and I worked in a rural clinic, Lone Oak, where I served the farmers there. And some of my global work has included working at a farmer's protest in India. And also one of my passions is the HPV vaccine and cervical cancer prevention. I had a chance to go to Nigeria to work on it, and this summer I worked on it in India. Wow. 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Find Nevada County Media at 355 Crown Point Circle behind analog devices and bring cash if you dare. Alright, 1152, 60 degrees, and back to Dr. Tyler Hill. Alright, welcome back. And we're joined by Dr. Behati, and we're learning all kinds of just interesting facts. But before the commercial break, you started talking to us a little bit about your work around HPV vaccination. And you said you went to Nigeria. You've been to Nigeria a couple of times. And you said you went to Nigeria a couple of times. And you said you went to Nigeria. You've promoted it in India, here in the States. Can you talk a little bit about what got you into that work, kind of the passion? It's a passion project. So enlighten us. Yeah, so growing up, I always knew I wanted to work globally, especially global medicine. When I went to the farmers' protest in 2024, women were pulling me to the side and speaking about their health issues, and they were whispering in my ear. And I felt really sad, because I'm like, what happens if there isn't a male physician in that village? Where do they go? And I realized they actually don't go to the doctors. And then when I came back to the US, I started searching up, where do they get their pap smears? Well, they most likely don't get their pap smears. So I started searching up the rates of cervical cancer. And in India, every eight minutes, a woman dies from cervical cancer. And that is heartbreaking, because we have tools to prevent cervical cancer. There are countries like Australia, who are on the verge of eliminating cervical cancer by 2035, whereas there's countries like India, where women are passing away from cervical cancer every eight minutes. So I made it my mission to raise awareness as much as I can in the position that I hold. And yeah, that's what I did this summer. I went to India. I worked in around 15 villages to help promote this vaccine. So what groups are you a part of that is kind of allowing this platform? Yes. So I actually joined the United Nations Association here, the Golden Empire chapter, so I'm a California health advocate for that chapter. I also started my own NGO, We Are One. And then I also work with an organization called Five Hearts Association. It was started by a doctor who's a heart transplant advanced cardiology and heart failure treatment. I mean, he's just done so much work internationally. So we worked closely with him. I worked closely with him. I worked closely with that organization in India. Wow. This is very different work than some of the work that you're doing here locally in the urgent care. You're talking about going out into these probably sometimes remote areas, different side of the world, but not all that different in a way. You're promoting health. You're educating people. That's what physicians do, right? So what would you say is probably the biggest barrier you've encountered with this global health work? With the HPV vaccine, definitely the misinformation that's out there. A lot of people confuse HPV with HIV. A lot of parents were hesitant that their child would get the HPV virus or change their behavior, make them more sexually active. The approach that I found that worked the best was raising awareness and counseling multiple generations. The grandma, the mom, and the daughter. That helped. That worked. That seemed to be working. We went around to 15 villages, and I didn't have one person speak up and say, how dare you even tell us about this vaccine. They listened. I'm like, wow, there's a lack of awareness. More than acceptance, there's a lack of awareness here. Hungry for the truth. Hungry for improving their health overall. With all that being said, your work on the international stage, what do you expect from your work abroad? Is it support? Is it awareness? What would you want our community to know? That's a really good question. I said this before. Every time I go to developing countries like Nigeria and India, it always surprises me. How do we all live on the same planet, but the resources are so limited in some of these countries? I always thought this was an international, a global problem, and not a problem in the U.S., but when I did my training in Arkansas, I happened to find the same hesitancy towards vaccinations. I always tell patients, I never want to force them to get vaccines, but I think we should also try to search ourselves, what's the importance of vaccinations? This is an example that I always give. I've lived with cleaner air, less plastic, cleaner food, but why was the average lifespan of a human only 40 years? What has changed? Now that there is more pollution, there is plastic, there's pesticides in our food, why do we live 30 years longer with that? There's three things that definitely have influenced that longevity. Number one is sanitization, two is antibiotics, Wow, that's a powerful message thinking about those imprints that they've made on just life expectancy. A lot has evolved throughout healthcare in the western side of the world, but with it has brought all those other things that you've talked about with the increased pollution and all of that. I want to hit just a couple of things outside of work. Well, it's part of work. You are a creator of YouTube educational videos and you've been all over the world with some solo trips in Nepal, all of those things, teaching English to remote villages. You are extremely well-rounded, but your platform is education and bringing it from deep in your heart, passion projects. Yeah. We're lucky we're in medicine. We went through the training, but a lot of times when patients don't take medicine or they abruptly stop taking medicine, it's like, where did we go wrong? What's the problem? It's just because they're just not aware. And that's our role as physicians. Well, thank you for being on the show Thank you. Thank you. --- end of transcript ---