Mini Profile: Richard Isaacs, MD

Rich Isaacs
Head and Neck Surgery and Administration
Physician-in-Chief and Chief-of-Staff
Kaiser Permanente


Professional Bio

Richard S. Isaacs, MD, FACS serves as the Physician-in-Chief and Chief-of-Staff for the Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center and the Elk Grove Outpatient Medical Facilities. In these roles, he is responsible for all clinical operations throughout the inpatient and outpatient arenas. He provides leadership for the 350 physicians and more than 2000 nurses and staff who care for the 195,000 Kaiser Permanente members in the southern Sacramento area. In his current role, Rich is responsible for all clinical, quality, and health promotional activities. Previously, he served as the Northern California Kaiser Permanente Chair of the Regional Chiefs’ Group for Head and Neck Surgery and also Chief of the Department of Head and Neck Surgery for South Sacramento. Rich joined Kaiser Permanente following the completion of his surgical training in 1995.  He is Board Certified in Otolaryngology and has Advanced Certification in Head and Neck Oncologic Surgery.

Rich received his Bachelor of Science degree, with Distinction, from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and his Doctor of Medicine degree, with Honors, from Wayne State University in Detroit.  He completed his Otolaryngology training in New York at the Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital / New York Hospital-Cornell Medical College.  Subsequently, he received his Head and Neck Oncologic and Skull Base Surgical training from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and The University of California, Davis.  Rich is also a 2004 graduate of the Kenan-Flagler School of Business Advanced Leadership Program, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

His specialties include: orbital, nasal, and maxillofacial surgery, as well as thyroid and parathyroid surgery. Rich remains very active in clinical practice and he functions as a regional resource for the management of advanced tumors of the head and neck and he provides the otolaryngologic approach for tumors at the skull base.   Additionally, he is trained in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive surgery and he has interest in post-tumor facial reconstruction and facial reanimation surgery. Rich is a Fellow of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

The Head and Neck Surgery Department of Kaiser Permanente, South Sacramento, is an affiliated institution of the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine and its Otolaryngology Residency Program.  Rich is actively involved in medical education and, for the past ten years, has served as the Director of the Otolaryngology Residency Journal Club.  He has published several articles in national publications and serves as a Clinical Professor of Otolaryngology at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine.  Rich has been a Long-Term Director of The Permanente Medical Group Board of Directors, Since April, 2005.


Honors and Awards:

1) American Academy of Otolaryngology Presidential Award for scientific work on Skull Base Surgical Approaches to Distal Carotid Artery Aneurisms, and
2) Chosen as one of the top Otolaryngologists in Northern California by Sacramento Magazine and by the American Consumer Reports survey of American Physicians.