What We’re Usually Up To
We have unique interests within medicine and enjoy different aspects of our careers. Read how we are both committed to teaching and the community.
As a Family Medicine physician, I enjoy working both inside and outside of the hospital with patients of all ages. I have found that taking care of families as a unit instead of separate individuals has made my practice of medicine more rewarding. I particularly love working with parents and infants and am passionate about breastfeeding and giving families the support they need to be successful.
My typical week is spent split between Family and Pediatric Health Center and Paradise Medical Office, both clinics within the county Health Services Agency clinic system. I also teach resident physicians, leading OB lectures and working in labor and delivery and the newborn nursery delivering babies and taking care of them afterwards, in addition to caring for adults admitted to the hospital. I serve as the Family Medicine department chair for Doctors Medical Center in Modesto as well which involves attending some monthly meetings and advocating for change in the hospital setting.
I often visit the hospital and several different clinic settings in one day and like to listen to educational podcasts during my short drives from place to place. I can be found with coffee in hand (always) and odds are high that I was called or paged overnight or spent the night delivering babies instead of sleeping.
RaeLeigh Payanes
I am also a Family Medicine Physician, working in and out of our local hospital at Doctors Medical Center. I take calls for labor and delivery and enjoy hospital medicine rounds teaching residents there. After delivery, mothers and babies will follow up with me in my clinic. Taking care of mother and baby after they’ve been sent home from the hospital instills continuity of care that I deeply value. This allows me to keep taking care of my patients after special milestone in their lives.
My typical week is spent between teaching at Paradise Medical Office and more recently the Modesto Livingston Health Center where I practice full scope Family Medicine. Prior to that, I’ve served 3 memorable years at HSA’s McHenry Medical Office. I have an area of concentration and passion to Women’s Health and contraceptive care because I am passionate about women having access to safe and compassionate care.
A new role I’ve taken on recently is becoming a Core Faculty member for VCME, the residency program I graduated from in 2020, which means I spend some time in meetings and mentoring current residents. My goal with this new role is to enhance their ambulatory clinic experience in a more meaningful way.
Karen Rayos
Get to Know Us
We have taken very different paths to get where we are today. Read about how we got where we are.
I am one of five children and my parents have been married for over 37 years! I am married to my high school sweetheart and mom to four beautiful children. My husband and I met in our small hometown of Ridgecrest, California, home to about 30,000 people. I went to Cal State Channel Islands to study Biology, then graduated from medical school at Ross University School of Medicine. My family has moved with me all over the world in pursuit of my dreams. We moved to Modesto in 2012 for residency and felt right away this was going to be our new home. By the time I graduated from the residency program, we had already bought a home in Modesto and were settling in, making friends, and building our life here.
RaeLeigh Payanes
I am the middle child in my family, one of three children, brought up by a hardworking single mother. I am originally from Long Beach, CA and attended University of California Irvine for undergrad with a major in biology. Then I studied medicine at Santo Tomas Medical School in the Philippines, which allowed me to live near the area my family is from. I later moved to Hawaii and started my residency training there in Hilo and finished my training at Valley Consortium Medical of Education in Modesto. This is where I met my current partner and began to plant my roots here.
Karen Rayos
Getting Ready to Go All In
We’ve been dreaming and making big plans! Read about how and why we decided to make a change for ourselves and for our patients.
We are two passionate Family Medicine doctors aiming to take excellent care for our patients and improve access to care in our community, especially for important aspects of health like contraception and mental health. We are also two tired physicians who often feel overwhelmed and behind in our day to day work, feeling the constant pressures of administrative tasks that interfere with true, meaningful relationships with our patients.
So at the beginning of this year, we took a step back, spent time really thinking about life, and prioritized getting together to chat and to DREAM! The more we met and discussed our frustrations and our hopes, the more excited we became to start this new project. Now we are ready to create a better option for individuals in Modesto who desire a more personal approach to health and we think it will be better for us too.
Follow along on our personal journeys as we seek improved health, life satisfaction, and longevity.