Orange Park Acres is home to many wonderful residents, including Dr. Gregg and Mary DeNicola. Here is a piece of their story. 

Dr. DeNicola’s life started out in the Florence neighborhood of Los Angeles. A few years later his family relo-
cated to the city of Covina in the San Gabriel Valley. He would spend the next twenty years enjoying a suburban Covina upbringing alongside his sister. He recalls the good times playing baseball on the sandlot, the years of Catholic school, and striving to get straight A’s because, even then, he knew he wanted to be a Doctor. After high school, Dr. DeNicola pursued his dream in medicine, attending Creighton University for both pre-med and medical school. There he met his wife Mary, a nursing student from Omaha. The two dated and eventually married before moving back to Los Angeles where he would complete hisresidency at UCLA. Following his residency, Dr. DeNicola opened his practice in Yorba Linda. Then, in the early 90’s, the DeNicolas founded Caduceus Medical Group. Together they began the process of building a medical practice while also raising three boys. 

When asked about his dreams, Dr. DeNicola replied, “My goal was to create a large medical group that would
be designed only to treat the patient, regardless of insurance companies and payments. And, of course, to be the starting pitcher for my favorite sports team the Los Angeles Dodgers. One out of two ain’t bad.” As for Mary, her dream was to raise a family and be a great nurse. Having gone on to earn her DNP (Doctor of Nursing Practice), working at Children’s Hospital Orange County as a lactation consultant, and serving as the Dean of the University of Phoenix nursing school before joining the family practice, she has done just that, and much more. By the late 90’s, the family of five was outgrowing their small tract home in Anaheim Hills. They looked for several years for a larger home to accommodate their family; however, none of the homes they found fit their needs. One day as the family was driving around Orange Park Acres, they came across a vacant piece of land at the end of a cul-de-sac with a for sale sign. Excited at the prospect of building their dream home and being able to enjoy a semi-rural lifestyle in the heart of Orange County, they purchased the land and started building. Twenty-five years later, they have their dream home (complete with Koi pond, vegetable garden, orchard, and an Argentine Grill set up) and are proud members of the Orange Park Acres community and wouldn’t live anywhere else. Throughout the years, their practice, Caduceus Medical Group, has grown into the large highly regarded practice that it is today. It is the last physician owned group in Orange County, and their only customers are loyal patients. 

The DeNicola’s story doesn’t end there. In 2018, Dr. DeNicola rejected the idea of slowing down and easing into retirement and instead began a new venture, a chain of small, efficient urgent care offices. At that time, Hoag Medical Group had just shut down their OPA urgent care location in the Pacific Ranch Market shopping center. It was an ideal place to open a new urgent care. He called it PDQ Urgent Care, short for “pretty darn quick”, because as he explains “that was the business plan.” The PDQ Urgent Care being right here in OPA to serve the area is quite special to the DeNicolas. The PDQ has fulfilled the need for a neighborhood family practice and has exceeded all expectations.

In December 2020, Dr. DeNicola contracted COVID pneumonia from a patient and ended up in the Hoag COVID ICU for nine days. While it was touch and go for a few days, it gave the Dr. DeNicola a chance to stop and reflect. In light of that reflection, Dr. DeNicola decided it was best to take a step back and retire from patient care. He says that he now has more time to exercise his role of CEO of PDQ and is excited about the opening of a fifth office in just the last couple of years. Dr. DeNicola promises “our favorite one will always be our first PDQ, right here in OPA.” Today, the DeNicolas are proud parents to their now three adult boys who each have established their own careers. Two have elected to follow in their father’s footsteps as physicians, and one has become a successful chef. When the DeNicolas are not at their office or making new plans for their growing urgent care business, they enjoy spending time gardening, boating, and travel¬ing to see extended family in Europe and Belize. The OPA community is honored to have the DeNicola family and their local PDQ Urgent Care & More office.

The PDQ office is open Monday thru Saturday at 7630 E Chapman Ave. Unit B. Orange, CA https://www.caduceusmedicalgroup.com