Vital Times 2019 - 87

Regional Medical Center to Envision by HCA, the
remaining Good Sam anesthesia department called an
emergency meeting. Envision had already signed and
assumed the contract and had contacted many of us about
staying on Good Sam and Regional medical staffs in a
few short months of the transition between Vituity and
Envision. Signed, sealed, and delivered. What next?
In a dark, mobile modular meeting room, with vinyl card
tables under the fluorescent light bulbs, we all sat glum,
quiet, and dejected. We were defeated. Vituity had been
rejected by HCA, successfully bid out by Envision. The
giant battleship Vituity had been sunk and we would all
soon be scrambling for career lifeboats. It was incongruous
to many of us; for years the Good Samaritan Anesthesia
Department had been ranked the highest by both the
hospital and medical staff. Now our practice had been sold
out from under us. We had joined Vituity purposefully to
avoid this moment. How did this happen?
As we sat in that room, we were defeated. We all chatted,
as word of the Envision contract had spread through the
anesthesia community, many of us had started to receive
other offers of opportunities from throughout the Bay
Area. Anesthesia jobs were everywhere.
"Show of hands, how many of us", asked the meeting
organizer, Dr. Henry Kamali - there was fire in his voice
- "have been contacted by Envision about a Good Sam or
Regional position?" Most of the hands went up, quietly.
"How many of us have been contacted by another group
about another position outside of Good Sam?" All of the
hands went up this time.
"How many of us want to stay right here and practice
together as a group?" What, were we hearing this right?
******
My mind wandered to a different time and to a different
place for an entirely different reason a few months
earlier. An outspoken critic of the Vituity partnership
from the beginning, Henry had never quite fit in to the
Vituity model, and largely had stayed out of the Vituity

management. As Good Samaritan surgical medical
director, he had watched with dismay as increasing efforts
by Vituity to clinically integrate with Regional Medical
Center had left the old GAS partnership increasingly
without say in our local practice and financially exposed.
Largely, he had kept those thoughts to himself.
Henry and I go back to UCSF residency training together
and, though not the best of friends, we have always been
able to communicate together openly, largely because we
saw the world through the same lenses. The child of hardworking immigrant parents, Henry always felt everything
had to be earned, not given. If you wanted something,
you would have to work for it and possibly fight for it. A
natural leader, from the school of hard work, Henry always
gravitated to medical leadership positions, wherever he
could shape things with his own hands and mind.
Henry and I had, these past several years, shared a different
bond; we had both suffered catastrophic illness in our
families. In this way we were bonded like brothers. We
would get together sometimes just a few minutes in the
halls or his office at Good Sam to hug and to make sure
we were okay. Two grown men in blue OR scrubs hugging
each other in the OR hallways in-between surgery. Yeah we
did that.
I had made a social call, a get-together at a local Los Gatos
bar, Vivas, which was a short walk from Henry's house.
As we sat at the bar, over beers, we mixed with the local
neighbors, caught up about our families, and talked about
how much we loved our children and how difficult it
was to protect them from the death and illness that had
threatened and disrupted their lives. Bitter medicine at
times, but truly a heartfelt conversation.
Our conversation briefly drifted to work and Vituity's
difficulty negotiating a contract with HCA. "I don't have
a good feeling about it", confided Henry. "Give Vituity
a chance; they have experience with this", I offered with
cautious reassurance.
Henry just chuckled, I was always the optimist with
Vituity, a Vituity apologist I'm sure to many in my group.

Annual Publication 2019 | 87

Vital Times 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vital Times 2019