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“Come in,” he called out.
I pushed open the door, and he glanced up at me. “Dr. Brennan, surprised to see you in here on your day off.”
“I hoped you had a few minutes.”
“I do, and it’s fortunate you came in as I have some news.”
I took a seat in the chair across from him. “All right?”
“I’m looking to bring on two new doctors into the practice. Home-visit oriented.”
I could hardly contain my excitement. “Wonderful news. When are the interviews?”
He gripped the back of his neck. “Here’s the thing. It’s more of a partnership, if you will. There’s a small group who is already established in doing home health care, and they have a great patient base in the entertainment industry. We’ll take in the two doctors to start, but over the next year we hope to bring on the entire practice of four doctors.”
“A partnership?”
“Yeah. Dr. Redmond leads a practice in Burbank, and he’s looking to merge. This satisfies the both of us in growing our combined business to a hybrid model of home and in-office care.”
I could hardly swallow past the lump in my throat. Instead of me growing the model and ultimately leading it, I was being squeezed out. He beat me to my question.
“As far as where you fit in, you’re a top-performing doctor, and I’ve already told Dr. Redmond all about you and how passionate you are about in-home health care. Understandably, your patient profile might shift—”
“Shift how? I’ve worked hard to build up an incredible portfolio.”
“Come on, Lucas. Your book of business is aging out. A lot of them want to use insurance whereas Dr. Redmond’s clientele are young, they pay cash—triple what we charge—and they can spread the word while they’re on the red carpets. Hell, Redmond traveled to the set of a movie last month to provide medical services. Private jet and everything.”
“Is that all this is to you? Dollar signs and private jets?” I kept my voice low despite my rising temper.
He visibly turned red. “I knew you’d be upset. But you need to remember, at the end of the day, this is business.”
But it wasn’t just business to me. “I thought I was working toward leading this model and building it out.”
“But why build it when we can merge with an established business?”
Yeah, established in all the ways that didn’t interest me. I didn’t want to cater only to those who had recognizable names in the movie industry.
“I recognize this has been sprung on you, and I apologize. We finalized details on Friday and I had every intention of telling you about it first thing this week. The bottom line is you’ll continue to do house calls, Meredith will continue to be hybrid, and hell, we might even fit Dr. Morrison in as hybrid, too, if she agrees to come on. Would especially be good if we get some pregnant actresses or singers to have two OBs doing house calls.”
I was reeling from the unexpected news, so it took a moment for his last words to sink in. “What about Brooke?”
“I offered for her to stay on. Of course, she has the interview today up in San Fran, and might go that direction, but I let her know we’d like to hire her on as a third obstetrician.”
What the hell? Brooke could be staying?
