The idea for Sacramento Medical Oasis, Inc. dates to April 2009, but we shelved the idea for a year. We got serious in April 2010. We tried to get funding in the midst of an economic crisis, and ended up digging into our own pockets instead. We looked for space. And looked. And looked. We finally found something close to what we wanted, but it still took us a few months of hammers, saws, and paintbrushes before we could open our doors. We hired a receptionist and saw our first few patients in October 2010. Our first marketing efforts started in November. We smoothed some rough edges and got our credit card merchant account in December. We spent Christmas worried that we’d starve in 2011. In January, Sonny left for his annual medical mission to an orphanage in Burma. Before he got back you found us.
On February 1st we had our open house, but we were already getting busy. We’re seeing attorneys and the homeless. We’re seeing families and executives. People without insurance and people who have cadillac coverage but who prefer the Oasis. We get referrals from high-end therapists and urgent care doctors and public service agencies and friends of patients. People see our Google ad or run into a flyer at their therapist’s office.
It’s odd how, after all these months of working and fretting, success now seems so sudden. I’m having to make hard decisions about cutting hours at my day jobs. I find that I’m often doing the Oasis infrastructure work in the middle of the night. (It’s a relatively early 8:30 pm and I’m at the office installing a new operating system on a computer at the front desk.) There just aren’t enough hours in the day. When it all seems like too much, though, I find myself face to face with someone who needs what we can give, and I remember why we’re here.
–DrR