- Target:
- St. Anthony's Medical Center,
- Region:
- United States of America
To the 289 brave souls who signed my petition, I am truly grateful. I know that with the recent changes coming upon SAMC that this may have been difficult for you to do, and I cannot express how much I truly appreciate it. Reading all your comments, kind words, prayers and positive thoughts has been profoundly humbling, and only reinforces why I sent out this petition in the first place.
I believe that when God closes a door, somewhere He opens a window. With the support that I had garnered from this petition, I had initially planned to appeal to SAPO leadership for reinstatement. But after a lot of reflection during this last turbulent week, I have decided not to. One of the most consistent pieces of advice that I have been offered over the past week has been to try to figure out if there may be something that might be better, that might make me and my family happier. Perhaps I keep staring at that closed door for so long, I fail to see the windows open around me. A question I used to get asked quite often was whether I would ever go into practice for myself. Prior to being a hospitalist, I was a PCP, and one of the things I loved about it were the long-term relationships that I was able to establish with my patients. Perhaps I need to draw the curtains back and try again to look out that window.
Most of you who signed the petition are people I have worked with, some still at SAMC and some who have left to pursue other interests. I have loved working with all of you, and I thank God for the opportunity that He gave me to do this. No one knows what the future holds, but I pray that He will give me the chance to do so again in another form or venue. You are all in my prayers and I hope that you will continue to keep me in yours.
My name is Rowena Santos, and I have been a hospitalist at SAMC since 2007. I started with IPC, but in the last 3 1/2 years I have been working under SAPO. During the course of that time I have gotten to know a lot of you at the hospital. Most of you have been on the same team as me, helping take care of the same patients. Some of you I have cared for as patients, and a few have had family members whom I have cared for. Despite it's imperfections, I have learned to love where I work. I come with a ready smile, ready to take care of patients, and I believe many of you who know me know this to be true.
On March 20th, I was called in for a meeting with my program director. He told me that the organization (SAPO) had decided to terminate my contract. Stunned, I asked why? He told me that I had been terminated WITHOUT cause, and thus refused to give me a reason. Understandably, I was devastated. My first concern was whether or not it was because I had unknowingly caused a patient harm. The HR coordinator told me that this was likely not the case, because if there had been patient safety involved, that there would most likely be CAUSE. However WITHOUT CAUSE, this was likely because I was not found to be a good "fit" for SAPO. And yet not once prior to this meeting had I been given warning. Not once had I been reprimanded or recommended to improve myself in anyway. Yet I continued to question myself: did I do any wrong? I can in good conscience say that if I have, I do not know it. But if I did, should I not have been given the chance to defend myself? And if I did do something indefensible, should I not have the chance to learn from this error so I can better myself and not repeat my mistakes? But, just WHAT IF I did not do wrong, why was I let go? These are all questions that I have not been allowed to ask, whose answers I have been denied.
Not having any access to any administrative avenue for appeal, I appeal to you, my colleagues and friends, co-workers, team mates from all departments to help me. I love what I do, and I believe the despite my human failings, I do it well. And I love the place I work, a big reason being the people who I work with, who I consider family, who ultimately have the same goal as me: to help care for patients. I appeal to you to please help me continue do what I love. Please help me come back to SAMC.
WE, the undersigned, respectfully request that Dr. Rowena Santos be considered for reinstatement as a hospitalist at St. Anthony's Medical Center
The Help Me Come Back to SAMC petition to St. Anthony's Medical Center, was written by Rowena Santos and is in the category Employment at GoPetition.