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Bill Davis
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 "It's the right thing," Davis (making a house call to Victoria Garibay, with husband Jesus and granddaughter Lupita) says of his practice. Exasperated, Dr. Bill Davis just said not to HMOs, and his small town rallied round
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| Just over a year ago, Bill Davis, M.D., a Country doctor who still made house calls, was ready to quit doctoring to go teach high school science. Simply put, he says, he'd had it with HMOs-the endless paperwork and the constant questioning of his prescribed treatments. He cared about his patients, and he felt right at home in Winters, Calif., the rural Northern California community where he practiced. But he was frustrated as heck and he just couldn't take it anymore. "it was like holding a weight," says Davis, 48. |
"There's a point at which it just drops."
Winters' roughly 5,000 residents, however, weren't going to let Doc Davis bail without a fight. Mayor Torn Stone called a town meeting and, reluctantly, the reticent physician attended, expecting criticism. What He got instead was a barrage of testimonials. "Dr. Davis visited my dad every day until he died last year," said farmer Richard Rubio, 49. "When the doctor told me my father wasn't going to make it, he cried." |
After more tributes, Ernie Gaddini, 58, a farmer still in his work clothes, played the Field of Dreams card: "If we build you an office, will you stay?"
They built it and he stayed, With $50,000 in cash and materials, supplemented by donated services from contractors and electricians, the townsfolk transformed an 800-sq.ft. former shoe-repair shop into the Winters Healthcare Foundation. Open since last October, it doesn't |
| PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID PAUL MORRIS/AURORA | PEOPLE 9/10/01 129 | |