I read True-Dat's reviews of Riverside County anesthesia groups with great interest. I thank him (or her) for his review.
I figure I'd follow his lead--though I don't worry about being found out, so I'll give you the straight dope without fear. I moved to Southern California late in my career, and couldn't find any reliable info on individual groups. Some sucked in a fashion I wouldn't have believed possible--many of them are still (years later) running the same pleading ads on Gaswork. Anybody with even a whiff of local knowledge knows better than to waste with the bottom two-thirds of these groups. But there are sure to be other outsiders who might find these reviews helpful. This is, obviously, not a complete list. Feel free to add insight about these and other groups.
In general order, starting with the very worst:
IAMG (Grade IV Mets All Over)
These guys suck. They suck. And I mean suck. They aren't exactly a group, but more like a management company for the anesthesia groups at Prime Healthcare facilities, which all criminally suck. In addition to being dishonest and unscrupulous, they also have terrible contracts and no stipends. This is where only unemployable end up. They also recruit via PacificHealthWorks and New Venture, using recruiters that won't tell you unit values or monthly generation. On the (very limited) brightside, I don't think they employ CRNAs.
Orange Coast Anesthesia (Orange County Global Medical Center, and also in Glendale and Victor Valley)
These guys suck even harder than IAMG, but their hospitals aren't quite as awful as Prime Hospitals. The president is an arrogant horse's @$$. He has a fast-talking toadie who is almost as loathsome.
Their pay is almost as bad as Fountain Valley, and yet their ads act like they are a picky group. They are not. They are desperate. Don't bother with them.
They excel in the "Bait and Switch." They run ads for "great location outside LA" or "Southwest OC," utilizing at least three different accounts on Gaswork. They will even invite you to an interview at their "flagship" hospital, Orange County Global Medical Center, even though the job they have been trying to fill for at least the last two years is outside of Victorville. In their ads they claim to be the premiere private practice group in Orange County. That is not possibly the case, though it does tell me that they are only trying to recruit people who are moving to Southern California without knowing anybody or anything. Do not be fooled.
May, 2020 Edit: Orange Coast Anesthesia is a different (and worse) group than the group which works at Orange Coast MemorialCare Medical Center. Elsewhere you will read that the group that works at Orange Coast MemorialCare is a decent group. I don't doubt it.
Century Anesthesia Medical Group (Encino, Glendale, Little Armenia)
This isn't a group. It's one guy (an unimpressive DO) who has a patchwork of shi++y contracts to cover shi++y extra rooms in and around Encino and Glendale. Don't waste your time. He cuts a huge management fee off the top of what are shi++y days with shi++y payors.
Envision (Grade IV Mets All Over)
Or Emcare. Or Sheridan. Or TIVA. Or Vista. Or whatever they will call themselves tomorrow. I give this outfit maybe five more years. They are continually on the run from their terrible reputation, as they shuffle their terrible hacks from one dismal failure of an anesthetic department to the next, like desperate dioceses trying to trade away their hot potato pedophiles. There are undoubtedly some decent (maybe even honest) schmucks caught up in the middle of their little shell game, but there's no way to overcome the corporate greed, incompetence, and inefficiency.
Bay City Pain (Beverly Hills)
Cobbled together from some of the more business-savvy remnants of Cedar, these guys seem smart enough to realize there are some incredibly unsophisticated anesthesiologists hungry for work who will agree to work for $28/unit. If somehow you can make ends meet for $28/unit, working for these guys may be less bad than working for St. Vincent.
Fountain Valley (aka PCAMG aka FVAMA aka Premiercare) Fountain Valley Regional Hospital
The worst pay in all of Orange County--if not North America--is Fountain Valley. They were friendly enough and seemed to be busy enough, but their blended unit was between Medicaid and Medicare rates--$18 or $19, as though that difference even matters. There is no reason to think they are shady or dishonest, just working with a disadvantaged payor mix. A simple Google search proves they operate under three different business names, which is, umm, odd.
St. Vincent Anesthesia Medical Group (San Gabriel/Coast Plaza/East LA...maybe others)
Honest and to the point. Transparent, but hardly stable. They seem to be where lots of young graduates start before they get called up to Kaiser. Recently lost one of their bigger (and better) hospitals--Lakewood--to Envision. They offer new hires $27/unit. I didn't bother asking what they pay partners, because $27/unit didn't interest me. YMMV.
May 2020 update: They are out of business.
Allied Anesthesia (Fullerton, Irvine, Upland, San Antonio, Apple Valley, Victorville)
Not exactly one "group," these guys have better hospitals and worse hospitals. Their flagship hospital is St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, though most of those guys also cover St. Jude's in Fullerton (and one spot in a not-quite-a-hospital in Placentia); and their network extends into Pomona, Apple Valley, and Upland. The group has a bias against CRNAs and AMCs, which makes them attractive (to me, anyway). However, they are suffering from growing pains as the better hospitals are tired of keeping the worse hospitals afloat. "Growing pains," of course, is a good problem to have. Unfortunately, their growth over the last few years has been into hospitals (more call, more Medicaid) and away from surgical centers (stable, privately insured cases M-F).
Almost every anesthesiologist (or surgeon) you will meet in Orange County has a horror story to tell about Allied. It might just be their size, of course.
Verduga Hills Anesthesia Group (VHAG)
Cool little hospital in a cool little setting with super nice anesthesiologists, but below average caseload/unit value in a hospital with an unsure future. A recent branding arrangement with Keck has kept the hospital from being purchased by bottom-feeding Prem Reddy, but you should know that when Prem Reddy is a possible suitor, things are bad.
Landmark (St. Francis, DTLA)
Upfront. Honest. Busy. Disadvantaged patient population. Hospital was recently sold, is currently bankrupt, and has just sold again, this time to KPC. I am speculating here, but I bet that Orange Coast (who serves other KPC hospitals) is going to try to absorb Landmark. If so, that's a hard pass. If Landmark is able to stay independent (a big IF) and negotiate a generous stipend from the new owners (an even bigger IF), it might be worth a look, but I would not hold my breath.
City of Hope (Duarte)
The president of this group had to step down for billing fraud. If that's the extent of the damage, the remaining corps might survive as an above-average group. As of this writing, it's too early to tell. Nobody needs to think that only the president was committing fraud, after all. City of Hope is unusual in that anesthesiologists are invited to join the City of Hope Medical Foundation.
Baldwin Park SCPMG (Kaiser)
Only on this because they are a physician-only anesthesia department, which is unique for a Kaiser Permanente Hospital. Other than that, I know nothing. I've met a handful of their stringers, who seem to think it is the best Kaiser has to offer. More than one has expressed to me that they prefer hiring females who have no aspirations to be anything other than per diem workers. They hire exclusively through a 6+ year per diem track. They pay their per diem workers only $150/hr.
Samaritan Anesthesia Medical Group (DTLA)
Busy. By no means a racially diverse group. I'm not saying that the group actively discriminates against Indians and Europeans, just that the group is homogenous. Good Samaritan is an older hospital in downtown LA that gets a wide range of patients from all over the globe--plenty of uninsured/indigent, a few cash-paying millionaires from the far East, and an occasional near-celebrity. They also have a sparkling new outpatient surgical center. I heard--but can't confirm--that they recently added independent CRNAs. Take that for what you will. I think they are a training hospital for surgical specialties. (That should be easy to confirm, if it matters to anybody.)
Buena Vista Anesthesia Medical Group BVAMG (Holy Cross Burbank, Holy Cross Valencia)
This seems to be the place to go if you are Eastern European. Transparent. Collegial. Equal access to cases. They cover two hospitals. Five year partnership track. Blended units that bump up once or twice in value before partnership. Weekend and evening units pay a premium versus weekday units.
Bayside Anesthesia Medical Group BAMG (Providence St. John's Santa Monica)
The partners here have it pretty sweet because they are skimming plenty from the non-partners. They recruit via a 3-year 1099 pre-employee track, then still another two years as employee (what they call "junior partner") before partnership. The group must be desirable to make those kinds of demands. I wasn't going to slum for five years enriching older partners at this point in my career, but I know you could do much worse right out of training. They pay more per hour than Kaiser, but when the hourly rate didn't start with a "2," I lost interest. Again, if I were just out of training and had to look for jobs from Gaswork, this would be on the short list.
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