A Poignant Wear the White Coat Experience by Diane Nelson, MBA
Although my time with Dr. Eli Pendleton was brief, these are the amazing takeaways from my touching experience:
1. Dr. Pendleton is a hero without a uniform. He is kind, charismatic, casual, comfortable and most importantly, a safe space for all his patients. As he says,“ Life is hard enough.” Dr. Pendleton keeps that in mind and puts the people first with each and every patient he sees, giving them his full attention, grace, patience and understanding.
2. His practice, Baptist Health Primary Care- Deer Park, is unique in clientele and he and his staff let the community know all are welcomed there, with signs of acceptance all around. During my visit he saw everyone from a young child to older adults, all races, gay, heterosexual, transgender, higher income, lower income, East end, South end – whoever needs him, he will see. And he truly sees everyone. He knows his patients. Dr. Pendleton makes no distinction when he talks with them about life, celebrating their successes and empathizing with their struggles. Of the 1,900 clients in his patient panel, about 15 % are trans and they chose him for a good reason. It is evident from the start that he genuinely cares about human beings.
3. Health care is an extremely intractable industry. As Dr. Pendleton said,“ Medicine is easy; it’ s the system that makes it complicated.” He relies heavily on the team around him. Ashley, the practice manager, keeps up with the latest practice rules and regulations so he doesn’ t waste his precious time having to do research.
4. He is also very efficient. There is no time wasted in his full day as he catches up on previous test results, answers emails or text messages, and listens carefully to updates from his extremely capable assistant Caitlin. After each patient visit it is more of the same – computer, phone, consulting and then the next patient. The first break I saw for him is at lunch. Then more of the same.
5. This entire practice also embodies the same values as Dr. Pendleton – caring about the whole person – so much so that they have an onsite Licensed Clinical Social Worker( LCSW) to help clients to mental wellness.
6. Lastly – two insights into provider medical community challenges from Dr. Pendleton:“ We want to, but it’ s hard to care about someone’ s health more than they do.” He also said
they are“ like general mechanics” – they know a little about a lot of different vehicles. They know what they can fix and what they can’ t. They realize their own limitations.
7. I can’ t fathom the weight of this work, because every best educated decision affects a human life. Being the nerd I am, I really enjoyed an insightful discussion we had about P Values, his decision tree on hunting and / or forging tools and his formula U = R x V / W. When you consider the impact of decisions you need accurate research you can rely on, the ability to translate the wealth of medical research with which you are bombarded, the learned reliable sources, the proven verifiable information and knowing where the data originates. Wow!
After this experience, I have learned that the world is a much safer place with me staying away from medicine and sticking with numbers. I am so very, very grateful for this opportunity to see this hero in action and learn from Dr. Pendleton.
Diane Nelson is the Executive Director at VIPS( formerly Visually Impaired Preschool Services) and is a member of the 2025 class of the Wear the White Coat Experience.( non-member)
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