Dr. Lewis Porter has a careful balance to keep in the course of his work at Saline Clinics. On the one hand, as a general and bariatric surgeon, Porter has the day-to-day, “bread and butter” procedures filling his schedule. As director of trauma and a member of the advisory board, meanwhile, he must also step back from time to time to assess the direction of the trauma program and the hospital’s place in the wider Saline County community.
“It’s very important to care for the patients individually, but we also have to try to raise the overall healthiness and health awareness of the entire county,” Porter said. “It’s great to be able to treat people when they’re ill; it’s even more important to try to be able to prevent illnesses, prevent accidents, prevent cancers and things of that sort. I think, really, it’s a holistic approach to caring for the entire community.”
Porter also knows that fundamental to any discussion, whether with community members, patients or even other providers, is trust. That foundation of trust is part of what makes Saline Clinics special, he said. Providers and staff have local roots, giving them a vested interest in providing the best care possible to their own community.
“We’re in a unique situation in that we care for our families and our friends, and who best do you trust to take care of you but your family and your friends?” he said.
In a time when healthcare can often be treated more like a business, Porter said he strives to provide an example — to students who train under him, colleagues, team members and everyone else — of compassionate, person-first healthcare.
“My father once told me something: When it comes to what I do, as far as caring for patients, he said, ‘People don’t really care how much you know until they know how much you care,’” Porter said. “People need to know that you really genuinely care about them overall — their health, the health of their families, things of that sort. I do try to lead by showing that I not only care about the prosperity of the hospital, but I care about the prosperity of my patients.”
Porter has also come to see his role in a new light over the course of his career. As he took on greater responsibilities within the health system, it became apparent to him that he could have an equally significant impact by being a leader as he could seeing individual patients. Helping to establish a bariatrics program, for example, has allowed Saline Clinics to position itself at the forefront of a growing need for weight-loss services, while continued education efforts mean that, in some cases, would-be patients can avoid coming to the hospital in the first place.
“Being able to get out and educate people about accident prevention, or what we do with the blood drive, and how it affects your population where you are — I mean, those are the kind of things that allow the overall general health of a community to improve,” Porter said. “For me, just being a physician caring for patients is great, but now, being a part of a program where I take a leadership role allows me to affect even more patients who never even see me.”
••••••••
Saline Clinics
1 Medical Park Drive, Benton
501.776.6000
Saline Clinics in Benton has grown up quite a bit over 70 years, going from 43 beds to 177 and from 25 employees to more than 850 team members. At the core of it all is a commitment to local, personal community care, and that is what drew Dr. Lewis Porter to the hospital 20 years ago. Since joining Saline Clinics, the Mayo Clinic-trained surgeon has become director of trauma services and splits his time at the hospital’s weight loss clinic. Throughout the health system, staff members work together to take care of their neighbors, families and friends. The hospital’s aim is to make the community healthier through education and by providing the best high-quality health care services at its disposal.
