When Dr. Lenore DePagter first moved to San Marcos, Texas, she didn’t know much about the local medical society. But after calling around to find out where and when they met, she went to her first meeting.
When she arrived, she discovered what she describes as “a small group of very active, hard-working physicians, who had been in practice for 25 – 30 years and who had a lot to share with new physicians.”
“They welcomed me with open arms,” she says. “They were really great. My first or second meeting there I stood up and said, ‘I’d like to run for something.’”
Since that first meeting, she’s served as the Tri-County Medical Society’s secretary, treasurer, and a delegate to the Texas Medical Association (TMA). She has also initiated projects like developing the Tri-County Medical Society’s website, Facebook page, and Twitter feed. This year she worked to help pass the medical society’s new constitution and by-laws.
“The old by-laws were 20 years old and really outdated,” says Dr. DePagter.
To say that Dr. DePagter is an advocate of organized medicine is an understatement.
Not only has she been involved with the Tri-County Medical Society for the past four years, she’s also been an active member of TMA since she was a medical student. As a member of TMA, she has been an alternate delegate to the AMA, served on TMA’s Committee on Physician Distribution and Health Care Access, acts as Chair-Elect for the Young Physicians Section, and was Chair of the Credentials Committee for the 2010 House of Delegates.
This is in addition to her full-time job as Chief Medical Officer of the Texas State University Student Health Clinic, mentoring Texas State University students, and parenting 2-year-old twins.
Returning to her alma mater
Dr. DePagter wasn’t always that driven and focused. When she first started college, at Texas State University, she thought she might major in music, but she didn’t really have a plan.
During Christmas break that year, everything changed. Her father, still in his 50s, suffered a heart attack and had open-heart surgery. “I was impressed by the surgeon and the staff who took care of him,” she says. “So I went back to school in January, walked straight to the pre-med advisor’s office, and changed my major to pre-med.”
Thankfully, her father fully recovered from his heart attack and surgery.
After medical school at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, she completed her residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at Scott & White Memorial Hospital.
She worked in a private medical practice in Cedar Park for a year, and then at a community health center in South Austin for four years, before she landed her current job at the Student Health Center at Texas State University, her alma mater. The university, located in San Marcos, was an ideal location for her husband to commute to law school in nearby San Antonio.
Dr. DePagter has been at the clinic since 2006, and was recently promoted to Chief Medical Officer, supervising clinical staff, and laboratory and radiology services.
She likes working with college-age students — and it’s a good thing, because her clinic sees about 14,000 distinct patients (30,000 appointments) a year. She manages three other physicians and five nurse practitioners.
“It’s very rewarding because I’m very interested in this population, and I am also an alum of this school. I graduated in 1994, but I can still relate to campus culture and their experiences. Plus, the students are very motivated and educated. You can discuss what’s going on medically with them and they’ll understand and even go research it.”
A community of physicians
Dr. DePagter feels her involvement with TMA and the Tri-County Medical Society has helped her succeed in her career.
“People ask me, ‘Well, you don’t get paid for it, why do you go?’ But I get a lot out of it — like educational opportunities, networking opportunities, and also I just get to meet with really great people.”
Recently, she was able to draw on her contacts through TMA and the Tri-County Medical Society when she needed help getting on insurance plans. “I had a lot of questions about different networks, credentialing, and signing up on different insurance policies. So I was able to get a list of members and call them. I talked to 10 different doctors about their experiences with credentialing. So that was valuable to me.”
While she realizes that young physicians face obstacles, like long work hours, family obligations, and costs, she still thinks they are missing out if they don’t get involved in organized medicine.
“Medical societies have a lot to offer young physicians,” she says. “Attending meetings is a nice break from strictly doing clinical work all day. I like being able to go to conferences and see people who I’ve known for 15 years — we have a really strong community of physicians.”
She says her most important advice for other young physicians is to stay active in their community and not to become isolated. “Join a medical society. Go to meetings. Help organize something. And don’t be afraid to become active and do whatever you can.”