Enclothed Cognition

Fall means many different things to different people, it's when the kids go back to school, college foot kicks off, and the stock market rallies (we all hope), and the waves return to Southern California.  But to medelita - it's medical conference season.  Time to hit the road. This week is no exception; we have two teams going out to two different cities to prophesize the virtues of our medical scrubs and lab coats. We'll be in San Francisco at the California Dental Association Annual Convention, and in Houston at the Texas Nurse Practitioner Conference.  Later this month we’ll be at California Association of Physician Assistants - a huge milestone conference, as this was the first we attended as a new company in 2008.  Our friends Erika and Jim will attend this year, as Lara and I as we will be at Estie's (Lara's sister) wedding.  Essentially everything CAPA attendees had asked for last year - this year we have.  Shorter 34" lab coats (we now have 2 styles), lighter weight fabric (in all 4 lab coat styles), tall and petite length clinician scrub pants (in sizes 0 - 16), and a new color (leaf). We have many more conferences planned for fall 2009, plus a consultation length/student lab coat, two men's lab coats (2 lengths) and a consultation/student length 30" men's lab coat planned for launch in late October. For a complete list of the medelita conference schedule, go to www.medelita.com and click conferneces.  Meeting current customers, colleagues, as well as new customers during conference season is the ultimate joy - seems that everyone that tries on our garments instantly has a big smile.  What a great sense of satisfaction - that we're giving women what they deserve.  Comfortable, flattering, and professional appearing lab coats and scrubs.

So there's talk about new colors of scrubs at www.medelita.com.  What scrub colors do you want to see next?  Definitely let us know your thoughts . . . our clinician scrubs have become more and more popular, and as a result we look forward to expanding our color family.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about this introduction.  The inspiration, the focus, the reigning energy behind www.medelita.com is that we recognize a gender gap in the "medical uniform" industry - specifically for physicians and allied health professionals.  Gender gaps in medicine are a well-known/recognized, often openly discussed and published reality.  So the fact that we introduced properly fitting, feminine yet professional lab coats and scrubs for female clinicians in 2008 - has been something that I'm extremely proud of.  Still shocked at the reality it hadn't been done sooner.  But that aside, I now feel a huge dose of appreciation from those wearing our garments on a daily basis.  The overwhelming amount of personal support and enthusiasm from our customers/colleagues - is quite spectacular. So it's pretty obvious - I'm rather "protective" of this happy family of female clinician customers that we've brought together.  Hesitant to lose our focus, I made the decision to launch the men's lab coats under a different web site.  Soon to be www.medelita-mens.com.  Recognizing the need for both female and male clinicians to wear similar professional garments in the same office/hospital setting - I knew this was an inevitable introduction if we were to be a successful and growing company.  An email I got (just tonight) from a male ED Chair said, "Help!! My colleagues all have lab coats from medelita, and they are awesome, but I need men's. I can't stand these thin, non-cotton coats. I'm willing to pay big bucks." (without edits)  But my focus - my passion - will always be supporting and providing for women in healthcare.

Our first blog contest for an AMEX  or iTunes gift card starts Tuesday, September 22nd for all bloggers.

So I feel pretty lucky.  We cater to a group of women that are strong and vocal - never afraid to share their honest thoughts.  While it's not realistic to please every person all of the time, I can say that our stats are proudly in favor of the happy customer.  And the greatest thing - medelita customers write in almost every day with some sort of  "thank you" or "finally!" email.  Even in the comments section when placing a re-order - no one seems to be holding back.  To be honest - I always get a little nervous, at first to read them.  Probably because I take our quality, customer service, and reputation extremely seriously.  I truly want everyone to be a medelita fan - spreading the word to throughout their hospitals and clinics, and to colleagues they've known and respected for some time.  We're not selling candles or generic cereal . . . we're in the business of providing medical scrubs and lab coats, colleague to colleague, and standing behind our products 100%.  We're different than most companies nowadays.  We're small.  We're good listeners.  We pick up the phone.  We know what our customer needs, and thus it has to be right.  So for a new company, our customers seem to think we're off to a good start.  Here's what Susun, a D.O. (new customer) from Las Vegas wrote to us yesterday (without edits):  "The quality of your scrubs are amazing, top-notch.  Nothing like this on the market.  Thank you and keep up the good work."  Thanks Susun - you made our day.  

Dear Granny - I was going to write you a letter on Sunday, but I was sitting down with a cup of porridge about 8am when I got a call on the radio from the medical assistant . . . "Can you come help me resuscitate this baby . . .” I left my porridge with the cinnamon on top and ran to find the driver to take me to the hospital. 10 hours later when I came home, the porridge was sitting there on the table. Someone thoughtfully put a makeshift lid on it to save it for me. You know what they say about old porridge . . . well . . . maybe no one says anything about day-old porridge, but it's not fit for human consumption. I'm trying to imagine what sort of fantastic African bacteria might grow in a medium of milk/oats at a temperature of about 103F in a span of 10 hours. Not really a good idea to eat it. I was a little bummed because we hadn'’t had oatmeal for weeks. Fred, the logistics supply guy went to Wau this week and found some. Richard, Australian-Who-Lived-In-Antarctica-And-Is-Now-Resident-Fix-Everything-Broken-Guy, makes us porridge on Sundays if we have any, so I felt disappointed at not getting to eat the oatmeal. Eileen, the new OR nurse, dared me to eat it. Even I have my limits. Is that enough about oatmeal? I guess I could tell you about the day that I had, but it was rather depressing. Seemed like every baby I touched, died. They were in bad shape to begin with, but it didn't make me feel good about life/death in general. There was the baby that was 900 grams . . . too small . . . he was tough for a little dude, but that's too small to make it. And the baby that I went to resuscitate - well, I didn't have hopes of arriving in time, but it's horrible to try to resuscitate a baby by yourself . . . I went to be supportive of my medical assistant. That baby couldn't decide if it wanted to live with the humans or not. He would breathe, then stop breathing. His heart seemed strong, but I was worried that he already had brain damage. How do I decide when to give up? When is it better for him? So, he finally decided to try to live and we sent him off to pediatrics to be monitored. His mother had issues, too. She was combative before delivery and went completely nuts after. I've never seen post-partum psychosis, but 10mg of Valium (would have knocked me out completely) didn't touch her. We didn't know what to do and she was escalating to the point where four people had to hold her down and we had to send Abby to the pharmacy to pick up some Haldol (a heavy antipsychotic). Meanwhile, dozens of people came to be seen, I discharged bunches and they still kept coming. The resuscitated baby in pediatrics decided that he didn't want to stay after all and died. His mother's family (all 20 that were there in the ward with their friends and extended family) decided to take her home to let a traditional healer work with her. We weren't seeming to have any progress with our treatment and people have a right to do what they want, so they took her away. I'd be surprised if she is still alive. The malaria cases are getting more frequent. Even Shin our pharmacist caught it. I'd just as soon avoid it, but what more can a person do than wear repellant, take prophylaxis, and sleep with a mosquito net. I think I'll be fine. Well, I must give the computer to someone else, but I thought I'd write you a note. Sorry if it is a bit graphic or makes me sound matter-of-fact about the difficult things that happen here. It helps me to process to write it down sometimes. I'm doing well--all things considered. I'm going to miss this place when I leave. I'm making good friends. -written by Becky Carlton, CNM as a Facebook post May 15th, 2009 (shared with permission). Becky is a (now) friend who reached out to medelita in 2008 for medical uniform donations.  Numerous scrubs and lab coats were sent to her remote location at Gimbie Adventist Hospital in Ethiopia, where she was recently promoted to Nursing Director of the new nursing school.  Becky frequently posts poignant stories - such as this - on Facebook and gave the "ok" for me to share with others who read our blog.  I am moved by her willingness to overcome tremendous obstacles under very challenging circumstances, and yet still find humor/perspective/postivity in all of it in order to maintain her strength and leadership.  You can read more about Becky on the "women in healthcare" page of the www.medelita.com web site.

“We are flattered that our lab coat is worn by Dr. Masterson on the show,” said Medelita Founder Lara Manchik. “Masterson is the epitome of a high achieving female healthcare professional — exactly the person for whom I developed Medelita’s line of high performance lab coats and scrubs. As a doctor, she has experience and qualifications and, as a TV personality, she will be judged equally on presentation and credentials.”

We received our first box of lab coats today for our philanthropic cause, Coats for a Cause.  This is a strong indication of  the desire of the entire medical communities to give back - as the program is only in it's infancy and has not launched.

“National PA Week provides us the perfect opportunity to raise awareness of the central role PAs have in shaping the future of health care in this country, and across the world,” says Medelita founder Lara Manchik, who brings a decade of experience as a PA to her breakthrough line of medical apparel.

We introduced our three new styles of men's lab coats at American College of Gastroenterology conference in San Diego this week to huge fan fair!  The three styles called Osler, Laennec  and Flemming have a significantly more sophisticated,  tailored & professional appearance than the typical ubiquitous men's white coat.  Most, if not all the physicians visiting our booth commented on "what nice fabric it is" and were thoroughly  impressed by the fluid resistant properties, thanks to the Advanced Dual Action Teflon fabric protector stain repel and release technology, allowing most liquids, including blood, to roll right off. However, the style and fit were the impetus for their purchase. One male doc commented that "this is the first men's lab coat he has ever purchased." He then went on to say that he usually buys woman's coats to look more stylish and was thrilled to find such a stylish,well made men's white coat. The conference attendees were especially thrilled to have their name and title embroidered on their new white coats. These three styles will be available for purchase on our site early next month and medelita will follow up with the launch of the new Medeilta Men's site scheduled for November 16th.