Dr. Elisabeth Potter, MD

Dr. Elisabeth Potter, MD Empowering patients with advanced breast reconstruction & aesthetic treatments. DIEP flap specialist.
(22)

https://www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with-a-surgeon-facing-retaliation

06/01/2026

How we do one thing, is how we do everything.

How we tackle healthcare in America is how we do everything.

Healthcare is not separate from who we are as a country. It reflects our values. It reflects what we reward. It reflects who we choose to protect and who we are willing to leave behind.

For too long, we’ve handed over control of healthcare to boardrooms and stock markets when it should be rooted in our clinic rooms, hospital rooms, and homes.

We have to take back control of that and that’s going to require a revolution.

Not a revolution of anger, a revolution of truth. A revolution of healthcare workers speaking honestly about what patients and providers are experiencing. A revolution of doing the right thing, even when it is difficult.

05/29/2026

Some made a withdrawal from my Karma Bank today.

We pour everything into this practice, into our patients, and into our advocacy efforts. Because of that, there are a lot of things at home that end up waiting, including repairs we’ve needed for a long time.

Today, someone came by to help with one of those things and refused to accept payment. They simply said they had seen what we were doing and wanted to help.

This is what I meant when I said there is a different kind of currency in this world. One built on kindness, integrity, service, sacrifice, and showing up for people when no one is watching.

I think sometimes we wonder if any of it matters. If doing the right thing matters. If continuing to care deeply in a system that often makes people cynical matters. It does.

Today felt like a reminder of that and I just want to say thank you.

And maybe this is your reminder too, to make a deposit in someone else’s Karma Bank this week. Big or small. You never know how much someone might need it.

Or tell me in the comments about a moment someone made a withdrawal from yours. I’d love to hear it.

05/27/2026

I was able to fight back against a system that was trying to silence me because I had previously invested in my mental and emotional health.

I am proud that I sought therapy after my medical training, and I hope other healthcare workers will join me in taking care of themselves.

We are trained to push through, to put others first, to normalize suffering in silence. But we have to break that cycle — for ourselves and for the patients who need us whole.

So I want to ask you something…what does it actually mean to take care of yourself in healthcare?

Whether you’re a physician, a nurse, a resident, healthcare worker or someone who loves one — drop your thoughts in the comments. This is a safe space and it starts with one conversation.

Want to take action? Two ways to help — links in bio.
🏥 Fund the Dr. Lorna Breen Act
💙 Send a letter of support via FIGS Advocacy

Healthcare workers are taught to push through. To keep going.
To sacrifice for, “the greater good.”We are conditioned to...
05/26/2026

Healthcare workers are taught to push through. To keep going.
To sacrifice for, “the greater good.”

We are conditioned to believe that caring for patients means abandoning ourselves in the process. But one of the biggest realizations from this week was that speaking up does not make us weak. It does not make us difficult. And it does not mean we care less about patients.

In fact, telling the truth about what we are experiencing is how we make healthcare safer and better for everyone.

I was deeply moved watching my colleagues advocate in DC this week.

Not perform. Not posture. Not try to go viral. Just… tell the truth.

I watched healthcare workers walk into rooms with members of Congress carrying stories that have lived quietly inside of them for years.

Stories about burnout. Unsafe conditions. Moral injury. Mental health. The impossible position so many healthcare workers are put in every single day while they do their best to take care of their patients.

And what impacted me most was watching people realize, sometimes in real time, that their voices mattered in those rooms. That they belonged there and were essential.

This week reminded me how powerful it is when healthcare workers stop carrying these experiences alone and start saying them out loud together.

Watching my colleagues step into that was one of the most hopeful things I’ve experienced in a very long time.

And seeing the impact those honest conversations had on members of Congress made me even more certain, this is how change happens.

05/25/2026

There are 22 million healthcare workers in America.

And I think we just realized how powerful we could become if we stopped letting ourselves stay divided.

Something happened in DC this week that was bigger than politics, bigger than titles, and bigger than any one specialty.

For the first time in a long time, I sat in rooms with nurses, techs, therapists, physicians, and healthcare workers across every part of medicine, and nobody cared what letters were behind our names.

We were united by the same reality: The healthcare system is failing both patients and the people trying to care for them.

For years, healthcare workers have been separated into categories, hierarchies, societies, and specialties. But sitting together this week, it became impossible not to ask the question:

Why have we been kept so separate?

Because divided people are easier to silence and control.

But there are 22 million of us.

Twenty two million people who see what is happening inside hospitals, clinics, operating rooms, and patient rooms every single day.

You can call me whatever you want, but I’m not showing up as “just” a doctor anymore. I’m showing up as a healthcare worker, proud to stand alongside my colleagues at every stage of healthcare.

I’m done asking permission to advocate for patients and for the future of healthcare. We know these problems because we are the ones living them.

And when healthcare workers unite instead of staying divided, we become something incredibly powerful.

Thank you for bringing healthcare workers together in DC this week and helping spark conversations and advocacy that felt bigger than any one title or profession.

This is how we change healthcare.

Together.

05/22/2026

We are changing healthcare. And when you change healthcare, you change the world.

This week on Capitol Hill, I stood alongside healthcare workers, advocates, lawmakers, and organizations who are refusing to accept that burnout, fear, retaliation, and silence are just “part of the job.”

Last year, I spoke up after being pulled out of surgery by an insurance company and pressured to justify care for a patient with breast cancer.

I told the truth about what happened and the system retaliated.

What I expected was conversation. Collaboration. A desire to make things better.

Instead, I was threatened, pressured to stay quiet, and forced to confront just how uncomfortable the healthcare system becomes when healthcare workers speak honestly about what patients and providers are experiencing.

But then something powerful happened.

stepped up for me.

They helped protect my ability to keep speaking, keep advocating, and keep my practice open when things became incredibly difficult. And now, together, we are helping push forward legislation like the SPEAK FREE Act so healthcare workers can speak truthfully about patient safety, workforce safety, and harmful system issues without fear of retaliation.

This week we also advocated for:
• Funding for the Dr. Lorna Breen Act supporting healthcare worker mental health
• The Healthcare is Human Act supporting healthcare workers serving in shortage areas
• A future where healthcare workers are empowered to tell the truth and help fix the systems hurting patients and providers alike

And I want to say this clearly: Healthcare workers speaking honestly about broken systems should never be treated as the problem.

Telling the truth is how we begin fixing what is broken.

Thank you to every healthcare worker who continues showing up. Thank you to every patient who trusted us with their stories. Thank you to everyone who encouraged me to keep speaking this past year. Thank you to for using your platform with integrity and purpose. And thank you to FIGS for not just talking about advocacy, but actively stepping into the arena with us.

05/15/2026

I woke up to a message from New Hampshire. A bill had made it to the state Senate — one that Representative Julie Miles championed after watching me do peer-to-peer calls with insurance reviewers who weren’t qualified to be making decisions about my patients. I’m a surgeon in Texas. I had no idea this had traveled that far.

Between cases at Redbud today, I fired off emails to NH Senate members, logged into a YouTube Live, and watched HB 1554 pass.

Here’s what it does:
✅ Requires peer reviewers to be actual peers — credentialed, named, with their NPI number and specialty certification on the line
✅ Allows physicians to communicate with that peer reviewer at any point in the prior auth process — not just after a denial or on appeal

This is a patient-centered, common-sense reform. And it happened because someone posted something. Told the truth. Did the right thing.

Thank you, Representative Julie Miles and Senator Tim McGough. New Hampshire just set a standard. I hope other states are paying attention.

Get involved. Speak up. You never know what good it might do.

05/14/2026

I met with a young girl and her family today, and what she has been through is simply not fair. She is too young to have faced what she has faced.

There is a part of me that completely understands the urge to just sit in that. To say it’s not fair, over and over, because it isn’t.

But what I watched happen in that room was something else. This family looked at their situation and said, okay. This is what we have. This is what we are working with. And we are going to focus on what we can control.
Something shifts when you are around people like that.

You feel it.

If you are facing something hard right now, there is always a chance. There is always a way to pivot, to change your perspective, to make it your story and not the story of whatever you are up against.

Cheers to that family today. They inspired me more than they know.

05/13/2026

DC, we’re coming for you!

Next week I’m heading to Capitol Hill with for something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. We’ll be meeting with members of Congress to advocate for the people who show up every single day and give everything they have — and trust me, you’re going to want to follow along for this one.

This is about real change: fair pay, mental health support, and protecting healthcare professionals who speak up about the things that matter. Over the next week, I’ll be sharing more about each of the three issues we’re bringing to Congress and why these conversations matter so deeply for the future of healthcare.

And then there’s the Healthcare Is Human Rally — Thursday, May 21st, 9–11am (ET) on Capitol Hill. While the RSVP link has officially closed, we still wanted to bring awareness to this event so people can follow along next week. The rally will also be live streamed, so you’ll still be able to tune in and support from wherever you are.

Whether you work in healthcare or simply believe in taking care of the people who take care of us, this movement matters.

Address

6818 Austin Center Boulevard Suite 204
Austin, TX
78731

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+15128676211

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