You can’t get far in medical circles in Helena\West Helena without running into a Dr. Pillow. That is because there five of them in the community: Gill Pillow, MD, and Ned Pillow, MD, dual certified in internal medicine and pediatrics, are in practice with their brother Jim Pillow, MD, who is a general practitioner. Ned’s wife, Jill Pillow, MD, is a pediatrician and Gill’s wife, Jessica Pillow, MD, is a dermatologist.

What is it like having three brothers practicing together in the same office?

“It is actually pretty neat because we get along,” Jim Pillow said. “We own and manage the clinic, so we get to make the business decisions ourselves. It is majority rules. I don’t think we have had any discord ever. I couldn’t imagine having it any other way. We have talked about bringing in another partner at times. But we decided, no, we want to keep it the way it is. As long as we get along, it works pretty well. Plus I’m the oldest and what I say goes.”

The Pillow brothers took advantage of the Community Match program that pays medical school tuition for physicians who agree to practice in an underserved rural community for at least three years.

“That is great,” Jim said. “We wanted to come back here anyhow. And it is great that not just the three brothers, but also our three wives wanted to live here. I told my wife, Brooke, that if after the three years was up, she didn’t want to stay, I wouldn’t tether her to this place. But after that time, Brooke said, ‘This feels like home. I’m happy here.’ And now we have been here 12 or 13 years.”

It makes for interesting conversations around the dinner table. But Jim said they actually avoid shop talk during family gatherings.

“We have Sunday dinners together,” Jim said. “We share as a family. The kids all get along. It makes it fun to be here.”

The biggest challenge is the work load. They are often double booked.

“It is bearable, but difficult,” Jim said. “I was here at six yesterday morning and went home at 7 p.m. and was still not done with charts. One day a week is like that. With Electronic Medical Records, it is slow, slow, slow. It is hard to see the volume we see and chart like we have to. It requires a lot of take home work at times.”

Another difficulty is that they have a lot of complicated patients who need to be seen by a specialist quickly. But it can take two to six months to get appointments in Little Rock, which is the primary place for patient referrals.

The three brothers grew up on a farm. Their father was a farmer and their mother was a schoolteacher.

“We had an uncle and a great uncle who were family physicians growing up,” said Gill Pillow. “Our oldest brother, Jim, had always intended to either farm or become a doctor and I believe Ned, the youngest, intended to go into medicine early on. I had planned on being a veterinarian until late into college and then switched my major to pre-med/microbiology. Jim and I entered medical school at UAMS at the same time and were in the same class throughout medical school. Ned and his wife, Jill, were medical school classmates several years behind us.”

People are frequently confused as to which brother is which, even though they look nothing alike. They've gotten used to being accidentally called or paged by hospitals or other clinics. Five physicians with the same last name in town makes it very confusing for everyone.

But the family finds harmony in sharing the work that is critical to so many patients in the area.

“We work very well together as a team,” Gill said. “We all get along well, and share the same work ethic, morals and philosophy on life in general. Working with family makes it easier to ask one another for medical advice in the clinic, bounce ideas off each other and get a quick curbside opinion about a patient. We fill in for each other on days off and vacations, think similarly, and share similar medical training, so we can easily take over for one another when necessary.”

Gill said they all decided to come back to Phillips County for different reasons. He came back because he loves the atmosphere of the Delta area, the open farmland and the setting of a small town environment. He would have gravitated to a similar setting had he not come back to Helena, but it's been nice to come back to where he grew up as a child.

Gill said there are a lot of things that make work rewarding for him: the cohesiveness of their clinic staff, seeing patients around town and saying hello, taking care of the families of people that he grew up with, and working with his family every day.

The Pillow family has been in this area of Arkansas since the late 1880s, but most had moved off until the Pillow doctors returned after medical school. Jim and Brooke have four children, Gill and Jessica have one child and Ned and Jill have three. With eight children between them, it seems assured that the Pillows will be a leaving quite a legacy in Helena\West Helena both with their offspring and the thousands of patients who have received the healthcare they need.