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If your child happens to be one of the 30,000 patients of Pediatric Associates of Savannah PC, you don’t have to worry about accessing care on weekends, holidays or even St. Patrick’s Day. On days when most physician offices are closed, Pediatric Associates is open, and patient access doesn’t stop with traditional office hours.
Because the 10 physicians in the group understand that “kids get sick every day,” their practice is designed to provide quality pediatric health care 365 days a year, 24/7 from their offices in Savannah, Pooler and Wilmington Island.
Pediatric Associates was formed in 1951 with three doctors who shared calls. Two of them, Gustave Kreh and Joseph Morrison are still with the group.
“I was in pediatrics when they used stone tablets,” Kreh said. “They call me Moses for short.”
The practice was incorporated in 1971 and now has 10 physician partners who are all parents. All of them are board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics, Fellows of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Assistant Clinical Professors at Mercer University School of Medicine.
The practice has more than 50 staff members, including certified RNs, LPNs, medical office assistants, medical billing coders and administrative staff. The practice does not have any nurse practitioners, nurse assistants or other extenders.
“If you come in here to see a doctor, you see a doctor,” said Dr. Ben Spitalnick, who became the managing partner for the group last year after earning a master’s degree in business administration from Auburn University in 2010.
“It’s nice, and it’s unusual,” said Dr. Ben — that’s what he’s called. “We could … bring in nurse practitioners and have them see the bulk of patients, but we don’t want to do it that way. We find we can still manage with 10 of us, and a lot of parents want to see a doctor.”
The two satellite offices are open five days a week, and the Savannah office is open seven days.
“On weekends and holidays, we get here (Savannah office) around 8:30 a.m. and stay until around noon,” said Dr. Ben. “If we see a small handful of kids that would have ended up in the ER … it gives them a much more appropriate level of service than having to go to the ER for something that is not an emergency.”
All the doctors rotate, spending some time in the Savannah office and some in the other two offices. Each doctor works four and one-half days a week and about one weekend a month. In addition, they rotate late calls and check on patients before office hours at Memorial and St. Joseph Candler Hospitals.
“We enjoy what we do,” said Dr. Ben, “and there are enough of us to share.”
Dr. Ben grew up in Cobb County and went to the University of Georgia on a music scholarship but switched to psychology.
During his psychology rotations, he decided he would be better at it if he could prescribe medications, so he decided to go to medical school. He got his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Georgia and his M.D. from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta in 1997.
He originally chose family practice but changed course during his first round of family practice rotations after another doctor noticed that Dr. Ben spent more time with child patients than with adults.
When the doctor asked why, he said, “…well, it’s more fun.” The doctor told him, “That’s called pediatrics, and you can do it all day long if you want to.”
So Dr. Ben switched to pediatrics.
“And I’ve been happy ever since,” he said.
He finished his residency in Savannah and joined Pediatric Associates in 2000.
“In some of the bigger cities, like Atlanta … pediatricians practice a very basic level of care and then turn everything else to specialists,” said Dr. Ben. “Here, pediatricians can have a much higher, more complete level of care because of access. Part of it is sub-specialization; the other is size. Savannah is big enough to have enough subspecialist resources when it’s needed, but small enough that a doctor can still manage hospital and office in the same day.
“Pretty perfect.”
All of Pediatric Associates’ doctors practice general pediatrics, and some have a particular patient focus.
Dr. J. Steven Hobby has an interest in international adoptions.
Dr. Michael DeMauro, the father of triplets, has an interest in multiples and is active in the Coastal Parents of Multiples Club.
Dr. Ben has developed a special interest in patients with Down’s syndrome.
“When I first started practice, I happened to stumble upon a small cluster of kids that had Down’s syndrome,” he said. “There wasn’t any coordinated care of support groups for them.”
To help families communicate with each other, Dr. Ben started a support group that met in their office waiting room. After a couple of years the group mobilized and has become a large chapter of the National Down’s Syndrome Society. They sponsor Buddy Walk and the annual “Night of Champions” award dinner honoring adults with Down’s syndrome in the workplace and their employers.
Pediatric Associates’ on-site lab can run virtually any test a child might need, return test results within 15 minutes and collect specimens that need to be sent out. Their electronic records system meets national standards and provides physicians 24/7 secure online access to patient medical records from a computer, iPad or Smartphone.
Dr. Ben said one of the biggest principles of pediatrics is vaccinations.
“Pediatricians believe that vaccination is one of the most important ways to prevent disease and promote healthy children,” he said.
The Georgia State Department of Health tracks local and statewide vaccination efforts. Based on recent criteria, their practice size and a 95 percent vaccination rate, Pediatric Associates of Savannah was awarded the 2012 Walt Orenstein Champions for Immunization Award, which recognizes exceptional effort in immunization quality and standards.
Across the state of Georgia, immunization rate for comparable practices are less than 70 percent.
“We are extremely proud of this,” said Dr. Ben. “Not because of the award, but because, a) we are providing vaccinations and, b) this place, as a business, is running properly. You can’t get vaccination rates this high unless the phone room staff make the appointments, the billing staff checks insurance coverage so patients can get vaccinations that day, inventory staff checks inventory so vaccines are available, and nurses scan charts to see if vaccinations are up-to-date so we don’t miss an opportunity to catch up when a patient is in the office.”
Asked what makes the practice work so well, Dr. Ben said it’s a belief the patient comes first.
“I’m a happy guy,” said Dr. Ben. “I like what I do, I like who I work with, I like where I am. Life is good.”
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Dr. Ben Spitalnick, MD, MBA, FAAP
Pediatric Associates of Savannah PC
912-355-2462 (office)
4600 Waters Avenue, Suite 100
Savannah, GA 31404-6273