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Equal-opportunity pediatrician honored

A Cuban immigrant has a democratic take on health.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published April 15, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Dr. Mariano Cibran knows what it's like to be poor and not have enough money to see a doctor.

"We were Cuban refugees and we didn't have any money, so we've been there," said Cibran, 61, speaking in one of his brightly painted examining rooms.

Those circumstances are so ingrained in his memory that Cibran has made it a policy in his large pediatric practice that no sick child is ever to be turned away because his parents can't pay.

"We don't refuse anybody. We're pediatricians and we fix children," he said of his St. Petersburg Pediatrics practice.

On Friday, the Cuban-born doctor received the first award given by the Pinellas County Health Department director for 30 years of service to the community.

Cibran's practice sees more Medicaid patients than any other pediatrician group in the Tampa Bay area, according to the Health Department. Cibran downplays the distinction, pointing out that he has 20 doctors and nurse practitioners in his eight offices in Pinellas.

Still, it is well known that many doctors balk at accepting Medicaid patients because of low reimbursements and the extensive paperwork associated with the insurance.

It has always been difficult to get pediatricians to participate in the program for poor patients, said Dr. Charles Mahan, dean and professor emeritus at the University of South Florida College of Public Health.

"Pediatricians have very low payment rates. The paperwork for the work they do is stultifying," he said.

Nonetheless, said Mahan, who was director of the Florida Department of Health from 1988 to 1995, "pediatricians have been the best of all specialty groups in taking on their part of the community responsibility."

Cibran, who arrived in the United States in 1961 at age 16, said his late father encouraged him to become a pediatrician. It's the best job a person can have, said Cibran, who studied at Miami Dade Junior College before heading to Spain for the University of Seville College of Medicine. He met his wife, Nata, in Spain and married her six months before returning to the United States.

They moved to St. Petersburg in 1977 with their two young sons, Mariano and Michael. Family and friends thought he was crazy, Cibran joked.

"There are no kids in St. Petersburg," they said of the city once regarded as God's waiting room.

Today Cibran has four offices in St. Petersburg, two in Largo and one each in Pinellas Park and Seminole that offer extended hours for sick children.

Pete Gallagher, a grant writer at the Health Department, has known Cibran for years. Besides taking care of his three children, Cibran took care of Gallagher and his wife.

"He believed that the health of the parents and the health of the children were intertwined and that you can't treat one without treating the other," Gallagher said via e-mail.

"There were many, many times that I found myself in a room full of babies waiting my turn to see Dr. Cibran or his partner Dr. Vidal. Somehow, it made total sense to me to be examined in a room painted with childhood cartoon characters," he said.

When the Health Department decided to introduce a program for new moms, it was Cibran who agreed to host it in one of his offices. The What About Mom? program provides medical and referral services for mothers when they take their babies for pediatric visits.

Fannie Vaughn, a registered nurse with the program at Cibran's Seville Square office in St. Petersburg, helps new mothers with such concerns as birth control, blood pressure screening, weight management and nutrition.

"For the two years the program has been ongoing, he has been totally accommodating," Gallagher said.

What for Cibran may be the highest praise of all comes from his younger son, Michael, St. Petersburg Pediatrics' chief financial officer.

"I'm very proud of him," said Michael Cibran, whose wife, Jenna, will give birth to the pediatrician's first grandchild on April 24.

"I've already got a pediatrician picked out," he said.

Fast Facts:

1. Put your baby to sleep on his or her back in a safe infant crib with a firm mattress.

2. Do not put your baby to sleep in a bed shared with any other person, including yourself, on a couch, sofa, waterbed or any soft mattress.

3. Do not let your baby sleep on soft things like cushions, pillows, blankets, sheepskins or foam pads. Keep your baby's crib free of extra fluffy blankets and stuffed animals.

4. Smoking during pregnancy has been associated with a higher risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Do not smoke near your baby. Do not let others smoke near your baby.

5. Do not let your baby get too hot. Dress your baby in as much or as little as you would wear. Do not wrap your baby in lots of blankets or clothes.

6. If possible, breastfeed. It has been shown to be healthier for your baby and may reduce the risk of SIDS.For more information on What About Mom? contact the program nurse at 727864-5497 or the Pinellas County Health Department at (727) 824-6963 or www.pinellashealth.com.Baby health tips from Dr. Cibran

[Last modified April 14, 2007, 18:41:24]