Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Around the Bay

Business news from around Tampa Bay

By Times Staff
Published January 7, 2008

St. Petersburg

Evening Pediatrics offers care, averts trips to ER

Comfort and confidence are the aim of Evening Pediatrics, said president Michael Cibran, who is also the business manager of the chain of St. Pete Pediatrics clinics owned by his father, Dr. Mariano Cibran.

The clinic is open from 7 p.m. to midnight on weekdays, and noon to midnight on weekends. It's even open on holidays, Cibran said.

Having seen plenty of late-night calls from worried parents about children who often weren't that ill, the younger Cibran, the father of an 8-month-old, started Evening Pediatrics.

"We're just trying to keep them out of the ER," he said of the clinic that opened in September. "People don't want to wait hours in the emergency room, but you feel guilty if you don't do anything."

Serious cases are still referred to an emergency room because the clinic doesn't have a doctor on site. Evening Pediatrics' seven exam rooms are staffed with medical assistants and pediatric nurse practitioners, who are registered nurses with a master's degree or greater, training in the diagnosis and management of common medical conditions, and the ability to prescribe most medications.

"We know our boundaries," said Natalie Madar, a nurse practitioner who works for Cibran. "But most of what we get here is fairly routine, a lot of earaches and sore throats."

Clearwater

Hotel developer buys Adam's Mark site

A international hotel developer has bought the former Adam's Mark hotel site for about half of what a condo developer paid for the same beachfront property just 21/2 years ago.

Salt Block 57 LLC, which is affiliated with Ocean Properties Ltd., bought the Clearwater Beach property last month from an affiliate of Taylor Woodrow for $17.5-million.

Ocean Properties proposes to build a 230-room hotel and timeshare project on the 2.5-acre site.

That would be a welcome addition to the beach, say city officials who have seen numerous hotel rooms disappear during the condo boom.

"We're pleased," Mayor Frank Hibbard said. "We want somebody who is going to do a straight hotel project."

The project, along with a separate hotel project that Dr. Kiran Patel is exploring, would help create "that critical mass of hotel rooms we need," Hibbard said.

The seller, Taylor Woodrow, took a major hit. In June 2005, the English company paid $31.5-million for the Adam's Mark. It was the second-most-expensive purchase ever on the beach.

Brooksville

Do you need a dentist if you need dentures?

Should denturists, who are trained to fit and make dentures, be allowed to practice in Florida?

It is dentistry's version of the debate about whether midwives should be permitted to deliver babies or paralegals to handle uncontested divorces. It is of concern to the 20-million denture wearers in the country, partly because dentures are rarely covered by insurance.

Dentists say fitting dentures requires medical training, which allows them to recognize and treat diseases. "The safety and welfare of our patients is first and foremost in our minds," said Nolan Allen, a Clearwater dentist and president of the Florida Dental Association. "I'm not just taking an impression of your mouth and slapping some teeth in."

On the other side are denturists such as Joe Coss of Oregon, a spokesman for that state's denturist association. He says trained denturists can do the technical job of fitting dentures as well as dentists - at lower cost.

Dentists send impressions to laboratories, which make the dentures, or outsource the work to factories overseas. Denturists are trained to make the dentures themselves, Vollan said.

[Last modified January 4, 2008, 20:38:14]