New Pediatric Group Office Opens In Newtown

By Kaaren Valenta

Sitting happily in a twin stroller, 16-month-old Nicholas and Joshua Harper chugged on their bottles and watched older brother Jacob, 3, point out the tropical fish in the large aquarium in their pediatrician’s office.

It was Monday afternoon in the Newtown-Monroe Pediatric Group office at 25 Church Hill Road. The children’s mother, Sylvia Harper, and grandmother, Maria Degirolamo, had brought them for a well-child visit with Peter J. McLoughlin, MD.

The Newtown-Monroe Pediatric Group opened the office, its third, in Newtown on April 30. Before that, Mrs Harper, a Newtown resident, had been taking her children to see Dr McLoughlin and his associates at their Monroe office.

“We’ve been coming since Jacob was born three years ago,” Mrs Harper explained.

Thousands of children have seen Dr McLoughlin since he started in practice 37 years ago in Bridgeport.

A native of upstate New York who did his training in Albany, Dr McLoughlin first went into practice in 1964 with an established pediatrician, Dr Tom Birney, now long retired. A few years later he was joined by Juan M. Hernandez-Trujillo, MD, a Cuban doctor who trained at Bridgeport Hospital. In 1976, they opened an office in Monroe to serve infants, children, and adolescents to age 18.

“Monroe was just a quiet farming community, not unlike Newtown, when we opened there,” Dr McLaughlin said. So when the pediatricians decided to expand their practice again, it seemed logical to find a site in Newtown.

“We looked around in the county and Newtown was the one community that showed that it was really growing,” Dr McLaughlin said. “There are a great many children in the area. I sense that Newtown encourages families with children. Newtown certainly wants to build schools, unlike many of the other communities. And we felt we could establish an office without hurting any of the practices already here.”

Also in the group are Pedro J. Malave, MD, a native of Puerto Rico; Maria L. Ferreira, MD, who came from Portugal; Mary J.B. Paramanathan, MD, from Sri Lanka; and Jason M. Citarella, a doctor of osteopathy, who grew up in Fairfield. All are pediatric general practitioners who did their training at Bridgeport Hospital.

“The advantage of this is that during a physician’s three years of residency, you can really get to know them, know their expertise, see how they treat patients,” Dr McLoughlin explained. “You know whether you want them to join your practice.”

Also in the practice are two advanced practice nurse practitioners (APRN), Renee Powell, and, as of August 1, Dr McLoughlin’s daughter, Sarah Donohue.

“I have five children and none of them were interested in medicine,” Dr McLoughlin said. “Sarah graduated from Boston College with a degree in communications, started at a public television station and hated it. So after working in our office for two years, she was accepted into the three-year program at Yale, where she earned an RN [registered nurse] in two years, and then became a nurse practitioner after the third year. Renee Powell also graduated from Yale. It’s a very competitive program.”

The nurse practitioner and the practice’s four nurses work in the other offices, but these will be added to the Newtown practice as it adds more patients.

All the physicians are on staff at Bridgeport Hospital and St Vincent’s Medical Center. As the Newtown office grows, they intend to eventually affiliate with Danbury Hospital. In the meantime, if their patients opt to go to Danbury Hospital, they are cared for there by Dr Gregory G. Dworkin, chief of pediatric pulmonology, or neonatologists Edward K. James, MD, and Eitan S. Kilchevsky, MD.

The waiting room at Newtown-Monroe Pediatrics is gaily decorated with safari scenes. A well child area is separated from a sick child area by a wall that incorporates a large fish tank visible from both sides.

“If you call with a sick child, you don’t have to wait. We work them into the schedule,” Dr McLoughlin said. “We want to have a close relationship with our patients. We encourage parents to call us after hours before going to the emergency room so we don’t lose continuity of care.”

“Being available for patients is our stock and trade,” he said. “Parents call the shots. That is the way it should be.”

Although many patients who formerly went to the Monroe office now are using the Newtown office, the practice isn’t very busy yet; camp and school physicals can be accommodated immediately. “When we opened the Monroe office, it took six months to get busy, and I expect it to be the same here. Right now, no one has to wait for an appointment,” Dr McLoughlin said.

Medicine has changed significantly over the years, Dr McLoughlin noted. “I grew up in an age when not that many illnesses could be prevented. I remember as a kid having friends who got polio. You never see that now.”

While illness tends to be seasonal, with most upper respiratory infections occurring during the winter, there has been a significant increase in asthma year-round, he said. “I see a tremendous increase over 30 years ago, and no one really knows why, although a lot of things have been blamed. Treatment has become much more sophisticated. It has to be, to cope with the magnitude of the problem.”

Managed care also has brought enormous change to the practice of medicine, he said.

“We have a staff of 24 between the three offices just to handle billings, referrals, insurance,” he said.

Despite the headaches, Dr McLoughlin wouldn’t have chosen any other career.

“Kids are just great,” he said. “They are so much fun to take care of. They never fail to amaze me. Some are so grown up at the age or six or seven. Some are so scared; they get their shots and cry, but they get over it quickly.

“I’ve watched infants grow into children, then teenagers, and eventually come back to me with children of their own,” he added. “What could be better than that?”

Newtown-Monroe Pediatrics is open Monday through Friday, from 8 am to 5:30 pm; Saturday, from 8 am to noon; Sunday mornings in the Bridgeport office and soon in the Monroe office. A doctor is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information, call 426-4141.