Carolina Pediatrics of the Triad is approaching 100 years of providing continuous pediatric medical care to the children of Greensboro, North Carolina and its surrounding communities. Our original practice was founded by Dr. Sam Ravenel in 1925 as one of the first pediatric offices in North Carolina. Dr. Ravenel was well-known and published articles in national pediatric journals. He was joined in the early years of our practice by Dr. Edward P. Benbow and Dr. Jean McAllister. These three pediatricians were among the pioneers of pediatrics in Greensboro and helped Greensboro children through the polio epidemic of 1948. In the 1960’s, Dr. Don Smith joined the practice, continuing the dedicated care of children, and later became director of Cone AHEC. Dr. Peter Jarosak, Dr .Ed Little, and Dr. Charles Brett joined our practice in the 1970’s, maintaining the tradition of providing excellent pediatric care to the children of our community. As our pediatricians retired, we have been fortunate to keep adding wonderful pediatricians who have added enthusiasm for giving children in Greensboro the best medical care available. The next pediatricians that joined were Dr. Mark Brassfield, Dr.Melissa Lowe, and Dr. Brian Sumner. As the needs for pediatricians in Greensboro increased, our practice expanded, continuing to add highly qualified pediatricians including Dr. Brad Davis, Dr. Rebecca Keiffer , Dr. Alan Cooper, Dr. Carey Williams and Dr. Melisa Bates. Recent additions to our provider team include Dr. Keivan Ettefagh, Dr. Austin Cox, Dr. Madison Botts, Dr. Roman Melvin, Dr. Jaclyn Dovico, and Dr. Ben Hooker.
Our practice name has changed over the years, beginning with the listing of the individual doctors. Dr. Ravenel died in 1976, and our pediatricians honored his memory by naming the practice The Ravenel Clinic. Later, the practice would be renamed Wendover Pediatrics and when we moved in 2006 to Henry Street we became Carolina Pediatrics of the Triad.
In the earlier years of our practice, the pediatricians were involved in all aspects of the medical care of infants and children. We managed well and sick children in our office but also managed our sick hospitalized newborns and older patients, as well seeing patients in the emergency rooms at night. Now pediatrics has evolved into many pediatric subspecialties. There are specialized pediatricians for premature infants, sick newborns, hospitalized sick infants and children, and pediatric emergency room patients. There are many other pediatric specialists that we use when needed.
Carolina Pediatrics of the Triad has always been strong advocates for new and updated facilities and are happy with the new nursery and neonatal intensive care unit, as well as having updated Cone Health pediatric wards and a pediatric intensive care unit. We hope to see a new free-standing children’s hospital and emergency room.
Our patients have seen improvement of Carolina Pediatrics of the Triad office and patient services. Some of these include the following: improvement of our telephone medicine through our pediatric nurse telephone specialists; continued updating of our online services, including our medical records; excellent administration leadership; and all of our staff continue to focus on providing superior pediatric care to our patients. All of our pediatricians are board certified pediatricians who continue to focus on continuing medical education and updated pediatric care.
While all of these changes have been occurring, our pediatricians have seen much improvement in the health of children. The greatest advances have been the continued development of new immunizations that have eliminated many of the serious diseases that we were seeing frequently during the 1970s and 1980s, such as bacterial meningitis, chicken pox, rotavirus diarrhea, influenza, and others.
The ongoing addition of young pediatrics together with the experience of our older pediatricians gives our practice a wealth of knowledge about pediatric medicine and the desire to continue to make changes to keep Carolina Pediatrics of the Triad a leader in the nation in providing pediatric services to our patients. We desire to keep our patients well, while helping the parents provide a strong foundation for their child’s future. We are forever grateful and honored for families who continue to entrust us with the care of their children.