EP# 168 - Unlocking Seamless Pediatric Care: Dr. Mirza's Vision
Jun 06, 2024Season 1Episode 168
"Cabo" Jim Schaller
Unlock the secrets of seamless pediatric care as Dr. Mirza, CEO and medical director of Starz Pediatrics, shares her inspiring journey and the innovative services offered at her practice. Discover how her experiences in orthopedic and pediatric surgery fueled her passion for working with children and led to the creation of Stars Pediatrics, a one-stop solution for both primary and urgent care in Estero, Florida. Dr. Mirza's dedication to filling healthcare gaps and providing convenient, high-quality care is a game-changer for busy families.
In this engaging episode, Dr. Mirza also addresses the prevalent myths and misconceptions about vaccines, especially in our post-COVID world. Learn from her expertise as she emphasizes the critical importance of education and safety when it comes to vaccinating children. With practical information, heartfelt stories, and valuable insights, this episode is a must-listen for parents, healthcare professionals, and anyone fascinated by the world of pediatric care.
Starz Pediatrics Primary & Pediatric Care Dr. Mirza 19910 S Tamiami Trail C Estero, FL 33928 (239) 966-7827 admin@starzpeds.com WEBSITE
Unlock the secrets of seamless pediatric care as Dr. Mirza, CEO and medical director of Starz Pediatrics, shares her inspiring journey and the innovative services offered at her practice. Discover how her experiences in orthopedic and pediatric surgery fueled her passion for working with children and led to the creation of Stars Pediatrics, a one-stop solution for both primary and urgent care in Estero, Florida. Dr. Mirza's dedication to filling healthcare gaps and providing convenient, high-quality care is a game-changer for busy families.
In this engaging episode, Dr. Mirza also addresses the prevalent myths and misconceptions about vaccines, especially in our post-COVID world. Learn from her expertise as she emphasizes the critical importance of education and safety when it comes to vaccinating children. With practical information, heartfelt stories, and valuable insights, this episode is a must-listen for parents, healthcare professionals, and anyone fascinated by the world of pediatric care.
Starz Pediatrics Primary & Pediatric Care Dr. Mirza 19910 S Tamiami Trail C Estero, FL 33928 (239) 966-7827 admin@starzpeds.com WEBSITE
Speaker 1:
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.
Speaker 2:
Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 168 of the Good Neighbor Podcast Estero. Today we have Good Neighbor Dr Mirza from Starz Pediatric Welcome.
Speaker 3:
Thank you so much. How are you doing, Jim? I am doing great today.
Speaker 2:
Awesome, cannot complain. Pleasure to have you on the show, excited to learn a little bit more about what you do in your business. So, without further ado, let's jump right in and want you to share a little bit about what you do at STARZ Pediatric.
Speaker 3:
Absolutely. My name is Dr Mirza. I am the CEO and medical director here at Starz Pediatrics. We're located in Estero, florida, and Starz Pediatrics came to life about two years ago. It's a private practice pediatric, primary and urgent care, so we offer both primary and urgent care services in-house, so families have one place to go to for all their needs. We do offer extended hours till from 8 am to 8 pm, as well as Saturdays, so we can accommodate parents who work and who don't want to take time off work and children don't have to miss school.
Speaker 2:
Very nice, very important nowadays, with everybody's schedule being so hectic.
Speaker 3:
Absolutely.
Speaker 2:
Much appreciated. So how did you get involved in the pediatric industry?
Speaker 3:
So initially it started off in orthopedic surgery for about a year and it's just a lifestyle was a little bit not what I was looking for and so I diverted into pediatrics. Through pediatric surgery rotation that I was doing in Toronto at the Hospital for Sick Children and just working with children, I just kind of realized that they were very resilient. They didn't really complain about much. They don't really ask for a lot of the diseases and things that happen to them. So it's just really a lot of gratification I get from working with children and being able to play a pivotal role in their lives.
Speaker 2:
And that's important people. We need more people like you to do that. So, starting your own business, there's always some type of challenge or obstacles along our journey that we can look back at now and you know, because we went through it, maybe we're in a better place now. Is there something that happened along your journey?
Speaker 3:
Yes. So you know, starting a business is, especially in medical practice, is very challenging. I think many physicians out there try not to get involved in this. There's so much work involved.
Speaker 3:
Besides being a physician, you are also now running a medical practice and you really need to understand the complexities and the challenges you may face as a business owner. So you really are playing two roles need to understand the complexities and the challenges you may face as a business owner. So you really are playing two roles and you know, just taking that leap of faith to start your own practice. The reason I did it was because previously, where I had worked, I had, you know, for five years I realized there were a lot of gaps in healthcare and generally I mean after 5pm there was nowhere to go except the emergency room, even if it were a non-emergency visit, and that alone comes with, you know, a lot of time consumption and risks associated to taking your child to an ER. And so the idea was to create a hybrid program that did primary and urgent care under one roof, where we have x-ray on site, we're able to do laceration repairs, we do allergy testing, we do a whole slew of different services for our patients.
Speaker 2:
Very nice. So, surrounding the industry, like you had mentioned, are there any maybe myths or misconceptions we could clear up for our listeners?
Speaker 3:
You know I think a lot of the questions I'm faced with these days, you know, has to do with vaccines and efficacy and safety of vaccines.
Speaker 3:
You know, clearly, post-COVID there were a lot of doubts and, you know, still there are a lot of doubts with safety and efficacy of vaccines. So we do get a lot of questions about this and our job, you know, as physicians, is to really provide the education to the parents and our patients about you know, why we do certain vaccines, why do we do that at a certain time, you know, when the babies. You know we do them close together so that they have a synergistic effect, so they give the child the best immunity, so they give the child the best immunity. And the trends that I'm seeing these days are, you know, parents wanting to space out a lot of their vaccines and you know, by doing that we are not, we're doing a disservice to the child because we're not giving them the best immunity that we could. And so I think one of the challenges, a lot of the questions we've been having to face, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:
You mentioned trends. Is there anything else that you notice that maybe is new or trending within your industry?
Speaker 3:
You know there's specifically. You know now, timely enough, it's allergy season and the pollen counts. You know we're going to be going through the roof in the summertime and I think a lot of the patients and families don't understand that there's actually a solution to fix the allergies, to completely desensitize a child so that they are no longer having these symptoms, rather than throwing meds at them, you know, for extended periods of time, some of which have side effects. So there are options out there. We do offer immunotherapy in-house from our office so we can get the child allergy tested to identify what exactly is causing the trigger, what is causing their symptoms, and through that we are able to desensitize them over a period of time and completely get rid of their allergies. So I think that's very important, especially now going into summer.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely it's. You know allergies are very high down here in Southwest Florida. Mentioning Southwest Florida, you know allergies are very high down here in Southwest Florida. Mentioning Southwest Florida, you mentioned Toronto. What brought you down to Southwest Florida?
Speaker 3:
So, quite honestly, the weather. I love Toronto. It's a great city, it's where I was born and raised. But wintertime, you know I can do like a week of it, but you know, five or six months, I think is the reason why a lot of people flock to southwest Florida. It's a beautiful place. I love to be on the water, you know. I love to, you know, just enjoy everything Florida has to offer. So I've been here for 10 years and you know I don't see myself really going back to the cold.
Speaker 2:
Yep, I love it. I'm from Wisconsin originally, so I appreciate the warm weather and I visit during the summer is what I plan on. So is there one thing you wish our listeners knew about? Stars Pediatric that maybe they might not be aware of?
Speaker 3:
Yes, absolutely. So. You know, recently in the trend and the information we've been getting, especially from Collier County, is that you know there were at least three pediatricians who I know who retired in the past year or two, and so those patients currently are without a physician and many of the groups are not accepting new patients. So we would like our listeners to know that STARS Pediatrics is accepting new patients. We're accepting newborns all the way through age 21. So we do kind of push. Historically, pediatricians will send the patient to the adult world around 18, but we are able to manage patients up into 21.
Speaker 1:
So mainly just you know we are available.
Speaker 3:
We are here for the community. Our goal is to keep patients out of the ER if at all possible, and that is the service we can provide to the community and essentially what our function is here. So you know, we just want everyone to know that we are here. We are located in Acera but we do service. You know Lee County, collier County and, of course, all the visitors that we have that are visiting here who may require medical services for the children during their stay.
Speaker 2:
That's always important too, finding somebody here local, so how would our listeners go about contacting you if they had questions or needed to visit?
Speaker 3:
Sure, yeah, they could just call our office. The iPhone number is 239-966-7827. They can also visit our website. It's wwwstarzpeds. com and through there, you know, we are able to answer any questions, clarifications, scheduling, so you know it's a very easy access. We do answer our phones, so we do have someone live who's always going to answer your phone for you. Perfect.
Speaker 2:
Dr Mirza, any last questions or statements for our listeners? Just that you know we are here.
Speaker 3:
We are here for the children, we're here for the community. We have the support of both you know, Lee Health and NCH. So we are, although we are a separate entity, we are, you know, in collaboration with all of the hospital systems here and we are, you know, in collaboration with all of the hospital systems here, and we are able to access medical records and take care of the children, even being an outside provider. So they're welcome to contact us if anyone has any information or any questions.
Speaker 2:
Very good, Very good. I appreciate you. It's been a pleasure getting to know you today. Thank you for being such a good neighbor and I hope to see you out in the community soon. Thank you, Jim.
Speaker 1:
Appreciate it. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Astero. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpastero. com. That's gnpastero. com, or call 239-296-2621.