Pediatrics East treats generations of patients for 60 years

For 60 years, Pediatrics East has provided care for children on the northeast side of Birmingham. As patients have become parents, or now grandparents, they have continued to see the doctors they saw as a child.

“I always loved going to the doctor because they made me feel so much better physically, mentally and emotionally,” said Haley Sanford, 33, of Clay, whose family has used the practice since 1975. “My mom has always been thankful for the caring and loving staff of Pediatrics East, and now I am thankful as a mom … I have a group of doctors who are so smart, caring, loving and truly concerned with my family getting the best care possible. That means the world to me.”

Earlier this summer the practice, which has offices in Trussville and Clay, celebrated its 60th anniversary with a celebration. It brought together several of those families, current and past employees. 

“It’s been fun to have folks reminiscing and asking about the old days, even as far back as East Lake,” said Dr. Phil Harmon, who is now in his 33rd year with the practice.

Dr. Vincent Carnaggio began the pediatrics practice at its first location at 16 North 77th Street (Oporto-Madrid Boulevard) in East Lake. It was the summer of 1957 and the Asian flu pandemic was spreading in the U.S., leaving plenty in need of a doctor.

“When they called and had a sick child, I didn’t push them off- — I saw them,” Carnaggio said. “I’d go to the emergency room and see patients who were looking for doctors.” 

Carnaggio spent Sundays helping administer the new oral polio vaccine in the community, during what was known as Polio Sundays. His practice grew quickly in the decade before vaccines were available for the measles, German measles and chicken pox. He saw as many as 20 to 40 patients per day by himself, while his wife, Jean, managed the books and paid the bills. Some days, which averaged 10-12 hours, would become 14-16 hours if a patient was admitted to the hospital because Carnaggio would attend to the patient directly, sometimes closing his office for a few hours. 

By 1962, the practice needed help and Carnaggio recruited Dr. Charles Money. Five years later, they added Dr. Howard Bearman in 1967 and Dr. David Fugazzotto joined the practice in the early 1970s. 

Carnaggio recalls the practice became one of the first in the area to open after hours, closing at 5 p.m. for an hour and then opening back up between 6-9 p.m. They offered Saturday and Sunday hours, too, so parents in two-income households could bring their sick children to their doctor instead of the ER for a costly visit. 

“It really made it easier for patients to get their children seen,” Carnaggio said. “I think we did a great service by providing that … that alone helped build our practice, being available like that.”

The practice had to move and expand multiple times to meet their capacity needs before being bought by Children’s Hospital in 1996. Pediatrics East was the second practice in Alabama and first in Birmingham to join Children’s, which now has more than a dozen community offices in Central Alabama.

“It was a good marriage for us,” Harmon said. “Children’s has offered us things we couldn’t do as a small practice, and I hope we’ve added value to Children’s by extending their outpatient exposure.”

The following year, Pediatrics East opened a second fully-staffed location on Deerfoot Parkway in Clay. In 2011, the practice closed its Roebuck office and relocated it to Simmons Drive in Trussville. 

Each of the original physicians worked for more than 40 years, including 47 years for Carnaggio, to build the practice. 

“The idea was always to provide ongoing care for people, but it’s really evolved with doctors like Phil Harmon,” Carnaggio said. “He got into it with a plan of staying and having a viable practice to help the people in the area and provide care they knew and could trust.”

Today, Harmon, who began as a medical student at the practice, is the most senior member of a team of 11 physicians. 

Not only are generations of families returning as patients, but former patients have become employees. Dr. Rebecca Bowman Webster, who saw Dr. Carnaggio as a child, and joined the staff in 2007, and Kendall Griffith, who grew up seeing Dr. Harmon, and is now his medical assistant. 

“I try to treat each child like they’re No. 1, and I try to treat their families like they’re the most important people, because that’s how I was treated as a child,” Griffith said. “I knew when I came here that they cared about me, and I want the kids to know that I care about them, what they’ve been feeling and what they have going on in their own life.”

Harmon said at 60 years, there are no plans of further expansion – only to continue what Carnaggio and his former business partners began.

“It’s been an honor for us to be part of this community for 60 years, and hopefully our next 60 will be just as successful,” said Harmon said. “We hope to be able to continue to provide good service and a good relationship with the neighborhoods thatwe serve.”