At Garden State Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, keeping children and adolescents healthy and happy is the primary focus.
From its artist-decorated exam rooms featuring delicately painted animals and themes, to the two smiling tree sculptures greeting patients on their way to meet with the doctors, the practice seeks to create a calm and inviting vibe.
“We feel that family and children are very important,” Dr. Alon Baker said. “In terms of our practice we provide complete care to kids and also to their families. We feel that the care that we provide children is more of a team effort including our staff the doctors and the parents as well.”
The philosophy behind the practice is to not only treat all children, but to give advice to the parents from the beginning and onward, according to Doctors Baker and Brandspiegel.
The practice, which is run by Dr. Baker, and doctors Laura Brandspiegel and Sonya Boor, has been serving area residents for about eight years, mostly out of their previous White Horse – Mercerville Road location, across from the police station. In June 2008, the practice made the move to its current location at 2133 Route 33, Hamilton.
While Garden State Pediatric has built its own following and is a well established business, it has a history that goes beyond its current name. Garden State Pediatric came to be after the passing of Dr. Elliott Saltstein, a pediatrician who created Contemporary Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine more than 30 years ago.
Two of the doctors that work at Garden State Pediatric worked with Dr. Saltstein at his practice, which was well known in the area for years. After his passing, the remaining doctors decided to carry the practice forward at the same location making it their own and giving it a new name.
Today, Garden State Pediatrics sees generations of patients, including children of those who went to Dr. Saltstein as children. The practice has also kept some of the same staff, including head nurse Lue Ann Kostro, of Hamilton.
“A lot of the staff members have been here a lot longer than the doctors,” Baker said. “We have a lot of stability here, the families that come here really enjoy that, seeing the same people at the front desk, that continuity.”
For Dr. Baker, a father of three boys, the best part of his job is interacting with his patients, he said.
“I love working with kids,” he said. “A lot of times its a challenge to try to help children, especially younger children, because they really can’t communicate and I enjoy that challenge. I enjoy discussing with the parents how to properly help and raise the kids and I find that very rewarding.”
Baker said seeing the youngsters get excited about new activities they are participating in, whether it be soccer practice, or going back to school in the fall, is refreshing, he said. For Dr. Brandspiegel, seeing the kids grow up from year to year is part of what she enjoys about the job. She also finds it rewarding when patients draw her pictures.
While they typically treat patients for things like allergies, or asthma, they also feel comfortable handling medical conditions that otherwise might be forwarded to specialists. The practice seeks to treat in house first, before sending patients off to a specialist or hospital. They are also affiliated with Robert Wood Johnson Hamilton and Mercer Medical Center, Capital Health System.
Starting Sept. 1, the business will also officially join Advocare, one of the leading physician-owned primary care group practices in the region. With the change comes an alteration to its name, now the business will be called Advocare Garden State Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
“It will allow the doctors to focus more on seeing the patients than having to focus on the business aspect of running the practice,” Baker said.
For more information, go online to advocaredoctors.com/gardenstate or call (609) 581-5100.
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