Brenner Children’s Hospital, the pediatric arm of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, is gaining new physicians and will be expanding and relocating its outpatient clinic in Lexington to a new location.
Michael Kidder, M.D., a board certified pediatrician and former chief resident in pediatrics for Wake Forest Baptist, has joined the practice, and will lead a four-member pediatric provider team – Elizabeth Reichard, M.D., will join the practice in August; Faith Gardner, M.D., comes on board in September; and Patty Lookabill, pediatric nurse practitioner, who has been with the practice for more than 15 years.
An extension of the pediatric resident training program also will be offered in Lexington that will provide additional physicians for the practice and offer clinical experience to pediatric residents from Wake Forest Baptist.
Brenner Children’s Hospital consolidated its adolescent practice into the current pediatrics practice at 8 Medical Park Drive in Lexington earlier this month. The combined practice will move into a larger building at 13 Medical Park Drive this fall. The moves will allow both pediatric and adolescent patients to be served at one convenient location.
Kidder joins the Brenner Children’s practice in Lexington after five years with a private pediatrics practice in New Bern. He intends to work closely in the local community as an educator on healthy lifestyle practices by conducting presentations and information sessions at schools, churches, camps and organizations and performing the community service that goes along with being a primary care physician.
“There’s more involved than just what’s happening in the exam room with the patient in front of you,’’ said Kidder explaining why he enjoys working in a close-knit community like Lexington. “You get to see kids grow and the families you’ve taken care of. You get to see the progress you’ve made together. I think that would be lost if you were working in a much bigger city. These are the privileges of being in primary care.’’
Kidder’s philosophy for pediatrics is to focus on early development. He works with parents to get them reading to their children, and their children reading to them, as early as possible. He believes it is important for parents to spend as much time as possible with their children – decreasing their TV time, increasing their outdoor time and doing all they can to be involved.
Kidder knows what he’s talking about because he’s a parent himself. He and his wife, Elizabeth, have three sons, ages 10, 8 and 3.
Learn more about Kidder and Brenner Children’s outpatient clinic in Lexington at http://lexington.wakehealth.edu/pediatrics-lexington.
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Mac Ingraham: mingraha@wakehealth.edu, 336-716-3487
Erin Harris: news@wakehealth.edu, 336-713-4587