Three New Hotels Add Heat To Wesley Chapel’s Business Climate

The six-story, 125-room Hilton Garden Inn on Silver Maple Pkwy. will open this summer. 

For years, Pasco County has grappled with attracting tourists and giving them a place to stay.

Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI) and a planned RADD Sports Wiregrass Ranch Sports Complex, as well as the Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO), the Shops at Wiregrass mall, the massive “connected city” project and dozens of local restaurants will help take care of attracting visitors.

In a few months, a long-standing problem of finding beds for all of those visitors’ heads will be solved as well.

During the months of June and July, Wesley Chapel expects to see three new hotels open along the burgeoning S.R. 56 corridor, joining the Holiday Inn & Suites that opened last year next to FHCI (and the Hampton Inn & Suites, which has been open for many years).

“The two industries (tourism and hospitality) go hand in hand,” says Hope Allen, the CEO of the North Tampa Bay (formerly Greater Wesley Chapel) Chamber of Commerce. “It’s almost like you can’t have one without the other.”

Barring any weather delays, a six-story, 125-room Hilton Garden Inn on Silver Maple Pkwy., across S.R. 56 from FHCI, is scheduled to open in June, a 92-room Fairfield Inn & Suites is expected to open in June or July a few miles to the east (in the Wiregrass Ranch development), and the six-story, 132-room Hyatt Place Hotel & Convention Center will open in July at the Cypress Creek Town Center across from TPO.

The newest hotels have all been planned since late 2015.

The Hyatt Place Hotel & Convention Center

Impact Properties is building the Hyatt Place, and recently hosted a “topping off” event to show off its progress. Impact just began building the $24-million hotel last summer. The Hyatt Place will share the north side of S.R. 56 with a host of new restaurants and retailers (see story on page 6).

The conference center addition fills another area need, says District 2 Pasco County commissioner Mike Moore. “This is going to be a great development all around,” Moore said during the Hyatt Place event. “When you talk about a convention center, that has been something that has been a big need in Pasco County, especially on the east side. You won’t have a problem keeping it full.”

Impact president Dilip Kanji said he has had his eyes on the Cypress Creek location for years, patiently waiting for the right moment.

“I’ve been looking at Wesley Chapel since 2012,” Kanji says, citing the Cypress Creek Town Center’s permitting woes dating back to 2007. “If you remember, (our interest) goes back to the days when the mall was going to go there, the problems with the wetlands and the Army Corps of Engineers, all that stuff, so we just kept looking. But, Wesley Chapel has arrived, Pasco County has arrived, everyone wants to be here. We had an idea for what we wanted to do; we were just waiting for the right time.”

Kanji said his company also eyed the Shops at Wiregrass mall and Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel areas in Wiregrass, as well as the area near FHCI (where the Holiday Inn Express is today).

“There’s been the potential (for a hotel) in the area, but the place we always wanted to be was on that (the west) side of the interstate,” he said.

A Little History…

Impact Properties was founded in 1981, two years after Kanji, a biochemist at the time, visited San Francisco and stayed at a family-run hotel that he fell in love with. He decided, without the benefit of any business schooling or real estate courses, to enter the business.

Impact Properties president Dilip Kanji

“I never stepped in a lab again, and never looked back,” said Kanji, who works closely with brother and VP Nash Kanji, whom he describes as a construction “whiz.” They started with a small motel in Gainesville that Kanji says his attorney at the time joked was known as a “no-tell motel.” Since then, Impact Properties has grown into an award-winning development company, owning and managing more than 25 hotels, and was awarded the key to the City of Tampa by then-Mayor Dick Greco for developing the Hilton Garden Inn in Ybor City, the first hotel to be built in the historic district in more than 100 years.

Impact Properties currently owns a hotel in Gainesville, two in Jacksonville and two in Tampa, including The Westin on Westshore Blvd.

The company also is developing a hotel in Treasure Island, FL, in addition to the Wesley Chapel location, which Kanji says is one of the most coveted areas around.

Speaking Of Hot…

Kanji says people have asked him if he’s building his next hotel in downtown Tampa or St. Petersburg, and when he tells them no, they ask why, because those are the hot areas.

“I don’t even go where it’s already hot,” Kanji says. “We identify an emerging area, growth areas that are going to be hot. And, we get there first.”

He says that was his plan when he built a hotel in Brandon years ago, the first he says to do so on the old I-75 bypass. “The interchange wasn’t even working,” he says. “We identified where Brandon was going — it was the bedroom community of Tampa — and we identified that area as hot. We got there first. There were growing pains. We did not hit our numbers the first year or two. But, we said we will control the market.”

In the case of Wesley Chapel, however, Impact Properties will be entering a market that is already considered hot, and growing crowded quickly — landowner Bob Sierra said at the “topping” event that if the Hyatt Place is successful, Kanji has an option to build a second in the Cypress Creek Town center.

In addition to the three hotels set to open this summer, the RADD Sports Wiregrass Ranch Sports Complex – which could open in spring of 2019 — will have a 120-room Marriott-branded Residence Inn on site, and the Brightwork Crossing development north of S.R. 54/56 and west of C.R. 54/Wesley Chapel Blvd. has stated plans in 2016 to build an unnamed hotel with up to 150 rooms on that site.

Also, plans were filed with the county in August for a proposed, also-unnamed  160,000-sq.-ft. hotel to be located behind the Walgreens at the S.R. 54 and Bruce B. Downs Blvd. intersection.

A report in 2016 by consultants analyzing the potential for a sports complex in Wesley Chapel pointed out the lack of hotel rooms in the area. And, while it still made a sizable economic impact (estimated at $3-million a year), it has been believed that one of the main beneficiaries of the DICK’s National Lacrosse Championships held at Wesley Chapel District Park the last several years were nearby Hillsborough County hotels, such as those in New Tampa, which took in 60-75 percent of the tournament’s teams and visitors.

While saturation may become an issue, the new hotels are anticipated to help the county’s tourism efforts and fill tax coffers. The county approved doubling its tourist tax, or bed tax, from 2 to 4 percent last year.

“What you’re seeing in Pasco County is quality,” Moore said. “There is a lot of time and effort put into these projects. We’ll be getting rooms filled, heads in beds…and we appreciate the help. It helps us grow, and helps us bring in additional profits to the county.”

Wesley Chapel Chamber Gets A New Name & A 2018 Taste Update

Hope Allen

Is there any way to change something that has been hugely successful without ruffling some feathers?

Based on the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC)’s recently announced name change to the “North Tampa Bay Chamber,” the answer is probably “no.”

However, that doesn’t mean that the name change wasn’t a necessary thing to do, nor has it been anyone’s plan to throw away all of the good will that has been created by the only Chamber of Commerce Wesley Chapel has known for the last 20 years.

Even so, CEO Hope Allen of the new North Tampa Bay Chamber has been hearing some unhappiness about the Chamber’s name change from people who wonder if the newly named Chamber will still be the first place people see when they search “Wesley Chapel Chamber” on Google or Facebook.

“We still own the name and the domain name online, so we should still come up when people are searching for Wesley Chapel,” Hope says. “Once we completed our acquisition of the Greater Pasco Chamber last year, we knew we’d have to change the name. We also knew that there was no way to please everyone, no matter what name we chose.”

Even though Wesley Chapel has been the name (and the community) that has given the Chamber its identity the last two decades — especially during the last few tremendous growth years that are continuing to make “The Chap” one of the fastest-growing communities in both Florida and the nation — the fact is that the expanded Chamber (which also acquired the failed New Tampa Chamber of Commerce a few years ago) no longer is confined geographically to “just” Wesley Chapel.

“We are now the largest Chamber in Pasco County,” says new Board Chair and local dentist Dr. Zack Kalarickal. “But, we also serve the businesses in New Tampa, Lutz (where the Chamber recently moved to a new office), Land O’Lakes, Trinity and even north Pinellas County. And, our name needed to reflect that.”

Some of the Chamber’s members have been trying to find a way to still incorporate Wesley Chapel into the new name, even if it has to be a subhead. As the primary news media in Wesey Chapel, I also found myself wondering what anyone could do to somehow not lose the Chamber’s Wesley Chapel connection.

Although I couldn’t come up with a name that would make it work, I hope there could at least be a subhead or subtitle that says something like, “Built in Wesley Chapel; Building a Chamber to Serve the Tri-County Area.”

Whatever you call it, the newly expanded Chamber has more than 800 member businesses and has renewed its commitment to WCNT-tv — Wesley Chapel & New Tampa Television.

To that end, I hope you’ll check out the next several episodes of WCNT-tv’s “Chamber News,” which feature Dr. Zack being interviewed by WCNT-tv’s Mollyana Ward (photo above), shot at the amazing Overnight Success Studio owned by Chamber member Miroslav Beck. Those segments are available now on our Neighborhood News Facebook page and on the WCNT-tv channel on YouTube.

I also hope you’ll keep an eye out for some exciting announcements about the only web-based “TV channel” serving both New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. The new Chamber may be expanding beyond those borders, but we will continue to focus our energies — both online and in these pages — on our two “home” communities.

Taste 2018 Off & Running!

I’m also really excited about the plans for the 2018 Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel — on Sunday, March 25, noon-4 p.m., at Florida Hospital Center Ice (in conjunction with the new Chamber)  — as the Rotary Club of New Tampa hosts the event for the second time. Last year, my restaurant committee was able to attract nearly 50 restaurants and beverage providers and about 2,000 people attended. This year, sponsorship committee co-chairs James Carner and Jason Contino already have surpassed last year’s sponsorships and I’m already at nearly 25 food and beverage providers, with just about six weeks still to go until the Taste.

Those sponsors (in alphabetical, not monetary, order) already include:

‱Acme On The Go

‱Audi Wesley Chapel

‱Campaign of TK Hayes

‱Central Bank

‱Family First Allstate

‱Harbor Bank

‱Ierna’s Heating & Cooling

‱New Leaps Academy

‱Murtha & Murtha LLC

‱Pilot Bank

‱Pinot’s Palette

‱Suncoast Credit Union

‱TSYS Merchant Services

‱Usman Law Firm

Among the new restaurants already committed to serving samples at the Taste are Acai Brazil, Bruster’s Ice Cream, Cappy’s Pizza, Cinebistro at The Grove, O’Brien’s Irish Pub, Pinchers Crab Shack, Taco Son, Texas Roadhouse, Top Shelf Sports Lounge and Wicked Chickens, Deviled Eggs.

For more information about the 2018 Taste, including how to pre-buy tickets or volunteer, visit TasteofNewTampa.org! And, check out our exclusive Taste 2018 Preview Section in our next issue of Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News!

Murtha & Murtha, LLC, Is Ready To Help You Tackle Tax Season

Tom Murtha, CPA (left), and his son Patrick, of Murtha & Murtha, LLC, go over some of the new tax codes that will take effect next year. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

Sometimes, your taxes can be a snap. Buy a computer program, plug in some numbers, and voila! Tax return!

But oftentimes, it’s not that simple.

In fact, for many, it can be a long, painful, costly and needlessly confusing experience. It doesn’t have to be, though.

The father-and-son team of Tom and Patrick Murtha, of Murtha & Murtha, LLC, specialize in making tax season a smoother ride for individual filers and businesses. Stop by, meet the Murthas, hear what they have to offer and experience what the duo refers to as the “Murtha & Murtha Difference.”

“It’s true,’’ says Tom Murtha, CPA (Certified Public Accountant). “We really are different.”

The Murthas, partners and owners of their firm in the Seven Oaks Professional Park off S.R. 56 (across from Sam’s Club), have decades of combined experience. Along with sharing a friendly and an affable nature, they pride themselves on building relationships with clients as much as they do their skill in detangling financial numbers that can mire even the most diligent filer or business person in a maze of numbers, forms and laws.

“We’re very approachable,” Tom says, “and that makes a big difference. People are sometimes afraid of going to professionals with all these licenses. They wonder, ‘Will I be able to talk to them?’ But, we are approachable, and we return phone calls.”

Returning calls may not sound like that big of a deal, but when it comes to tax season, it is. A lot of the customers the Murthas will see this tax season are those looking for an accountant because theirs have gone missing.

“I’ve been getting a ton of people saying “I don’t know where my CPA is,” Patrick says. “It’s kind of unbelievable.”

Patrick grew up around tax codes, spending lots of time at his father’s business. He also became friends with the firm’s senior accountant, Kyle Flischel, the son of one of Tom’s former business partners, while they were both in high school and helping their dads with tax returns.

Patrick and Kyle both attended the University of South Florida. Patrick now holds a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Finance and a B.S. in Accounting, while Kyle holds a B.S. in Accounting and a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Accounting with a tax concentration.

(From l.-r.) Patrick Murtha, Heather Harris, Tom Murtha and Kyle Flischel are ready to tackle the tax season head on. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

They say this tax season will be the busiest yet, but unlike others who get bogged down and are slow to reply, the team at Murtha & Murtha is ready. The firm added marketing manager Heather Harris to the squad last summer.

“She was a big addition,” Tom says. “We’re really excited about that as we get ready for tax season, because it’s going to get really crazy.”

The Murthas offer free consultations — and often, peace of mind for those whose tax questions are keeping them up at night — but prefer to do those consults in person. They ask potential clients to bring in their last 2-3 years of tax returns, which Murtha & Murtha will examine and, in quite a few cases, find errors that lead to amending those returns and earning a larger refund (or paying less tax)  for their clients. And, the Murthas promise they will always be honest with their clients, whether the news is good or bad.

“We ask people to come in; let’s meet eyeball to eyeball and make sure we want to work together,” Tom says. “I don’t want you to commit to me unless we like each other and can work together. That’s so important.”

Tom earned his B.S. degree in Management from Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY, in 1976, and his M.B.A. (Master of Business Administration) degree in Accounting from St. John’s University in Queens, NY, in 1981.

While he was working on his MBA, Tom also worked as assistant controller in the non-bank financial segment of a major New York City bank.

He moved to Brandon in 1987 and opened Accutax Services, Inc., a non-CPA public accounting business. One day, his wife told him it was time to leave behind the fire ants and cow patties of Brandon for the surf. Around the same time, he received an offer to sell Accutax Services, which he did in 1997.

The Murthas moved to Gasparilla Island, and it wasn’t long before Tom joined another CPA firm in nearby Englewood, FL, that he eventually bought into — Flischel, Murtha & Associates.

An Educated Educator

When Tom passed his Florida CPA test in 2000, he says it was with the fourth highest score in the state. He’s also taught accounting courses at both Hillsborough Community College (HCC) in Tampa and at the American Institute of Banking in New York City.

Tom says that gives him an edge over others when it comes to his ability to easily explain complicated tax situations in plain language to his clients.

“I kind of consider myself to be an educator,” Tom says. “I make sure when clients walk out of here that, after a complex situation, they understand what’s going on. I’ll ask them to repeat things back to me. We go over everything again and again and again. I don’t want people walking out of here if they don’t understand what’s going on. That doesn’t help anyone.”

Patrick graduated in 2009, and joined his father in opening a firm in Tampa in 2010 focusing on mergers and acquisitions. One of Patrick’s first tasks was to sell Tom’s Englewood accounting firm.

“Within a month, a contract was on my desk,” Tom says. “That was his first success.”

In 2013, the Murthas expanded to full service, and in 2015 moved to their current location in Wesley Chapel.

CFO Retainer Packages

At their new location, Patrick conceived of another success — a “CFO Retainer Package” to help businesses and those who are self-employed whose company may need a Chief Financial Officer but don’t have the budget to hire a full-time manager or accountant.

For a fraction of the cost of a full-time CFO, the Murthas will provide monthly financial reports — “valuable for getting loans and bringing on investors,” Patrick says — and create a budget for the business.

“It’s a big deal, because it really makes a business look at numbers and compare it to expectations,” Tom says. “A lot of business owners go day to day, thinking it is what it is and the economy is what it is. But, there’s so much a business can do to bring in more business.”

While most accountants focus on the previous year as they file returns, the Murthas also choose to look forward. Because they do valuations as part of their CFO Retainer Package, businesses can find out what they need to do to raise their value and sell at the price they desire.

The CFO package also offers unlimited consulting time with the Murthas.

“It’s really intended for business owners in growth mode, who are excited about it and want it to grow,” Patrick says.

And, for those wondering how the new Republican-backed tax bill might affect their returns, now is as good a time as any to find a trustworthy and reputable CPA firm, like Murtha & Murtha, to prepare. Patrick says that deductions, exemptions and tax rates are all changing, as he plopped a 200-plus page “summary” of some of the new changes coming in 2018 on the table.

“I’ve learned it,” Tom says. “I got it.”

The Murthas handle a wide spectrum of filers, from individuals to businesses that bring in from $100,000 a year to those with $80-million stock portfolios.

Patrick says Murtha & Murtha specializes in big issues, like helping those with rental properties, those who are self-employed, have complicated investments and especially those coming off big life changes like a divorce or an inheritance.

“But we help anyone who needs it,” Tom says.

With tax season ready to kick into high gear, the Murthas are excited for another busy few months.

“The tax season is the best time of the year,” Tom says. “We really enjoy helping people, making a difference with businesses who see their businesses is growing because of us. That keeps me excited. Why do it if it doesn’t make a difference and if you can’t take the worry away?”

Murtha & Murtha, LLC, is located at 2236 Ashley Oaks Cir., Suite 101, in Wesley Chapel. For more information, visit TampaTaxFirm.com or to schedule a free consultation, call (813) 991-1120.

Florida Family Practice Has Two Locations Serving New Tampa & Wesley Chapel

Dr. Ronald Manalo, M.D., offers caring, personalized service for those who want to truly develop a relationship with their primary care doctor. Visit him at his Wesley Chapel office or at his Tampa location on E. Fletcher Ave.

Ronald S. Manalo, M.D., opened Florida Family Practice less than a year ago, seeing patients at both his Wesley Chapel office (in the Cypress Glen Professional Center off S.R. 56 near I-75), and in his Tampa office on E. Fletcher Ave.

Dr. Manalo and his family have lived in Wesley Chapel for the last several years. His wife, Dr. Hoka Nyanda, practices with a local dermatology group. They moved here when she began practicing a few years ago, even while he did his residency at the Mercer School of Medicine in Macon, GA. He finished in 2015, then worked as a hospitalist at Navicent Health Hospital in Macon for a year before making the transition to living full-time in Wesley Chapel and opening his private practice here.

“I love Wesley Chapel,” he says. “It’s great. It’s not busy like Tampa. It’s nice and quiet, but has a lot of growth and potential to grow, and I look forward to growing with the community.”

He says opening his practice is the culmination of many years of hard work and planning.

“Since medical school, it’s been my dream to own my own practice,” he says. He received his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree from Meharny Medical College in Nashville, TN, in 2010. Prior to that, he earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree from Fort Valley State University in Fort Valley, GA, in 2001.

Now, Dr. Manalo is a family practice physician who sees people in all life stages, from infant to geriatric.

“As a family doctor, you grow with your patients,” he says. “You get to know them, and they become part of your family, too.”

While many parents choose to take their children to a pediatrician, the whole family can see one doctor at Florida Family Practice. Dr. Manalo says anything a pediatrician can do, he can do, too, but a patient who comes to him as a child doesn’t have to transition to a different doctor when they reach a certain age.

“I recently saw a husband and wife who brought their infant to me,” he says. “They’re a young couple, just starting their family, and it’s just a joy. It is really rewarding to take care of the whole family.”

He says his practice is different than what’s typical in our area these days.

“We’re personal, patient, caring and compassionate,” Dr. Manalo explains. “You’re not here for a certain time slot and then out the door.”

Instead, he adds, “We want to get to know you. When you come to see me, it’s not just about your diabetes or high blood pressure, but you as a whole person. We treat your whole body and we get to know you well.” Dr. Manalo believes that this whole person philosophy, “promotes wellness within.”

He also says that he and his office administrator Dayna Yannello are always building these types of relationships with their patients and creating a different atmosphere in the practice. “As a new practice,” he says, “we have the ability to take time with the patients we see, and to really get to know (them). (We’re) unlike other practices around here.”

Happy, Healthy Patients

JosĂ© Bernardo and his wife, Lillian Ayala, agree that Florida Family Practice is unique. “When we moved here from Puerto Rico six years ago, we came from a different culture, where it’s more of a family relationship built with you and your kids,” JosĂ© says. “Our experience here with doctors is that it’s been impersonal, and the feeling that your doctor cares about you just hasn’t been there.”

But, JosĂ© explains, “Dr. Manalo is completely different from that. He cares. He follows up, emails you, calls you. And, Dayna is amazing. They have been available for us on the weekend, after work hours. We have not been able to find this type of treatment and care from anybody else, and we have tried plenty.”

Dr. Manalo explains it this way: “For me personally, the care and services I provide to my patients is a partnership or a trust. A lot of doctors say, ‘do this, take this,’ and that’s that. I like to have more of an open dialogue. We’re developing a relationship; it’s not one-sided where I’m the boss telling the patient what to do.”

He says his dream to own his own  medical practice is rooted in caring for his community. “I’m getting to know communities and families and want to be the best doctor I can be,” he says. “My vision is to streamline medicine. Some people don’t think primary care is necessary. In the future, I hope to combine family practice and urgent care, so that people who come in just for urgent care can get the follow up they need from a family practice doctor.”

In a way, he says, his office already functions similarly to an urgent care facility. “If you need a sick visit, we can accommodate that.”

The practice offers same-day visits, so you don’t have to schedule months in advance, and you can even schedule online, through FLFamilyPractice.com.

Florida Family Practice is currently seeing patients at the Fletcher Ave. office on Mondays and Tuesdays, and in Wesley Chapel on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Saturday and after-hours appointments are sometimes available, if needed.

“I’m here and I’m available,” Dr. Manalo says. “I have a new vision of how a practice should be. You can reach us by phone, email or text, and you won’t have to wait several days to hear back from the doctor. You’ll see it as you get to know us. Community is key.”

Florida Family Practice’s Wesley Chapel office is located at 2412 Cypress Glen Dr., Suite 102, and its Tampa office is at 3450 E. Fletcher Ave., Suite 330. For more information, visit FLFamilyPractice.com, or call (813) 812-4133.

Let The Husband-and-Wife Doctors At Small World Pediatrics Care For Your Kids

Together, José Jiménez, M.D., and Nancy Silva, M.D., are two local pediatricians who care for many young patients at Small World Pediatrics in Wesley Chapel.

More than just partners in practice, they’re partners in life, too — as husband and wife, and Dad and Mom to two kids, ages 12 and three.

They’re part of this community, as Meadow Pointe residents for 15 years, with their kids attending local schools. They think that’s part of what makes Small World Pediatrics special.

“It’s much more personal here,” says Dr. Silva. “We have fun. Our patients know our staff, and know us. We run into people in the community and see our patients at Publix.”

Dr. JimĂ©nez earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1992, after transferring from prestigious Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. He earned a Doctor of Medicine  (M.D.) degree from the University of South Florida (USF) College of Medicine in Tampa in 1996, and completed his pediatric residency at USF in 2000.

Dr. Silva earned her M.D. degree from the State University of New York (SUNY) Health Science Center in Brooklyn in 1997, after earning a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in an Honors B.S./M.D. program at City University of New York (CUNY) Brooklyn College in 1993. Like Dr. Jiménez, she also completed her residency at USF in 2000.

Small World Pediatrics is located in the Windguard Professional Center across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC). Dr. Jiménez first opened Small World Pediatrics in 2003 in the Northwoods plaza on BBD in Wesley Chapel, near Target, and moved it to its current location in 2010.

Dr. Silva joined the practice in 2014, after the couple’s second child was born. She had been practicing with a group in Brandon for 14 years, but — with two small kids — wanted a job closer to home and with more flexibility than working full-time somewhere else.

She and her husband have been working together ever since.

“Most patients don’t realize it, but they’re really getting a ‘2-for-1 deal’ when they come here,” Dr. Silva says. “We bounce ideas off each other. We can give (each other) a second opinion.”

They also share a philosophy to provide personal service.

“Some people want to get in and get out and get their antibiotics and be on their way in five minutes,” says Dr. Silva. “But, for those people who want more of a parent/child connection, and don’t want to feel like a number, those are the patients who should come to us.”

Dr. Silva says her best medical advice for your children is to get annual physicals.

“Even if your kid is fine, please get an annual physical,” she says. “We recently had a seven-year-old patient we had only seen for sick visits since he was two, and we found he had undescended testicles. We discover so much in those physicals, from vision problems to scoliosis.”

While it does take a little time, the annual check-up likely won’t cost you any money.

“It’s very rare to see a co-pay on a well check these days,” says Dr. JimĂ©nez.

At Small World Pediatrics, caring for children and their parents is always the highest priority.

“We try to do our absolute best for our patients,” explains Dr. JimĂ©nez. “When there are tough decisions to make, we try to always do what’s right for the child, and we always take time for the parents.”

For example, the office doesn’t have an answering service.

“All after-hours calls are forwarded to my cell phone, where patients may leave a message,” says Dr. JimĂ©nez. “I return all calls personally.”

And, they don’t just send patients to the emergency room, either. The doctors will call ahead to notify the hospital that a patient is coming and make sure the medical records are transferred appropriately.

They also invite their patients to call them if they’re not sure whether they should head to the emergency room – or which one to go to. “It may be that you should go to St. Joseph’s, where they have pediatric ER doctors and surgeons on call, or you might need to go to Florida Hospital, which is a lot closer,” Dr. Silva says. “Just call us and we’ll guide you.”

Happy Patients…Happy Parents

Christina M’Gaha is a Wesley Chapel mom with four children and one more on the way. She has been taking her kids to Small World Pediatrics for 11 years, since her oldest was just six months old.

“What I love is that it’s not just a doctor’s practice,” she says. “They treat you like you’re family.”

She explains, “They remember your name. If they see you in the store, they call you by name. They ask about my husband even though he’s not usually there (at the appointments). They get to know the whole family.”

Christina says Dr. Jiménez and Dr. Silva have both gone above and beyond for her family, such as the time she called Dr. Jiménez after hours and he met her at the office 15 minutes later, rather than sending her to an urgent care facility. Another time, Christina says Dr. Silva made a house call when a plumbing issue closed the Small World Pediatrics office temporarily.

“I used to think it was just me they treated like family,” says Christina. “Now I see that they really care about all their patients.”

Dr. JimĂ©nez says that’s the way he wants it to be. “I’m a small town guy, so I like seeing people I know at the supermarket,” he says. As a pediatrician in this community for 14 years now, that happens pretty often.

As for his personal care, he says. “I’m proud and honored that patients have stayed with me and many have been here since the beginning.”

Dr. JimĂ©nez and Dr. Silva are involved in the community they serve. Dr. Silva recently became a Boy Scout leader with their son’s troop. Previously, both doctors were Cub Scout leaders, and Dr. Silva was active with the Sand Pine Elementary PTA.

They also are advocates for wearing seatbelts, which began with a very personal story, as Dr. Silva lost a patient due to an automobile accident in 2006. Dr. JimĂ©nez and Dr. Silva began “The Battle of the Belts” in Pasco County in 2009, partnering with Pasco Safe Kids, a seatbelt awareness campaign involving all of the high schools in Pasco County each spring. Schools compete to effectively deliver the message to students. Small World Pediatrics is the sole sponsor of the event this year.

The doctors also have worked to help pass seatbelt laws in both 2009 and 2014.

All of their efforts in the community, to raise their family, and to take excellent care of their patients are things they do together. “We trade off with both kids and work, and I like it,” says Dr. Silva. “I like that someone always has my back, and in this case, it’s my husband.”

Small World Pediatrics is located is at 2527 Windguard Circle, Suite 102, and is open Mon. – Fri., 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. For more information, visit SmallWorldPediatrics.com, see the ad on page 6 or call (813) 907-8001.