Dr. Lalitha Raguthu is the new owner of Tendercare Pediatrics in the Summergate Professional Park, located behind Sam’s Club off S.R. 56.
Dr. Raguthu bought the practice with her husband, Dr. Durga Chintakayala, or “Dr. Chinta” for short. The pair already own Blossom Pediatric Care on E. Martin Luther King Blvd. in Tampa, where Dr. Chinta has been in solo practice for the last three years, with Dr. Raguthu occasionally covering for him. Now, she is the primary doctor at Tendercare, and he covers for her as needed.
“One of us is always here,” Dr. Chinta says. “When Dr. Raguthu is away at conferences, I see the patients.”
Dr. Chinta and Dr. Raguthu have been married for 22 years and have two children. Their son, Sahas, is 15, and their daughter Sveta, is 12. The New Tampa residents are happy to have a practice closer to home. Tendercare Pediatrics previously was owned by Dr. Radhika Ranganathan.
“The opportunity arose for us to buy this practice, and it was a quick transition,” says Dr. Chinta.
The couple bought their home in Cory Lake Isles in 2013, when Dr. Chinta accepted a position in the spinal cord unit at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa. At the same time, they opened Blossom Pediatric Care, and Dr. Raguthu began working at Night Owl Pediatrics on Cross Creek Blvd.
Prior to that, the couple lived in New York City, where Dr. Raguthu spent three years working in the emergency room at the Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn and one year in Urgent Care at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.
She had previously earned her MBBS degree (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery; equivalent to the M.D. degree in the U.S.) from the Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College in Gulbarga, India. She did her residency at Brookdale University Hospital & Medical Center in Brooklyn and served a one-year fellowship in Neurology at New York University in Manhattan, NY.
During their time in New York, Dr. Chinta worked at the VA New York Harbor Health Care System and also worked as an emergency physician and urgent care doctor at Montefiore Medical Center.
Dr. Chinta earned his MBBS degree from Guntur Medical College in Guntur, India. He then did a one-year post-doctoral fellowship in nuclear medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD. He completed his residency in family medicine at St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center in New York, NY.
Check Out The Changes
Dr. Raguthu is proud to show off the new play area she created in the waiting room, so little ones don’t get antsy if they have to wait a few minutes to see the doctor. Even more than that, she says she gets a great response from patients when they visit her new room for nursing mothers.
“A lot of mothers are breastfeeding, and that’s very important,” says Dr. Raguthu. “We want to give them privacy and encourage breastfeeding, so we created a nursing room just for them.”
She says parents can feel comfortable bringing their kids to her, especially when they are sick or injured.
“I have a lot of experience in urgent and acute care,” says Dr. Raguthu, explaining that she is well trained in handling emergency issues if they arise, such as acute asthma or lacerations.
“We are accepting new patients, and we especially want to welcome back any patients who were with the practice before we came here,” says Dr. Raguthu, explaining that insurance companies have told former Tendercare patients that they needed to find a new doctor because Dr. Ranganathan no longer took their insurance.
Dr. Raguthu wants those patients to know that while Dr. Ranganathan is no longer at the practice, Tendercare Pediatrics can accept their insurance. They can continue coming to the practice where they are already established, and she is there waiting to see them.
Dr. Raguthu says that the new office offers an improved experience for anyone who has been to Tendercare Pediatrics in the past.
Sowmya Ayyala, a mom who lives in Arbor Greene and has taken her two daughters, ages 4 and 1, to Tendercare Pediatrics since they were born, says that the claim is true.
“It was a very smooth transition,” says Sowmya. “Dr. Raguthu spends good, quality time for each visit, and the wait is usually only 10-15 minutes from the front desk until the time I see the doctor. On all my visits, she spends a lot of time explaining everything, and medically, what she recommends works for my daughters.”
Sowmya also admits that she was, “concerned about having a new pediatrician because I was used to the other one, but I had met Dr. Raguthu at an urgent care and I liked her then. I thought I would try a couple of visits, and I’ve had a fantastic experience.”
Dr. Raguthu believes that her own personal journey has helped her to be a more empathetic practitioner.
“I love kids,” she says. “My husband and I were in medical school when we lost our infant baby, who was three months old. That’s where my interest in pediatrics really started.”
She adds that she also has experienced recovering from a stroke that she suffered right after medical school. “I look at life differently because of my experiences,” she says. “I appreciate things that are often taken for granted, like walking, talking, even picking up the phone with my right hand,” all things she could not do at one point.
“I can feel the pain of every mother who calls with a concern,” she says. “I never brush them off.”
Always Available For Patients
As a primarily solo practitioner, Dr. Raguthu makes herself available in a way you might not find in a larger practice.
“I am accessible via phone 24/7,” she says. “After hours, the business phones roll over directly to my cell phone.”
She says she generally adds her patients to her contacts so she can text them to follow up. “I want them to have a personal touch,” she says. “My patients appreciate the fact that I can help them on weekends by providing triage care and calling in prescriptions. I do as much as I can to help them after hours.”
Tendercare Pediatrics is accepting new patients from birth to age 21, and accepts self-pay patients, as well as those with Medicaid or private insurance.
“We welcome walk-ins, so feel free to just come by,” she says. “When patients call, we are happy to give them a same-day appointment if we can, and most of the time we’re able to.”
Tendercare Pediatrics is located at 27432 Cashford Cir., Suite 102. The office is open Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information about the practice, call 973-9900.
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