Healing, Educating Generations Of Local Families
/By Janee Law
jlaw@longislandergroup.com
Salvatore Caravella, MD, and Eve Meltzer-Krief, MD, co-partners of Huntington Village Pediatrics, pride themselves on offering a business that has open availability 365 days of the year.
Along the walls of Huntington Village Pediatrics are 3-D butterflies that lead to a large plant, where toy monkeys and birds rest on the branches in the corner of the well-side waiting room.
For more than 40 years, Huntington Village Pediatrics has aided generations of families and offered a fun, welcoming environment for patients, ranging from newborns to 18 year olds, to explore and enjoy.
“We’re probably one of the smaller practices in the area, but I like that it’s just us seeing them,” co-partner Eve Meltzer-Krief, MD, of Centerport, said. “We get to know our patients from birth through college. It gives it more of a personal touch.”
Doctors at the 2-300-square-foot, 124 Main St. office handle checkups and treat illnesses. There are two separate entrances, one for sick patients and another for well patients.
“When you come in for your child’s checkup, you don’t have a child that’s sick right next to your child coughing in their face,” Meltzer-Krief said. “We try and keep the office separated, as well as half of the rooms.”
Over the years, the office continued to benefit its patients by instituting walk in’s for working parents, with walk in hours between 8-10 a.m. and 5-6 p.m.
“It’s for their convenience,” Meltzer said. “We prefer they come here rather than go to an urgi center because an urgi center doesn’t have a full medical history, they don’t know if patients have been on antibiotics recently and sometimes patients are not being seen by pediatric doctors.”
With that, Meltzer-Krief said that the office prides itself on its availability to patients, with an office that’s open every day of the year, including holidays.
In addition, Meltzer-Krief said the office participates in charities every year. This year, they are collecting items from bibs, onesies, receiving blankets, hats, socks and more to be donated to Newborns in Need, a nonprofit that has an office in Huntington.
Graduating from Sackler School of Medicine in 1995 with a medical degree, Meltzer-Krief said that she’s been with Village Pediatrics for 18 years. She first joined up in 1999.
Meltzer-Krief, who shares the business with co-partner Salvatore Caravella, MD, of Greenlawn, said that she’s wanted to be a pediatrician since she was a little girl.
“Kids make me happy. You help mold and shape them and give them a positive influence and guidance,” Meltzer-Krief said. “I’m very blessed and lucky that I’m doing what I love to do.”
Her biggest job as a doctor, Meltzer-Krief said, is educating the parents on all aspects relating to the health, well-being and safety of their child.
“As we treat sick children, we see well children to ensure that we educate parents on how they should be developing and give them guidance on anything from discipline to diaper rashes to school problems,” she added. “We give anticipatory guidance at every checkup just to make sure that they’re well, safe and protected.”
Village Pediatrics is always seeking patients, open to new families in the area, Meltzer-Krief said.
“It’s just a great place to be if you want that small town doctor feel. That’s really what we want to try and create,” she said. “Patients are definitely going to get top notch medical care in a warm, friendly, and welcoming environment, so that their family can be a part of our family.”
Huntington Village Pediatrics
124 Main St., Huntington
631-423-0044
Huntingtonvillagepediatrics.com
