About Us

Our Staff

Our Medical Director, Steven Leichter, M.D., is a board certified internist and endocrinologist. He attended Columbia University for his undergraduate degree and obtained his medical degree from the University of Virginia. He is a nationally recognized physician with over 70 published medical papers and book chapters. He was the third physician in the United States to use the insulin pump and was the first to give a commercial injection of human insulin.

Howard Heinze, M.D. is a Board Certified Pediatric Endocrinologist, who is a special resource in the Western Georgia, Eastern Alabama area.  He is the only pediatric endocrinologist between the Atlanta area and Birmingham.  Dr. Heinze has special interest in insulin pump therapy for childhood diabetes, growth problems in children, and other endocrine disorders in children. 

Ricardo Alvarez, M.D. is an experienced endocrinologist, who has special training and expertise in the nutritional aspects of metabolic therapy. he has special interest in thyroid disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. 

Sabrina Rene, M.D. is in charge of our Center in Newnan, Georgia.  She is known for her interest in thyroid disease and women's health issues in endocrinology.  However, as all of her physicians, she has a broad experience in clinical endocrinology and metabolism.

Elizabeth Dreelin, Ph.D. is our clinical psychologist.  She has developed a well-appreciated reputation both within and without our area for her pioneering work in the psychological assessment of patients with chronic disease who are having problems coping successfully with the rigors of the treatment regimen.

Lisa Funston, CNP, is our nurse practitioner, and has a growing experience in the evaluation in multiple problems in endocrine or diabetic patients.

Donna Worthington, R.D. is our dietitian, who has worked with Dr. Alvarez to develop the first therapeutic program in the application of the Mediterranean Diet in Western Georgia.

Dee Caskey, R.N. is the primary teaching nurse and physician extender. She has a long and diverse experience in nursing, and was most recently a nurse at the Wound Care Center of St. Francis Hospital. This background not only gives her experience in relevant areas to diabetes care, such as wound care, but she is also now fully experienced with all modalities of diabetes care, including insulin pumps, glucose sensors, and diabetes education.

Renee Spencer, LPN, our clinical research coordinator, manages all of our protocols with new drugs and therapeutic programs. She is assisted by Mary DeQuattro.

Elizabeth Dreelin, Ph.D. is our clinical psychologist. She works with us, not in the traditional psychological counseling function, but as an advisor to our staff and our patients about those life situations that obstruct or interfere with adherence to the complex treatment requirements of chronic metabolic conditions. As such, she is an integral part of our clinical and patient educational team. She received much of her clinical training at Emory University in Atlanta.

Missy Knight, R.N. is our newest diabetes educator, who is developing a very rich experience in the application of insulin pump therapy in diabetes, and the sensitive assessment of issues in patient coping with the condition.

Together, our medical staff, including four endocrinologists, constitutes one of the largest and most comprehensive diabetes/endocrine centers in the Southeastern United States.

Office Hours and After Hours Coverage

Office Hours begin at 8:00 AM for patients having laboratory testing. Patient visits start at 8:45 AM. The office closes for lunch from 12:30 PM until 2:00 PM. Our offices close for the day at 5:00 PM.

A physician is always on call for after-hours emergencies.

Diseases and Conditions Seen at Endocrine Consultants

We see patients with:
diabetes (children and adults); cholesterol disorders; osteoporosis; thyroid disease; women's health problems involving menopause, hormone imbalance, abnormal hair growth, and fatigue; growth and development problems in children and teenagers; high or low blood pressure; sexual impotency (usually seen with a urologist); pituitary disorders; adrenal disorders; and all other problems of hormones and metabolism. We evaluate patients who have high risks of heart disease to identify those risks and reduce them. We see patients with kidney stones to determine the metabolic causes of the stones and prevent new ones from occurring, with nutritional deficiencies, and patients with severe obesity, who have other medical problems made worse by their overweight condition.

As specialists in the area of endocrinology, we do not offer primary care, and prefer that our patients have a primary physician. If patients do not have a primary physician, we are happy to work with them in referring them to a licensed primary care physician.

Special Programs

Endocrine Consultants, PC, offers a variety of "state-of-the-art" clinical programs in diabetes, metabolic disease, and endocrinology, which include:

• Insulin Pump Program: Endocrine Consultants is a recognized provider of services for the initiation and maintenance of insulin pump therapy.
• Glucose Sensor: We were the first group outside of Atlanta to use the Minimed Glucose Sensor and offer it as part of our program to regulate uncontrolled diabetes.
• Weight Management: Endocrine Consultants has developed a model 21st Century program for weight management in patients with metabolic disease. This program assumes that proper diet is, of course, important, as well as the recognition of newly defined syndromes of defective metabolic regulation of appetite.
• Osteoporosis: We are the leading program for osteoporosis evaluation and management in the area. Services include comprehensive evaluation to identify the specific causes of bone loss in each individual.
• Metabolic Causes of Kidney Stones: Patients who have repeated kidney stones often have a metabolic defect causing these stones. We have developed a comprehensive stone evaluation service to identify these causes and treat them so that future stone formation is prevented.
• Growth Hormone Replacement: We provide testing and treatment of patients who have or may have a deficiency of growth hormone secretion. This problem may occur in both children and adults. Children with growth hormone deficiency may not grow at a normal rate, whereas adults may have osteoporosis, fatigue, and weight loss.
• Orthostatic Hypotension and Mitral Valve Prolapse: We are the primary center in Western Georgia and Eastern Alabama to evaluate endocrine causes of low blood pressure, dizziness upon standing up, and the hormonal problems seen in patients with mitral valve prolapse.

Insurance Coverage

We accept most major insurance programs including Blue Cross, Evergreen, State Merit (Georgia), Medicare, Medicaid (Georgia), Aetna, Cigna, QHP, Tricare, and Mailhandlers. Patients with questions should check with our office staff. Patients with HMO insurance of any form are responsible for having their physician referral with them at the time of the first appointment, and all subsequent appointments. Patients without health insurance are seen on a case-by-case basis, provided that an arrangement for services has been made with our office manager before the first appointment.

First Appointments

The first visit with us is usually the longest, with an average time of approximately two hours in the office. We ask that our new patients arrive thirty minutes early during the first visit to complete necessary forms. We also suggest that patients bring prior medical records and medications. Patients are often told by their referring physicians that their doctor will FAX or send their records. It is more reliable if patients obtain their records from the doctor and bring them along to the first visit. During the first visit, patients will be examined, interviewed, tested, and an initial game plan to approach the condition will be discussed.

We do not often provide a firm opinion about the condition on the first visit. In our area of medicine, laboratory or other tests are usually necessary before a complete opinion may be provided. This may take a few visits. We will not discuss laboratory test results or other results by phone with patients after the first visit. These test batteries are usually complicated. The next visit is specifically for reviewing these tests and making further plans.

We are happy to have family or friends involved in the discussions with our patients. However, we will not discuss anything about one of our patients with a family member or friend unless we have specific written authorization to do so by the patient, and unless the patient is present during the discussion. Of course, parents or guardians of minor patients have the right to have any discussions they wish. We generally start working with our patients within thirty minutes of their appointment time.

The longest wait is less than an hour. We are very concerned about adhering to our patient schedule. Emergency patients or phone calls make that unreliable at times; however, we do value the time of our

patients as we know they value ours.

Other Appointments

Follow-up appointments usually take less than thirty minutes, unless special services or procedures are involved. These special services may include special laboratory testing, detailed educational services, or services involving advanced technology.

Follow-up appointments usually involve a review of the initial or subsequent laboratory data, review of the clinical status of the patient, and derivation of plans for future care. A detailed progress report is prepared after most appointments for the primary physician or referring physician of the patient. Patients who walk in without appointments or have emergency appointments are called "fit-ins", which means that we are "fitting them into our schedule". When this happens, there may be a wait.

We attempt to identify with our patients when they are in that situation, and seen as urgent or emergency visits. Patients occasionally call the office to ask our staff if their lab work or prior medical records are in their chart in preparation for the first visit. Our staff can tell patients that labs or prior records are there. They are not prepared to determine whether everything the doctor needs to see is there. The best way to be sure that everything the doctor needs to see will be present at the visit is for patients to bring all such records themselves.

Patients or family also call at times and ask to be told the results of laboratory or other testing over the phone. In general, we do not provide such services. We usually do a large and complex battery of laboratory tests. The proper time and place for review of these results is at the office visit. We will, of course, send copies of laboratory work to patients at any time.

Forms and Records Duplication

We are pleased to assist our patients with the completion of administrative forms whenever possible. However, some forms, such as disability forms, require extraordinary time and/or effort, or ask for assessments, which exceed our usual medical expertise. Therefore, we reserve the right to review each request for the completion of forms on a case-by-case basis. Our review of such forms does not imply a commitment to complete them. Appropriate charges may be assessed for the time and effort required by such forms. Patients should be aware that such charges are not covered by health insurance. Patients should also be aware that disability or life insurance companies will contact us and demand that we complete complex forms for them to assess whether to write an insurance contract with the patient, or whether they are obligated to honor payments required by an existing insurance contract. Often, these companies refuse to pay for the services they request from us, or demand that we bill our patient for the services. Endocrine Consultants will not provide such services for these companies unless they pay a customary fee for them, depending on the time required to provide them. We will not bill our patients for services an outside company requests.

We charge the fees allowed by the State of Georgia for any complete or majority duplication of a medical record. Brief excerpts of medical records may be provided to our patient, or to the identified recipient of these records, as a courtesy. Because of the expenses incurred in copying medical records, patients will be charged for complete copies, in accordance with the laws of the State of Georgia. We recommend that patients retain any copies for their own future use. Copies may then be made for other health providers and agencies by the patient from this "master" copy.

The cost of copies of records to be sent to businesses or organizations not directly involved in the rendering of care to patients will not be provided unless the requesting company provides prepayment for these records. Instructions by such companies for us to bill our patients and send these copies to them before we are paid for the copying services will not be honored.

After-Hours Communication

There is always a physician on call after office hours. After-hours medical support is limited to actual emergency situations that cannot wait until the next business day. Routine clinical questions, prescription refills, or questions related to administrative matters should be held until the following business day. We suggest that patients who have placed a call for after-hours help to keep their phone clear once the call has been placed. Occasionally, patients have kept their phone busy after calling us, and become frustrated if they do not hear an immediate response.

The scope of services available over the phone after hours is limited. Some questions or clinical issues may be handled by phone, but many require immediate examination in a local emergency room. Occasionally, the advice to visit an emergency room frustrates patients; they do not realize how difficult it is to render an informed opinion on questions over the phone.

Our answering service will not accept calls regarding changing or canceling appointments. We do not discuss questions regarding adult patients over the phone with family members, unless specifically instructed to do so by our patient, or a family member has the medical power of attorney.