October 24, 2017

Heather Eppelheimer is a child life specialist with Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. While she is quick to offer support in any way she can, Heather’s primary responsibility is to work closely with expecting families who have lost a child.

Heather helps these families cope with their loss and create lasting memories of their child. She offers the same type of support to her colleagues who might be going through a stressful time, consistently rising above and beyond as a supportive teammate.

“Heather has become a staple of support and mentorship for our Child Life Department,” said Saraben Turner, a child life manager. “She approaches each day with a mission to provide optimal, compassionate care to her patients and families, while also ensuring that her colleagues and teammates are feeling supported in the exceptional work they do.”

“She truly exemplifies living compassionately and amplifying unity in her every day work,” Turner continued. “She is continually provided with Caught You Caring awards and other recognitions highlighting the strong work she provides to patients and their families, her team and Texas Children’s Hospital.”

Launched in 2015, Texas Children’s Caught You Caring program is a systemwide program that recognizes employees for going above and beyond to provide compassion and kindness in the care of a patient, family or co-worker. Recently, Epplelheimer was among more than a dozen employees who received a pair of tickets to watch the Houston Texans Play 60 game on October 1, after being recognized for his acts of kindness through this program.

Texas Children’s wants to continue to recognize those who take great pride in the work they do and encourages patients, families and employees to catch someone who is making a difference.

To nominate a colleague, Caught You Caring boxes and cards can be found across the Texas Children’s hospital system for patients and families to fill out. Employees can fill out a Caught You Caring form on Connect. Cards and online submissions will be distributed to leaders for staff recognition.

For the next three weeks, Connect will feature a series of Caught You Caring videos spotlighting several of our employees who have gone above and beyond their role in the care of our patients and their families.

Pediatric plastic surgeon Dr. Edward Buchanan has published his third children’s book in a series called the Mental Ninja Series.

The first two books of the series, “The Adventures of the Prickly Pear and the Happy Hoglet: Beginning the Journey of the Mental Ninja” and “Pit Bully: The Mental Ninja Awakens,” introduce readers to a world of characters focused on understanding themselves, their feeling and the control they have over their emotions.

In “The Tale of Fenny Fox: The Mental Ninja Emerges,” the journey continues, with the introduction to more characters and a message about the beauty of differences and the importance those differences play in people’s lives.

For more information about Buchanan’s book series, click here.

October 17, 2017

For the twelfth consecutive year, Texas Children’s Hospital has been ranked by the Houston Business Journal as one of the Best Places to Work in Houston. This year Texas Children’s ranked No. 3 among companies employing more than 1,000 employees!

“This ranking is a result of employees’ transparent feedback about life at Texas Children’s, and with what I witness on a daily basis, I’m not surprised we landed among the city’s top employers,” said Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark A. Wallace. “We are one amazing team!”

The Houston Business Journal held an awards luncheon October 12 at the Marriott Marquis to present the 17th annual Best Places to Work awards and celebrate all 104 companies that made the cut.

The award recognizes companies in the Houston area with the most satisfied employees and are compiled by Quantum Workplace, which sent a survey to employees of nominated companies. Quantum then comes up with scores based on corporate culture, amenities, benefits, and worker retention and attraction strategies. Companies are ranked by that score in four categories based on company size.

Last week, Texas Children’s co-hosted the largest annual nursing conference in the country, along with other local Magnet® hospitals. More than 10,000 nurses and nursing executives representing more than 20 countries gathered at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston for the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) National Magnet Conference® from October 11 to 13.

Texas Children’s Magnet team handled various parts of the coordination including registering and preparing staff volunteers to serve in a variety of roles at the conference. The team also organized a pediatric Magnet® hospital networking dinner and hospital tours for nursing leaders from pediatric hospitals across the country as well as a tour for nurses from Lebanon. The groups toured the Cancer Center, Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, and Mission Control at Texas Children’s Medical Center campus.

Chief Nursing Officer Mary Jo Andre and Executive Vice President Dan DiPrisco welcomed the more than 10,000 attendees at the opening session. In addition to poster presentations, several of Texas Children’s nurses and staff delivered insightful podium presentations during the three-day Magnet Conference® including a presentation on how simulation-based design tests prior to the construction of Legacy Tower helped optimize patient care workflows to enhance patient safety, minimize risk and foster family-centered care.

“It is so motivating and inspiring to see the great works of other nurse colleagues,” said Leslie Morris, education coordinator at Texas Children’s Heart Center. “The nursing conference also provided great opportunities for networking.”

As the official annual conference of the prestigious Magnet Recognition Program®, the event recognized the accomplishments of newly designated Magnet organizations and showcased best nursing practices that organizations can incorporate in their own nursing programs.

“I think it is important for our nurses to attend the Magnet Conference® to fully understand what it means to be a Magnet nurse,” said Curt Roberts, a staff nurse in the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Texas Children’s. “When you experience all the positive changes in practice and patient outcomes that have been spearheaded by nurses, you realize that it’s a big deal to work in a Magnet institution and be a Magnet nurse.”

This year, 125 employees from Texas Children’s attended the Magnet Conference®. Next year’s conference will be held in Denver.

For nurses who were unable to attend the conference, click here to watch video highlights.

Nurses from across the country toured Texas Children’s during the week of the Nursing Conference.

“One thing I enjoy most about Texas Children’s is meeting the families, and having a positive interaction with the patients and the families as a whole,” said Keith Thomas, an ambulatory services representative at Texas Children’s Autism Center and a 2017 Caught You Caring Award recipient.

When Jennifer Evans interviewed Keith nearly two years ago, she knew right away that she wanted him to be part of her team at the Autism Center. From the moment Keith walked into the office, he has improved the whole dynamic of everything at the front desk.

“Keith is the first person that patients and families see when they come into our office,” said Evans who nominated Keith for the Caught You Caring award. “He is a very genuine person, and makes everyone feel comfortable and welcome whether they are a patient, staff member or provider.”

“Keith gives every family the individual attention that they deserve, and that’s what makes such a big difference,” said Ambulatory Service Representative Yvette Gonzales. “He is always going above and beyond for the patients and parents. He is wonderful and definitely deserving of the Caught You Caring award.”

Launched in 2015, Texas Children’s Caught You Caring program is a systemwide program that recognizes employees for going above and beyond to provide compassion and kindness in the care of a patient, family or co-worker. Recently, Keith was among more than a dozen employees who received a pair of tickets to watch the Houston Texans Play 60 game on October 1, after being recognized for his acts of kindness through this program.

Texas Children’s wants to continue to recognize those who take great pride in the work they do and encourages patients, families and employees to catch someone who is making a difference.

To nominate a colleague, Caught You Caring boxes and cards can be found across the Texas Children’s hospital system for patients and families to fill out. Employees can fill out a Caught You Caring form on Connect. Cards and online submissions will be distributed to leaders for staff recognition.

For the next four weeks, Connect will feature a series of Caught You Caring videos spotlighting several of our employees who have gone above and beyond their role in the care of our patients and their families.

As Dr. Ricardo Flores, clinical director of the Cancer and Hematology Centers at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, listened to the news about the devastation in Puerto Rico after the island was slammed with two hurricanes in less than a month, he knew he had to do something to help his homeland.

So, he and some of his friends in the area who are also from Puerto Rico did some research and joined the group, Texas United for Puerto Rico. Within a few days, they had gathered thousands of pound of supplies, including medications, and were sending them to the many people in need on their island.

Word of Flores’ efforts soon reached the City of Houston prompting Mayor Sylvester Turner to call him and ask if he could join forces with the physician. Flores agreed and before long he and a small group of city officials were on a plane to Puerto Rico with 50,000 pounds of supplies in tow.

“It was a titanic effort,” Flores said of the delivery of the supplies, which included medications and food. “Thanks to the community and to the help of so many people, we were able to distribute the entire load.”

Flores said he will continue to work to help his home recover from what he said is an awful situation that has left people without adequate food, water and medication.

“It’s definitely much worse than what people are thinking,” he said. “It’s literally like we went back 100 years in our history in the blink of an eye.”

Click here and here to watch area news coverage of Flores’ efforts in Puerto Rico.

Texas Children’s Cancer Center’s Making A Mark art exhibition is showing on The Auxiliary Bridge until Friday, October 27. Sponsored by the Periwinkle Foundation, this exhibit showcases more than 300 pieces of art created by young patients as well as larger-than-life pieces made in collaboration with local artist Jon Clark. The exhibit is in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month in September.

Patients worked with Jon Clark over the spring and summer while receiving treatment to create this year’s collaborative piece “Flourish” using repurposed medical supplies. Each year, Periwinkle invites a guest artist guides and curates a final piece of art for display. Clark joins a distinguished group of past guest artists, including Elaine Bradford, John Palmer, Kelly Gale Amen, Anat Ronen and Reginald Adams.

As a special feature of this year’s Making A Mark exhibit, select artwork has been paired with songs from Periwinkle Arts In Medicine partner, Purple Songs Can Fly. The songs were written by patients and siblings from Texas Children’s Cancer Center and Hematology Centers and can be found throughout the exhibit. Just look for a purple musical note!