December 10, 2019

Hosted by Cox Media Group Houston, the two-day event will be held December 12 and 13 on the third floor of the Pavilion for Women near the Bistro Café.

Throughout the 48-hour period, people are encouraged to open their hearts and wallets in support of the radiothon while listening to radio personalities from The Eagle (106.9 & 107.5), Country Legends (97.1) and The New 93Q (92.9) interview patients, their families and many of our clinical experts.

Every dollar donated to the radiothon will help Texas Children’s continue to fulfill its mission to create a healthier future for children and women throughout our global community by leading in patient care, education and research. More specifically, the money will benefit Texas Children’s Cancer Center.

For more information about the Cox Media Group Houston Radiothon, click here.

No one working in healthcare today would say that it is easy. And children’s hospitals are even more complex: we must wrap our arms around not only our patients, but their families (and teachers, school nurses, caregivers, and others). Overcoming these unique challenges yields extraordinary rewards – for kids, families, and communities – so it’s worth it. Building healthier futures is why we do what we do.

Delivering Texas Children’s-quality healthcare requires unparalleled care-coordination. As emphasized in Planning a Patient’s Care (one key element of Care Coordination), this means recognizing potential barriers to care and addressing them in advance.

“This particular element sets an expectation to look at each patient’s individual needs and take the time to understand the clinical and non-clinical resources that are required and available, “ said Dr. Katie Ostermaier, medical director at Texas Children’s Health Plan and a Care Coordination team lead. “It sounds simple, but what it really demands is that we build relationships with the right partners and deliver resources in way that is proactive and well thought-out.” Ostermaier compared care coordination to a village raising a child: “Someone in the village must be thinking in advance about everything that child will need in the future and the best way to deliver it.”

The same applies to Texas Children’s. Sterling care coordination requires:

  • Having a shared care plan that forces us to anticipate needs and potential problems.
  • Communicating with patients by explaining treatments, procedures, and follow-up care.
  • Facilitating communication between providers and caregivers by sharing complete patient stories during hand-offs.
  • Transitioning patients efficiently between areas within our system and stages of care.
  • Optimizing patient convenience by considering things like scheduling, transportation, supplies, and medications.
  • Using community resources effectively.

Both clinical and non-clinical employees are critical to this work. Care Coordination is a priority for each and every member of our One Amazing Team.

Tell us your story

Do you or someone you work with coordinate care well? Tell us how by sending a note to connect@texaschildrens.org. We want to hear from you!

Want to know more about Care Coordination? Reach out to Andrea Romay, senior project manager for Care Coordination at maromayd@texaschildrens.org or 832-824-7831.

Another Leadership Maxim series has come to a close, highlighting amazing leadership throughout the organization through a series of guest blogs on On The Mark. To celebrate the finale, about 100 employees who participated in the series or commented on the blogs in the series attended a private event with the Houston Texans that included a behind-the-scenes tour of NRG Stadium, an autograph session with two Houston Texans football players and photos with Texans cheerleaders. The event was held on December 3. Read more

On Monday, Texas Children’s closed on the purchase of two plots of land in Austin – Presidio to the north and Estancia to the south (click on image to see both plots). This additional investment into the Austin community is yet another example of our commitment to expand our expert pediatric and maternal care to more conveniently serve the families of central Texas.

“In June 2017, we first announced plans to extend our brand of pediatric and maternal care to the Austin community,” President and CEO Mark Wallace said.  “Eighteen months later, we have 62 employees and 23 physicians in Austin helping to deliver on our mission and intention of caring for the children and families in need of the expert care we provide, closer to home.”

Texas Children’s is constantly exploring options and assessing the needs of children and women in the community to help fill gaps in care where they exist. Currently, there are no confirmed plans for the use of this land.

“We know Austin continues to be one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, and our goal is to help supplement and add value to the great health care options already available to Austin-area families,” Executive Vice President Michelle Riley-Brown said.

The organization’s first health care location in Austin, Texas Children’s Urgent Care Westgate, opened in March 2018 and provides high-quality, efficient and affordable pediatric-focused care after hours and on weekends. Located at 4477 South Lamar Blvd., suite 400, Texas Children’s Urgent Care is staffed by board-certified pediatricians and nurses, with facilities and equipment designed specifically to meet the needs of children and adolescents up to age 18.

Additionally, Texas Children’s Pediatrics, the nation’s largest pediatric primary care network, currently has five practices in Austin which provide full-service care for children including, among other offerings, prenatal counseling; newborn and infant care; well and sick child visits; immunizations; and hearing and vision screenings; as well as camp, school and sports physicals. Building upon its 20 plus years of experience working with community pediatricians, Texas Children’s Pediatrics continues to partner with existing pediatric primary care practices in the region. Currently, Texas Children’s Pediatrics locations in Austin include:

In October 2018, Texas Children’s Specialty Care Austin opened bringing the hospital’s own subspecialty pediatric care to the Austin community. Located at 8611 North MoPac, suite 300, Texas Children’s Specialty Care helps increase access for children and families in need of allergy and immunology, cardiology, clinical nutrition, diabetes and endocrinology, ophthalmology, plastic surgery, and pulmonology, among other subspecialties. Additional pediatric subspecialties will be added in the coming months to help serve the growing needs of the Austin community and the state of Texas.

December 9, 2019

 

As a Texas Children’s employee, it is important to make informed, thoughtful decisions about what you choose to post online. Learn more about how to be social media savvy. Read more

For the past two years, increasing access to care has been one of the central goals across the Texas Children’s system, resulting in several new programs and initiatives.

The most recent example was on December 2, when the Department of Surgery took yet another major stride in its effort to provide patients and families with even more access to Texas Children’s surgical care through the launch of the new After Hours Clinic for Surgical Care.

The After Hours Clinic is now open Monday through Friday, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., on the eighth floor of Mark A. Wallace Tower, and is staffed by the Surgical APP Hospitalist Team, which currently cares for surgical patients in the Texas Children’s Emergency Center (EC) and inpatient areas.

This clinic provides access to care for post-surgical patients or those who need to be seen quickly for a large range of non-emergency or non-urgent medical issues.

“There are many situations, particularly in the early postoperative period, in which parents feel the need to have a surgical provider evaluate their child,” said Texas Children’s Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Larry Hollier. “Often this is just for reassurance or to provide additional instructions or guidance. The After Hours Clinic is designed primarily for families who feel they cannot wait to be seen until the following day.”

In addition to convenient clinic hours, patients and families will benefit from the relative low cost of clinic visits compared with visits to the EC or to urgent care. Usually a visit to the After Hours Clinic will cost the same as a regular clinic visit; and for post-surgical patients, it may even be covered within the global period.

Staff within surgical divisions can directly schedule patients to the After Hours Clinic in Epic. And in the coming months, pediatricians and families will be able to schedule as well by calling 832-822-2778.

After Hours Clinic for Surgical Care FAQs

When: Monday through Friday, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Where: Mark A. Wallace Tower, eighth floor

Who is eligible?

  • New patients
  • Postop patients
  • Established patients

What types of conditions are treated?

  • All postoperative concerns
  • All wound concerns
  • Minor burns
  • Cast and splint issues (e.g., pain, swelling, wet or loose casts/splints)
  • Suture, staple or glue concerns
  • Cellulitis
  • Hair tourniquet
  • Gastrostomy button concerns
  • Foreskin concerns (e.g., balanitis, phimosis)
  • Fingernail infection (e.g., felon, paronychia)
  • Non-displaced fractures (bones are still in proper alignment)
  • Superficial lacerations (do not extend into the muscle or have exposed bone)
  • Ear and nose foreign body removal

What kinds of patients should be sent to an EC?

  • Patients who need EC resources, such as CT scans, sedation, etc.
  • Congenital heart patients
  • Patients with Ophthalmology concerns
  • Patients with Neurosurgical concerns

Who sees the patients?

Surgical Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) on the dedicated Surgical APP Hospitalist Team. The Surgical APP Hospitalist Team is cross trained in Pediatric General Surgery, ENT, Urology, Orthopedics and Plastic Surgery. While surgeons and physicians are not physically present during clinic hours, they will be contacted as appropriate.

How is a visit to the After Hours Clinic for Surgical Care different from a Same Day/A+ Clinic Appointment?

These are patients with a surgical concern who would otherwise go to the emergency room.

How does a patient get on the clinic schedule?

Surgery clinic staff, schedulers and/or ambulatory service representatives can directly schedule patients into an after-hour visit type in Epic. The templates will have 20-minute time slots starting at 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Who can I contact with questions or for additional information about the clinic?

For additional information about the After Hours Clinic for Surgical Care, please contact Kris Marsack or Susannah Ferguson.

The following story was written by Jenny Deam and was published by the Houston Chronicle on November 26.

 

On Oct. 4, 1989, Mark A. Wallace, a bright, ambitious 36-year-old health care executive took the reins at Texas Children’s Hospital as one of the youngest CEOs at Texas Medical Center. Back then he had a vision to turn his hospital into a powerhouse to be reckoned with.

Three decades later, Wallace, now 66, is still CEO. Texas Children’s has grown on his watch into one of the largest and most comprehensive pediatric and women’s hospitals in the nation. Texas Inc. sat down with Wallace for a wide-ranging talk on the challenges facing health care today and into the future. His comments are edited for length.

Q: What made you decide on a career in medicine?
A: I was 16 years old and I was at a basketball camp in Edmond, Okla. I wandered over to the library at Central State University and I picked up some career books and manuals and they were talking about how Medicare and Medicaid has just been enacted and how medicine and health care were going to expand because there was going to be all of this additional reimbursement coming in. I’m sitting there in gym shorts and tube socks and white Converse tennis shoes and I’m thinking, well, this sounds like a great opportunity. I went home that night and I announced to my family at the dinner table, “Y’all I want to be a hospital administrator when I grow up.” That’s not what most 16-year-olds say, especially in 1969, but I have been focused on that ever since.

Q: Did you ever wish you had become a doctor?
A: Never. I was all about leadership and management and driving performance. I’ve always been fascinated with physicians and what they do clinically, what they do in research. I have tremendous affinity for physicians. And that has been one of the keys to my success: I like doctors. A lot. There’s a lot of health care CEOs that don’t.

Q: What has been the best change in medicine and health care in your career?
A: It’s definitely the attention, the resources and the focus on quality, service and safety. I spend more time talking about and listening to our team discuss quality and safety than I do about finance. And that was different 20 years ago. It used to be more about the balance sheet and the profit-and-loss statement.

Q: Safety is better now?
A: It’s improved dramatically. We have the ability now in real time to monitor safety events, where an egregious mistake was been made possibly resulting in death or serious harm to a patient. Last year in 2019 we had 4.6 million patient encounters at Texas Children’s. We had only five serious safety events and no deaths from them. Twenty years ago, we wouldn’t have been able to even count serious safety events to the degree we can today. And even with a lower denominator, because we weren’t as big back then, the number of mistakes would have been much, much higher.

Q: What is worse in health care?
A: Not here at Texas Children’s, but in medicine in general, I see many people have less personal contact with their colleagues and sometimes even with patients and family members. Because of the development of technology, there is less face time. People are using their devices and texts and email in order to communicate. This is a challenge for the industry throughout the United States and throughout the world. There’s no substitute for face time. That personal touch is so important in medicine. I don’t think that’s being old-fashioned. I think that’s the right way to do it.

Q: How does your hospital deal with the state’s high uninsured rate?
A: To us, and to me, is it is a major problem in health care in the United States, especially in Texas and in Houston. But we run toward that problem, we embrace the uninsured in our community and we want to take care of them regardless of their ability to pay. Twenty years ago we started community care centers. We have seven now throughout the Greater Houston area. We have nurses and social workers and case workers who work with these children when they come in to sit down with the moms and fill out the forms and see if they are eligible for Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) or a commercial plan. That’s the big problem in Texas. So many of these kids are eligible but they’re not enrolled. Texas has got to do better than this. This is an embarrassment for our great state.

Q: Why is having children insured important?
A: When a child has health insurance, they are three times as likely to be taken to see a pediatrician or to go to a hospital. If a child doesn’t have access to health care they lag behind, they miss school and they get sicker and their state of health declines. We end up taking care of them in the emergency centers where their problem is much more serious and much more expensive to treat.

Q: Is this personal for you?
A: Many years ago, I thought, before I retire I want to work in a system that has universal access and coverage for all children. I thought that would be done by now.

Q: Are you seeing any fallout in health care from the White House’s policies on immigration, even among citizen children of immigrant parents?
A: Yes. There’s the Texas Children’s Health Plan and we have over 400,000 members. The majority are children covered by Medicaid and CHIP. We’ve seen in the last year about a 4 percent decline in our membership and it’s because of exactly that – parents are not taking their child to get enrolled because they are fearful of being deported. It’s incredibly unfortunate and it’s affecting children and their health. That is a reality in our society.

Q: What can you as a hospital administrator do?
A: I think it’s talking with people. It’s talking with our legislative leaders.

Q: What’s been the reception?
A: It’s falling on deaf ears.

Q: How do you prepare for the large-scale change that could be coming in payment methods?
A: We study the proposals. There will be a change, whether its 2020 or 2024, whether it’s Medicare-for-All or something else. We’ve been advocating for universal access and coverage my entire career. We believe that it is a right for health care in the United States of America for our citizens. We don’t know what’s coming down the pike, but we’ve been hearing about single-payer systems since the 1960s with Sen. (Edward) Kennedy. It’s been around for 50 years, but we’ve not made very much progress. Now that conversation is more mainstream. How do we get ready? Regardless of the form or the structure of the payment methodology we know who we are, and we know what our mission is so we’re going to stick to that mission.

Q: How do you re-arrange your financial structure to be ready?
A: You have to be very efficient with the deployment of your resources. But it really is care coordination, finding that most effective way and venue to take care of a child. That’s the key. Reimbursement today is as good as it’s ever going to get. Lean and mean and being more effective and more efficient those are things we work on every single day.

Q: Any plans for a merger or acquisition with another hospital?
A: No.

Q: Any retirement plans on the horizon?
A. Everyone asks that. When you get to be 66 and you’ve been the CEO for 30 years you can’t be afraid of that question, and I’m not. I feel great, I still have a very high energy level, I still feel very inspired. So right now, I don’t have any plans for retirement. But one of the most important things that a board and a CEO can do is have a really strong leadership development and succession plan. Several years ago, I made a deal with God that He would tell me when it was time for me to retire.

Q: God has not whispered in your ear?
A: Not yet. But I try to always be available.

Mark A. Wallace, CEO of Texas Children’s Hospital

EDUCATION: B.S. from Oklahoma Baptist University and MHA from Washington University in St. Louis

FAMILY: Wife – Shannon; two children; seven grandchildren.

SOMETHING MOST PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT ME: How much I like to sing and tell jokes.

FAVORITE QUOTE: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker.

FAVORITE BOOK (or books): “The Art of Possibility” by Rosamund Stone Zander with Benjamin Zander

PERSON I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE DINNER WITH: Theodore Roosevelt

SOMETHING I DON’T TALK ABOUT MUCH BUT GUIDES ME: My faith and belief in destiny.