February 21, 2017

As of February 13, Texas Children’s Pediatrics Cullen is now Texas Children’s Pediatrics Palm Center. The practice’s new location is at 5400 Griggs Road, Suite 100.

The Palm Center is a community-based collaborative health and wellness project that provides an accessible medical home to children and families. Its staff of four health care providers offers ongoing community and organizational support for family-focused health services that address the broad social, health, educational and spiritual needs of children.

As part of its goal to build a community of healthy children, Texas Children’s Pediatrics Community Cares Program provides trusted, high-quality pediatric medical services for children who otherwise would seek care from emergency rooms or possibly go without care or treatment due to low family incomes and/or lack of health insurance. Regardless of the family’s financial situation, the Community Cares Program provides health care to children from birth to age 18 and offers the opportunity to develop a trusting, long-term relationship with a board certified pediatrician.

For more information about the Palm Center click here.

February 7, 2017

2817mainstreetlot640Preparations to celebrate the topping out of the Pediatric Tower structure are underway.

The Main Street Lot, located across from Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women at 6650 Main Street, will be closed beginning at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, February 7, until 7 a.m. on Friday, February 10.

All cars must be out of the lot by 6 a.m. on Tuesday, February 7.

Alternative patient and visitor parking is available in the following areas:

  • Valet parking at Pavilion for Women
  • Garage 21 (Pavilion for Women)
  • Garage 16 (Clinical Care Tower)
  • Garage 12 (West Tower)
  • Garage 1 (Methodist Hospital)
  • Garage 2 (St. Luke’s Hospital)

Employees: Please park in your assigned location.

January 31, 2017

2117meyermarketinside640Texas Children’s employees have a new place to grab breakfast, lunch, a snack, coffee or even a bite for dinner. The Meyer Market on the first floor of the Meyer Building opened January 24 and offers hundreds of fresh food options in a retail space built just for you.

Managed by Canteen, one of the nation’s leading vending machine service companies, the new noshing nook is a self-checkout market stocked with a full range of merchandise, including snacks, beverages, fresh and frozen food, ice cream and coffee from well-known venders such as Panera Bread, My Fit Foods, Hint Water and Oh Snap! pickling company.

Stored on racks and in coolers, the market’s merchandise can be purchased at a cashier-free kiosk similar to a self-checkout line at a grocery store. You can buy items with a credit or debit card, or you can set up a personal account, which gives you access to the payment system via your thumbprint, account card, mobile phone or user name. Click here to set up an account.

The Meyer Market is accessible with badge access from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. The extended hours were put into place to accommodate our workforce of professionals with varying schedules.

“We are very excited to offer this new, innovative and healthy eating option to Texas Children’s,” said Senior Vice President Tabitha Rice. “We hope everyone enjoys the wide variety of merchandise at The Meyer Market and the extended hours of service.”

For more information about Canteen and the type of market that recently opened in the Meyer Building, click here.

January 27, 2017

12717emmansuperbowl640Although this year’s Super Bowl is more than a week away, the festivities that will bring droves of people to the Houston area have begun. Multiple events across the city are scheduled throughout the week and will culminate with the big game on Sunday, February 5 at NRG Stadium.

Overall, the Houston Visitor’s Center predicts nearly 1 million people will visit the Houston area during the week leading up to the Super Bowl. This influx of people will affect traffic and will require heightened security measures.

To prepare for this large event, Texas Children’s is committed to maintaining a high level of preparedness so that we are ready to adequately respond in the event of an emergency.

Training

Over the past few months Texas Children’s employees have conducted a large scale, multi-agency Mass Casualty Incident exercise, decontamination exercises at Main and West campuses, and created and tested a Family Reception Center Plan in anticipation of the upcoming big game.

Incident Command

Further, throughout Super Bowl week, we have set up the rooms where our Incident Command and Operations Command Centers operate out of so that they we are prepared to respond quickly and efficiently should any threats materialize.

Increased staffing

To support our preparedness efforts, many teams including Emergency Center Nursing, Patient and Family Services and the Kangaroo Crew have special staffing plans in place over the game day weekend. Other teams have created special on-call rotations of team members specifically prepared to respond over Super Bowl weekend.

Parking

The upcoming Super Bowl events scheduled throughout the next week are expected to increase traffic congestion and parking demand throughout the city as well as in the Texas Medical Center. Please allow additional travel time for your commute to and from work during this time. Also, please park in your assigned location to ensure adequate parking is available in our visitor garages for our patients, families and visitors.

Texas Children’s will work with Texas Medical Center to limit parking access in our visitor garages to hospital patients, families, visitors, and after-hours employees.

  • Pavilion for Women after-hours employees can continue to park in the PFW/Garage 21 as usual.
  • There will be an access change for the non-Pavilion employees who use Clinical Care/Garage 16 for after-hours weekend parking for Super Bowl weekend only.  These employees will be allowed to enter the garage from Friday, February 3, at 6 p.m. through Monday, February 6, at 2 a.m. (Current after-hours programming restricts entrance after 4 p.m. on Sundays.)
  • All after-hours employees should exit the visitor garages by no later than 8 a.m. on Monday to ensure parking is available for our patients and families.
  • After-hours employees also have the option to park in Garage 19, the Meyer North and Meyer South lots and ride the rail to campus.
  • During the week before the event Texas Children’s Hospital Shuttle Services may experience some delays due to the increased traffic in the area. The Texas Children’s Hospital Shuttle Services will be following its normal schedule and will not operate.
Emergency Notification System

Please ensure you have updated your personal contact information in MOLI so that you receive all emergency notifications. Click here for detailed instructions on how to sign up and here to learn more about how to respond to a notification when you receive one.

General safety

Because there will be more people in the Houston area, particularly around the Medical Center and downtown, there is a possibility that there will be more people coming to and from our Main Campus buildings. Therefore, we all need to be mindful of surroundings and report anything out of the ordinary to our security team at ext. 4-5400.

Texas Children’s maintains a high level of emergency preparedness at all times, but as you can see extra steps are planned next week to increase our level of preparedness in response to the scope and scale of the event.

If you have any questions, please contact Emergency Management at ext. 4-1237.

January 24, 2017

12517MLKholiday640In an email announcement Monday morning, Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark Wallace shared exciting news: beginning in 2018, Texas Children’s will observe Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an organizational holiday.

This holiday is a new holiday and will be added to all of the holidays employees currently enjoy as a benefit of working at Texas Children’s – employees will not lose My Day or any other holiday. Here is Mr. Wallace’s announcement in its entirety:

Dear Texas Children’s Family,

I am very pleased to share something with you that I have been considering for quite some time now. Beginning in 2018, Texas Children’s will observe Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an organizational holiday.

I often think about the beliefs and work of Dr. King and how closely aligned they are with the mission of Texas Children’s. Our organization is one that, since its inception nearly 63 years ago, has prided itself in the rich diversity of our culture and the families we serve. We, like Dr. King, embrace inclusiveness and greatly appreciate working in an organization that values all ideas and aspirations, working together for the greater good. Simply put, this is right for our organization. In addition, this makes sense for us operationally, as our partners at Baylor College of Medicine observe the MLK Day holiday.

While you likely understand the sentiment, you might naturally wonder, “Why now?” I want you to understand that while the announcement is occurring today, this has long been on my heart and mind. In fact, we were considering adding MLK Day as an organizational holiday many years ago. However, we also had to consider whether we would subsequently add other observations. Ultimately, we determined that providing employees with the My Day PTO day would allow all to observe MLK Day or, alternately, another special day that may be personally important to them. I sincerely believe that was a good thing for our employees, but I admit to you that I think so many years have passed that the impetus for My Day has been lost.

I also admit to you that the nation’s racial climate in recent years stirs me. America has always been considered a melting pot, but we are now growing increasingly more diverse at a much more rapid pace than most people have ever experienced. We, as a nation, are learning how to redefine our country, but not without growing pains. Yet, in the midst of this, I see how we at Texas Children’s use our differences to make us better. The brilliant tapestry of our cultures, religions, races and genders is woven perfectly with our collective talents, gifts and aspirations. This is beautiful, and it is worth celebrating on the day that salutes the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I hope you will join me in my excitement and look forward to enjoying this special day of reflection for years to come.

Regards,

Mark

December 13, 2016

121416shirleycherian175Shirley Cherian, project manager, Radiology, died unexpectedly on November 29, 2016. She was 30 years old.

Shirley joined Texas Children’s Hospital in February 2011 as a CT technologist in the Radiology Department. A colleague who was loved by everyone she interacted with, Shirley earned her MBA going to school during the day and working as a technologist during the night shift at Texas Children’s. In 2013, Shirley was promoted to project manager for Safety, Regulatory & Education. Shirley was brilliant in this role and was considered a rising star in Radiology. Her encouraging smile, her willingness to help, her quick wit, her graciousness and, most important, her passionate dedication to the children and families we serve, are just some of the qualities that made Shirley special to her friends and colleagues.

Shirley is survived by her parents, Mr. Cherian M. Cherian and Mrs. Lizzi Cherian; sisters, Mrs. Sheba George and Mrs. Susan Thomas; brothers-in-law, Mr. Johnsly George and Mr. Ashley Thomas; and nephews, Aiden Thomas and Andrew Thomas. To her many extended family and friends, she will be greatly missed.

In lieu of customary remembrances, memorial contributions in memory of Shirley may be directed to Texas Children’s Hospital, Radiology Education Fund, 1919 South Braeswood Blvd., Suite 5214, Houston, TX, 77030, or online at http://waystogive.texaschildrens.org/shirleycherian.

Services were held in the Dallas area.

 

November 8, 2016

11916drhollierpressganeyinside640Improving the experience for every patient and family who comes to Texas Children’s Hospital for surgery is a top priority for Dr. Larry Hollier, associate surgeon-in-chief for clinical affairs and chief of plastic surgery at Texas Children’s. Over the past two years, he has led the charge at the hospital to ensure every family feels there is no better place for their children to receive surgical care.

To honor him for his work in improving the patient experience at Texas Children’s, Press Ganey, a leading provider of patient experience management solutions, presented Hollier with the 2016 Physician of the Year award at the annual Press Ganey National Client Conference.

Members of the Ambulatory Surgery Patient Experience Workgroup and leaders throughout Texas Children’s nominated him for the award.

“Dr. Hollier is very passionate about the patient experience, and he embraces all of the different touch points that comprise a patient and family’s care experience,” said Sarah Maytum, assistant vice president of patient and family services at Texas Children’s. “In leading the Ambulatory Surgery Team, he not only sought input from front line staff, he listened, acted on their input and empowered staff members to take ownership of project implementation.”

Hollier has been responsible for leading patient experience innovations within the Department of Surgery including: same-day surgery consultation appointments, standardized pre-surgery materials, the surgery greeter program, direct scheduling for Texas Children’s Pediatrics providers and for Texas Children’s Emergency Center; surgical patient ingress/egress patterns; and a physician communication course, called Breakthrough Communications, aimed at enhancing the conversation between patients, families and caregivers. He has also been instrumental in advancing the hospital’s expertise in caring for patients with a range of complex conditions while simultaneously becoming a leader in outcomes measurement and patient experience.

Recently, the Meds to Beds program, which delivers post-surgery medications to a patient’s bedside before discharge, was highlighted in NEJM Catalyst as a highly innovative program. Meds to Beds not only enhances the surgery experience for patients and families, but has also resulted in improved pharmacist and OR staff satisfaction.

“We in the Department of Surgery are extremely proud of the extraordinary work being done at Texas Children’s to optimize the care experience of our patients and their families,” said Dr. Charles D. Fraser Jr., Texas Children’s surgeon-in-chief. “Dr. Larry Hollier has been an outstanding and visionary leader for the surgery service in partnering with Sarah Maytum and the Patient Relations team. His recognition by Press Ganey is a testimony not only to his enormous contributions, but to the effective team spirit we are so proud of in the Texas Children’s Hospital family.”

Hollier holds the S. Baron Hardy Endowed Chair in Plastic Surgery at Texas Children’s and serves as professor and chief of Plastic Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. In addition, he is chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of Smile Train, an international children’s charity that provides free cleft repair surgery and comprehensive cleft care worldwide, and serves on the board of the Duke Global Health Institute focusing efforts on reducing health disparities. Hollier has authored more than 190 articles for scholarly and professional publications, written 37 book chapters and sits on the editorial board of numerous journals. His surgical specialties include craniofacial conditions, cleft lip and palate, and microsurgical hand repair.