May 8, 2018

On Tuesday, May 22, Legacy Tower at Texas Children’s Hospital officially will open its doors to care for our most critically ill patients and their families. But before that day arrives, a lot of preparation and training is underway to get ready for opening day which is less than two weeks away.

Last month, multidisciplinary teams successfully completed a series of simulated patient care scenarios inside the Legacy Tower’s state-of-the-art pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), Progressive Care Unit (PCU) and OR/MRI suite to test the workflow processes in the new patient care spaces and address any potential safety concerns before the new building opens.

“For the PICU, we really focused on creating a virtual unit,” said Dr. Cara Doughty, medical director at Texas Children’s Simulation Center. “We wanted the team to participate in all of the routine work flows as well as participate in crisis scenarios and patient decompensations and codes that might happen in a PICU setting.”

In addition to clinical staff, patient families from Texas Children’s Family Advisory Committee participated in the PICU simulations and provided their perspective on how much this space is going to change the way that care is provided to children and families at Legacy Tower.

A few weeks after the PICU and PCU simulations, patient care scenarios were conducted in the operating room and MRI suite of Legacy Tower to address any potential latent safety threats and concerns before the new tower opens its doors to patients and their families.

“Our focus is not as much on design now, it’s really around those processes,” said Maria Happe, clinical senior project manager of Texas Children’s PICU Services. “We want to ensure our processes are correct, and that we ensure our training matches what we want to do and how we want to operate in this new space.”

Once the first phase of Legacy Tower opens on May 22, the tower will house new operating rooms with one intraoperative MRI, as well as a new PICU which will span four floors and open with six ORs and 84 ICU beds, including dedicated surgical, neuro and transitional ICU beds.

When phase two of the Legacy Tower opens in fall 2018, the tower will be the new home of Texas Children’s Heart Center® – ranked No. 1 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in cardiology and heart surgery. The Heart Center will have an outpatient clinic, four catheterization labs with one intraprocedural MRI, cardiovascular intensive care unit, four cardiovascular ORs and cardiology acute care beds. The tower also will have a helistop, allowing for even greater access to Texas Children’s most critically ill patients.

The Legacy Tower project would not have been possible without tremendous collaboration from teams and departments across the organization. Click here to view the Legacy Tower Activation Teams and Departments that played an integral role in the design, construction and activation of Legacy Tower.

Employees and staff can see more of Legacy Tower on Connect throughout the month. Texas Children’s Corporate Communications Team will feature a series of stories and videos on Connect promoting Legacy Tower and sharing how we are preparing for this historic move.

May 1, 2018

The final countdown to the Phase One opening of Texas Children’s Legacy Tower has begun. In less than three weeks, Legacy Tower at Texas Children’s Medical Center campus will officially open its doors to care for our most critically ill patients and their families.

But before the new tower opens on Tuesday, May 22, Texas Children’s will host an Open House on Thursday, May 10, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. to give our employees and staff a chance to see parts of the tower for themselves. Self-guided tours will be hosted on floors 8 and 12 of Legacy Tower.

Employees and staff can see more of Legacy Tower on Connect throughout the month. Texas Children’s Corporate Communications Team will feature a series of stories and videos on Connect promoting Legacy Tower and sharing how we are preparing for this historic move.

April 17, 2018

For many patients and their families, trying to find parking in the garages at Texas Children’s Medical Center Campus can be challenging at times. But Texas Children’s employees and staff are finding creative solutions every day to address the concerns and needs of our patients and their families.

Coupled with the hospital’s on-going efforts to provide patients, families and visitors priority access to proximal parking to help get them to their clinical appointments on time, new enhancements to our parking garages are making it easier for patient families to find available spaces quickly while saving time.

To optimize the patient parking experience and meet the current parking demand, construction on the Parking Guidance System (PGS) in Garage 21 (Pavilion for Women/Legacy Tower) is almost complete. This project involved the installation of light sensors over parking spaces to help visitors identify whether a space is occupied (red) or available (green).

“The lights are clearly visible from several hundred feet away and electronic signage helps drivers identify the number of spaces available in various directions,” said Texas Children’s Facilities Project Manager Ted Gillis. “Since its installation, the Parking Guidance System in Garage 21 has improved the flow of traffic, and is making it easier for hospital visitors to find a spot in the garage more quickly.”

The installation of the red and green light sensors is currently in progress in Garage 16 (Wallace Tower). The PGS installation in Garage 12 (West Tower) will begin after the project is completed at Wallace Tower.

Texas Children’s continually receives feedback from patient families – and employees and staff – about impactful changes that can be implemented across the organization to promote a positive patient experience.

“By ensuring patients and families are considered first through both organization practices like the recent parking guidance enhancements and through decisions we each make as individuals, we personalize and improve what might otherwise be a stressful event for a family,” said Katie Kalenda Daggett, director of Patient and Family Services.

Additional enhancements to Garage 21

In preparation for the opening of Legacy Tower on May 22, Garage 21 under the Pavilion for Women and Legacy Tower is undergoing additional enhancements to create garage elevator lobbies for Legacy Tower, improve traffic flow and wayfinding, and increase public parking capacity.

Traffic flows have been re-configured to direct pediatric patients to Legacy Tower and women’s services patients to the Pavilion for Women. Below is a list of the designated parking areas in Garage 21.

  • Level B1 – Executives and Pavilion for Women physician leaders; valet, Wells Fargo Bank reserved spaces
  • Level B2 – Patient and visitor parking; Legacy Tower physician leaders, Wells Fargo Bank reserved spaces
  • Level B3 – Patient and visitor parking
  • Level B4 – Patient and visitor parking overflow, physicians and contract parking
April 3, 2018

Now that there are officially two lively golden retrievers walking the halls of Texas Children’s Hospital Medical Center Campus, the Pawsitive Play program has become everything our president and CEO expected and more.

Bailey, the hospital’s newest service dog, was recently welcomed by Mark Wallace and his wife, Shannon. The Wallaces donated Bailey as a gift to Texas Children’s in memory of their beloved dog, Cadence, after making the rounds with the hospital’s first therapy dog, Elsa, and realizing that being a service dog was a lot of work.

“This is a massive organization, and lots of different buildings and hundreds and hundreds of really, really, sick patients,” Wallace said. “So Shannon said we need to sponsor a second Pawsitive Play service dog, and I said OK, let’s do it.”

Their generous pledge and initial $80,000 contribution to the program will enable Texas Children’s to hire more animal-assisted therapy coordinators and therapy dog teams specifically trained to provide therapeutic interventions to patients and families in Legacy Tower.

The Pawsitive Play program began in December 2015 with a generous donation from the Shackouls family.

“It is our hope that the support and love these therapy animals provide will help countless children in making their treatment and recovery journeys brighter,” Bobby and Judy Shackouls said. “We look forward to watching this program grow into something even bigger because every child, no matter their age, gender, background or health condition, deserves to feel the unconditional love and comfort these animals can provide throughout the healing process.”

Bailey, like Elsa and other therapy dogs, offers distraction and motivation to patients undergoing certain medical procedures. However, it’s not just her that aids in this process. Bailey’s handler, Adair Galanski is a Texas Children’s child life specialist who collaborates with medical teams, and physical and occupational therapists to visit with five to 10 patients each day who are having a particularly difficult time during their hospitalization.

“As much as I love my job, and think I’m good at what I do, I can never have that same connection with families that Bailey brings,” Galanski said. “Bailey is that peacemaker and that bridge for us to be able to really connect with kids who might not want to connect through words, but can connect through her.”

Although Bailey has already started seeing heart and critical care patients, she was hired to work specifically in the hospital’s newest expansion, Legacy Tower. The doors of the first phase of Legacy Tower will open to patients, families, and employees like Bailey on Tuesday, May 22.

As soon as the Wallace’s laid eyes on Bailey they knew they had made the right decision and look forward to many more furry friends joining our team in the future.

“These wonderful dogs are adding a lot to the culture of the hospital,” Wallace said.

February 20, 2018

IT’S A GIRL! Elsa now has a little sister. Texas Children’s first therapy dog, is not the hospital’s only female, four-legged, furry friend. A new therapy dog will be arriving at the end of the month, and Child Life just announced that it will be a GIRL.

The gender reveal was broadcast live through ZTV, or channel 19, on the hospital’s internal television station. This was the first live segment for the channel. Be sure to tune in from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday – Friday, for more exciting television shows that the Kids Zone has to offer.

February 13, 2018

The countdown has begun! February 11, marked 100 days until the first phase of Legacy Tower officially opens at Texas Children’s Hospital Texas Medical Center campus.

Through this 408-foot vertical expansion, Texas Children’s is adding 657,000 square feet. When Legacy Tower opens its doors to patients and families on Tuesday, May 22, the tower will house new operating rooms with one intraoperative MRI, as well as a new pediatric intensive care unit (ICU), which will span four floors and open with six ORs and 84 ICU beds, including dedicated surgical, neuro and transitional ICU beds.

When the second phase of the Legacy Tower opens in fall 2018, the tower will be the new home of Texas Children’s Heart Center® – ranked No. 1 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in cardiology and heart surgery. The Heart Center will have an outpatient clinic, four catheterization labs with one intraprocedural MRI, cardiovascular intensive care unit, four cardiovascular operating rooms and cardiology acute care beds. The tower will also have a helistop, allowing for even greater access to Texas Children’s most critically ill patients.

Texas Children’s Legacy Tower team and its external partners have made significant progress to date, including some of our most recent construction, staffing and activation milestones listed below:

  • Completion of mid-construction simulation-based clinical systems test for the OR/MRI. Detailed simulation and training planning to support the opening of Phase One.
  • Garage 21 enhancements and reconfiguration to serve both the Pavilion for Women and Legacy Tower to improve traffic flow and wayfinding, increase public parking capacity and create clear access to the Pavilion and Legacy Tower elevators.
  • Recruitment efforts have been progressing well. Nearly half of the 871 positions for Legacy Tower have been filled. The remaining positions are being actively recruited.
  • Furniture as well as medical and technology equipment deployment is underway in Legacy Tower.

Texas Children’s also launched a new Legacy Tower website (www.legacytower.org) that features a countdown clock to opening day. The newly designed site provides highlights of all of the services housed in the new tower including a timeline of the phase one and phase two openings of Legacy Tower.

Other exciting milestones on the horizon include the delivery of our intraoperative MRI for Legacy Tower on February 18 and the anticipated arrival of our new Legacy Tower therapy dog, thanks to a generous gift from Texas Children’s CEO Mark Wallace and his wife Shannon in memory of their beloved dog, Cadence.

December 5, 2017

While construction progress continues to be made on the vertical expansion of Texas Children’s Legacy Tower, several changes will take effect starting on Monday, December 11.

With the re-opening of the Level 1 shuttle entrance, escalators and Level 3 South Elevator Lobby at the Pavilion for Women, employees will be able to resume direct shuttle service from Garage 19 to the Pavilion for Women.

Since July 6, the Pavilion for Women Direct Stop had been re-routed to a temporary shuttle stop on Fannin Street to accommodate construction work on the Legacy Tower and minimize the impact on employees who rely on these services to get to and from the Medical Center Campus. This temporary stop on Fannin Street will be discontinued beginning on December 11. Signage alerting employees and staff of this change will be placed at Garage 19, Meyer Building, Feigin Tower, and the Pavilion for Women shuttle stops.

To learn more about shuttle services and pick up locations, click here. To track the shuttles location in real time, this information can be accessed on your desk top here and on your smartphone here.

Additional renovations underway on Legacy Tower

Since July 6, elevator access to Level 3 of Legacy Tower was shut down so crews could create new lobbies. Now, with the re-opening of Level 3 on December 11, planning and coordination have already begun for renovation of Level 5 elevator lobby and Radiology waiting room, work that scheduled to begin Tuesday, December 12 and last through March 2018.

In addition, improvements to Garage 21 parking levels will begin on December 11 starting with the level B4 south end under Legacy Tower. Work in the garage will occur one-half floor at a time and be complete by May 2018. As a reminder, South elevator access to Level 1 will remain closed through March 2018.

Stay tuned to Connect for future updates regarding the impact of construction on the Legacy Tower.