June 14, 2022

In yet another monumental achievement made possible through the hard work of our One Amazing Team and your commitment to every child and family we serve, Texas Children’s has earned recognition from U.S. News & World Report as the #2 children’s hospital in the country.

In addition to Texas Children’s historic rise to #2 in the overall list, the 2022-23 U.S. News & World Report Best Children’s Hospital survey included Top 10 spots for every subspecialty:

  • #1 in Cardiology & Heart Surgery, in a testament to the cutting-edge treatments and family-centered care provided by the Heart Center for more than 60 years
  • #1 in Pulmonology
  • #2 in Neurology & Neurosurgery
  • #3 in Nephrology (kidney disorders)
  • #3 in Neonatology
  • #4 in Cancer
  • #4 in Gastroenterology & GI Surgery
  • #5 in Diabetes & Endocrinology
  • #5 in Urology
  • #8 in Orthopedics

Texas Children’s is also ranked as the #1 children’s hospital in Texas and #1 in the Southwest Region – rounding out the national honors in what President and CEO Mark A. Wallace called a “pivotal moment that reflected everything we’ve accomplished together this year.”

“These tremendous outcomes are the result of the steadfast leadership, unwavering dedication and sincere passion you have for Texas Children’s mission,” Wallace wrote in announcing the exciting news to the organization. “Our eight in-chiefs, our five executive vice presidents, our medical and administrative leaders, and our faculty and staff are without a doubt the greatest teams in our organization’s history.”

Reaching the top of the list

U.S. News & World Report introduced the Best Children’s Hospitals ranking in 2007 to help families of children with rare or life-threatening illnesses find the best medical care available. The rankings are the most comprehensive source of quality-related information on U.S. pediatric hospitals.

They rely on clinical data from nearly 200 medical centers through a detailed survey that analyzes measures, such as patient safety, infection prevention and adequacy of nurse staffing. In addition, each hospital’s score is derived from surveys of more than 15,000 pediatric specialists who are asked where they would send the sickest children in their specialty.

In 2021, only 89 children’s hospitals were ranked in at least one of the 10 pediatric specialties evaluated for the annual report. Ten hospitals ranked at the top of their class and were named to the 2022-2023 Honor Roll. For more information, visit usnews.com/childrenshospitals.

“Consistent collaboration, newfound discoveries and extraordinary patient care is what has brought us to where we are today. But we all know that for Texas Children’s, this is only the beginning of our bright future ahead,” Wallace said. “Let’s cherish and celebrate this moment – and then let’s gear up to climb even higher. I have no doubt that with this team, everything is possible!”

To read the full news release announcing Texas Children’s latest rankings from U.S. News & World Report, click here.

August 11, 2020

Thanks to Texas Children’s Hip Preservation Program, eighteen-year-old Mallory Sweeney is back to doing what she loves – dancing. Read more

October 29, 2019

On October 14, Texas Children’s Hospital Specialty Care – Sugar Land began seeing patients in its newly expanded Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Clinics located on the first floor.

This expansion makes it more convenient for patients to receive care and allows the staff to work in a more spacious area. Originally the clinic operated in two separate areas and today patients can receive x-rays and exams on the same floor. Orthopedic and Sports Medicine providers will move to the first floor, and the second floor will be for additional growth.

“It’s going to be a huge patient satisfier when it comes to our day-to-day flow,” Assistant Director of Ambulatory Services for the West and South Region, Betsy Sanford said. “Patients will no longer have to move from one floor to another to receive care, so we are all really excited for this new space.”

This is the first phase of the opening that includes eight exam rooms, a cast room with three spaces, two x-ray rooms, ultrasound, and a Quest Lab drawing station, for Texas Children’s Patients only.

One of the first patients seen was 17-year-old Marisa Garza who had been experiencing pain in her knees after years of performing difficult stunts on her local dance team.

“Her sophomore and junior years on the team she was required to execute moves that forced her to constantly slam on her knees to the ground, and over the years it has taken a toll on her,” her mother, Jessica Garza said. “As a former Texas Children’s employee and parent of patients over the past several years, I know first-hand the quality of care that is provided.”

Within the hour, Garza was checked in, her vitals were taken, and she was x-rayed and examined. With the additional space, the clinic expects to see more sports medicine patients once staff grows.

Texas Children’s Hospital Specialty Care locations provide many of the same pediatric subspecialty services available at our three hospital locations, just closer to home for patients and their families.

“It’s like having the Mark A. Wallace Tower in the community,” medical manager Allyson Jackson, RN, BSN said. “I really want people to understand how effective the clinic is for those that are in the community. The more we continue to grow, the more effective we can be.”

Phase two of this expansion is expected to open early next year and will include a new Sports Physical Therapy gym.

Click here for more information about the Specialty Care – Sugar Land and Texas Children’s Orthopedics.

The Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) – the premier international society dedicated to the research and treatment of spinal deformities – recently honored Texas Children’s Chief of Orthopedics Dr. Brian Smith at the society’s 54th Annual Meeting, held in Montréal, Canada.

Smith received the Russell A. Hibbs Clinical Research Award, presented annually by the SRS for the meeting’s best clinical research paper. The title of the paper was “Using Proximal Humerus Ossification and Cobb Angle to Predict Progression to a Surgical Range in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Patients.”

The Hibbs Award is one of four main awards given by the SRS for basic and clinical research, and all are named for pioneers in scoliosis surgery. The SRS Program Committee selected nominees from submitted abstracts. Nominees were then invited to submit full manuscripts for review. The winners were selected based on a popular vote by meeting attendees and by committee scoring.

“I am very grateful to receive the 2019 Hibbs Award and to represent Texas Children’s Hospital in front of my peers in the SRS,” said Smith. “I would like to congratulate all my colleagues who did so much to make this happen, and I am looking forward to more research on this topic with my team at Texas Children’s.”

The paper was the result of collaborative research led by Smith and conducted with a team of experts at Yale School of Medicine. The team developed a classification system to assess skeletal maturity by analyzing proximal humerus ossification (the development of the bone of the upper arm) as seen on scoliosis patient X-rays. The study found that not only can skeletal development and maturity be reliably assessed using this system, but also that the system can be used in conjunction with other established methods to predict peak height velocity (the period when a child experiences their maximum upward growth) and the percentage of growth remaining with high accuracy. Coupled with scoliosis curve size, the system could be used as a means of predicting the risk of the patient’s potential curve progression to a surgical range during their remaining growth.

“Current systems that relied on X-ray imaging of the pelvis on scoliosis films to help determine skeletal maturation have not provided an accurate means of assessment for children with scoliosis,” Smith said. “This method has the potential to help us better define a patient’s maturity, which will help guide treatment choices and minimize cost and inconvenience of additional imaging to assess maturity.

Learn more about Texas Children’s Orthopedics Program, ranked in the top 10 nationally by U.S. News & World Report.

October 7, 2019

 

Texas Children’s Orthopedics Department jumped five spots from No. 15 to No. 10 in this year’s U.S. News and World Report survey.

The team worked quickly, relentlessly and collaboratively to achieve this ranking, a first for the Orthopedics department at Texas Children’s.

Service chief Dr. Brian Smith expressed his sentiments with the ranking, “The Orthopedics Division is thrilled and honored to be recognized as one of the top 10 Orthopaedic programs in the country. This is a tribute to our entire team of physicians, physician’s assistants, nurses and staff whose primary goal every day is to provide the best musculoskeletal care possible to our patients and families.”

But seriously, how did they move so far so fast?

Specifically, the Orthopedics Department accomplished four big wins for patients:

  • Gait Lab accreditation: Dr. Jeffery Shilt, chief surgical officer in The Woodlands, led efforts to ensure that our Gait Lab was accredited as a clinical motion laboratory. The Texas Children’s Hospital Gait Lab received this accreditation in record time after opening, providing exceptional care to patients with movement disorders.
  • Continuing education: 100 percent of nurse practitioners and physician assistants received pediatric orthopedic surgery related continuing education units. Janai’ Buxton, manager of Advanced Practice Providers in Orthopedics is proud of this dedication to education, saying, “Such education ensures our APPs are providing the very best current, evidence-based care for patients.”
  • Scoliosis outcomes: The spine surgery team implemented several changes, including a multi-disciplinary meeting, to reduce unplanned readmissions and reoperations for complex scoliosis surgery patients.
  • Gap closures: The team worked together to close out 90 percent of gaps related to the department structure.
Deserved recognition

The dedication and leadership of Dr. Larry Hollier, surgeon-in-chief, Dr. David Wesson, interim chief of Orthopedics, and Rachel Warfield, Director of Surgical Ambulatory Services, helped the team accomplish this ranking. Additional recognition goes to the many physician champions who led efforts to improve quality as well as the data team led by Ken Kocab and Debasis Dash.

The Orthopedics department sees this accomplishment as a testament to all the hard work that has been done to improve patient quality and access to care over the past several years.

July 9, 2019

This month’s installment of Medically Speaking features Texas Children’s orthopedic surgeon, Dr. John Heydemann, discussing the rising prevalence of obesity in American adolescents and the increased level of difficulty it creates in the treatment of pediatric orthopedic injuries or deformities.

To clearly relate the two, he highlights four specific treatment areas or conditions that are often exacerbated by, or that can contribute to, obesity. These are:

  • Trauma, including increased fracture rates, higher risk of loss of reduction and increased risk of complications
  • Blount’s disease, a growth disorder of the shin bone that causes the lower leg to be angled inward
  • Slipped capital femoral epiphysis, a hip condition that occurs in adolescents and teens
  • Back pain, potentially due to children leading more sedentary lifestyles

Learn more about the services provided and conditions treated by Texas Children’s Division of Orthopedics.

Fighting obesity at Texas Children’s

In addition to contributing to or complicating the treatment of orthopedic injuries, obesity drives significant health outcomes in Texas Children’s patients. Obesity is one of the biggest drivers of preventable chronic diseases and in childhood can lead to high blood pressure and cholesterol, increased risk of type 2 diabetes, asthma and sleep apnea, and joint problems, not to mention the associated psychological ramifications, such as anxiety and depression.

But obesity it a health problem Texas Children’s Hospital is attacking head on.

This year, Texas Children’s included a system-wide BMI goal as part of our Fiscal Year 2019 care quality objectives. The target was to record BMI for 85 percent of the patient population, ages 2 to 19. In addition to recording BMI, an additional target was set to refer or implement counseling and/or education for more than 40 percent of patients with BMI greater than the 85th percentile.

So far this year, Texas Children’s is exceeding those goals. Through March 2019, we’d recorded BMI for more than 87 percent of our patients, and more than 73 percent of those with BMI in the 85th percentile or higher have been referred to or received the resources they need to combat obesity.

About Medically Speaking

Medically Speaking, a video series from Texas Children’s Service Line Marketing, features some of the brightest minds from several Texas Children’s specialty and subspecialty areas. The series is meant to be a helpful educational resource for parents and a convenient way for physicians and other caregivers to stay up-to-date on the latest in pediatric medicine. Viewers can watch talks on a variety of interesting topics, including advancements in surgery, breakthroughs in research, new clinical trials, and novel and back-practice treatments for specific conditions.

Don’t miss future Medically Speaking episodes featured here on Connect, or view additional episodes now.

PLEASE NOTE:
This presentation is not intended to present medical advice or individual treatment recommendations, and does not supplant the practitioner’s independent clinical judgment. Practitioners are advised to consider the management of each patient in view of the clinical information. All content is shared for informational purposes only, and reflects the thoughts and opinions of the original author. No physician-patient relationship is being created by the use of this presentation. The presentation sets out recommendations based upon similar circumstances and is provided as an educational tool. The presenters are not attorneys, and to the extent this presentation provides commentary on current laws and regulations affecting health care activities, it is not intended as legal advice.

May 13, 2019

The world-class orthopedic care Texas Children’s is known for is now even more accessible for patients who need it.

Texas Children’s and the Division of Orthopedics are proud to offer specialized orthopedic care on Saturday mornings at Texas Children’s Specialty Care Upper Kirby, from 8 a.m. to noon.

“This new offering is really about improving access for our patients and families,” said Chief of Orthopedic Surgery Dr. Brian Smith. “This care expansion functions as a musculo-skeletal urgent care center with expert orthopedic care, providing families quick, direct access to treatment without waiting hours in an emergency room (ER). I’m proud of all the work Janai’ Buxton and the team have done to make this service available and predict this model will be a success – and perhaps lead to similar expansions across the Texas Children’s system.”

Expanding orthopedic care became a goal after a team of experts at Texas Children’s noticed a trend in families in need of early-morning and late-evening appointments. Many parents also inquired about weekend availability. Additionally, the growth of the Division of Orthopedic Surgery over the past three to four years has equipped Texas Children’s to meet more patients where they are, when they need us. The team began putting the pieces into place to improve access.

“Making orthopedic care available on Saturday mornings provides a huge benefit for parents who work during the week, for children with busy schedules, and for families with urgent needs,” said Buxton, physician assistant and clinical lead for Orthopedic Surgery advanced practice providers (APPs). “Parents will appreciate that convenience and can rest easy knowing they’re getting care from experts who specialize in pediatric orthopedics. Additionally, this initiative may help alleviate high volume of non-emergent orthopedic injuries at Texas Children’s Urgent Care locations and reduce overall weight times for our emergency centers across the Houston area.”

When a child is sick or injured, parents have to change their schedules to ensure their child gets the care they need. This can mean missing work, often without pay, to take the child to an appointment. Additionally, if a child is injured at a Friday sporting event, families sometimes have to wait hours in the ER or even wait until the beginning of the week for specialty pediatric orthopedic care.

Now, at Texas Children’s Specialty Care Upper Kirby, patients and families can be seen on Saturday mornings by an APP specially trained in orthopedic injuries and conditions. Services provided include:

  • Fracture evaluations, including X-ray
  • Injury evaluations for knees, ankles, arms, wrists, etc.
  • Routine injury or surgical follow-up appointments, at the discretion of the patient’s surgeon or physician

Appointments and walk-ins are welcome. Parents should note that not all conditions will be seen during this clinic.

More information about Orthopedics at Texas Children’s, and about making orthopedic appointments at Upper Kirby and other Texas Children’s locations, is available online.