Following last week’s events on Capitol Hill, Texas Children’s wants to emphasize to all of our team members that your safety and wellbeing remain our most important priority and that we are continuously taking steps to ensure our facilities are always secured and protected.
Over the coming weeks, during which our communities will be practicing increased vigilance, we ask for your support in maintaining a safe place to work for all. To do so, please take a moment to review the following guidance from Texas Children’s Security Services team:
Save our contact info. To get in touch quickly with Security Services at any time, please save their contact information to your phone: 832-824-5400.
If you see something, say something. Remember to stay alert and be aware of your surroundings. If at any time you see a suspicious person or unusual activity, contact Security Services immediately.
Practice the buddy system. When returning to your vehicle after your shift, consider using the buddy system. For employees at our three main campuses, escorts are also available 24/7 by contacting Security Services.
Emergency lines. For employees in the Medical Center, remember that all TMC parking garages and surface lots have Code Blue phones stationed at elevator lobbies and other convenient locations. In the event of an emergency, please use these phones to be connected with TMC police for an immediate response.
Always lock your vehicle. Keep packages and valuables out of sight.
Texas Children’s stands ready to respond, and has plans in place, in the event of an emergency. With your help, we can further ensure a safe and protected working environment for all of our employees.
November 17, 2020
Denise Tanner-Brown shares creative ways we can celebrate the holidays safely this year while creating new memories with our families, friends and loved ones. Read more
July 14, 2020
While more children are spending their summer at home amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Kristen Beckworth, manager of Texas Children’s Center for Childhood Injury Prevention, shares important safety tips for parents to keep in mind to minimize preventable injuries and ensure a safe summer for all. Read more
June 29, 2020
Since the pandemic began, fewer children than usual have visited emergency rooms. But, according to media reports, doctors across the country say they have seen a growing number of children who suffered broken bones on bikes and trampolines, accidental poisonings and other severe injuries during the widespread lockdowns.
Instead of getting injured on playgrounds or during team sports, many children are getting hurt while playing with outdoor toys and sports equipment at home. Sales of trampolines, scooters, skateboards, bicycles and inflatable pools have surged as families look for ways to keep their kids entertained — and with parents often unable to provide constant supervision because of work and other obligations, injuries have followed.
The story is no different at Texas Children’s. All three of our trauma centers have seen an increase in the number of patients seeking our care.
“It’s been really busy for sure,” said Dr. Bindi Naik-Mathuria, medical director of the Trauma Center at Texas Children’s Hospital Medical Center Campus. “We’re seeing everything from dog bites and falls to car accidents, drownings, gunshot wounds, child abuse and neglect. The effects of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns are definitely taking a toll on families in the Greater Houston area and beyond.”
But, Naik-Mathuria said, Texas Children’s is here for those who need our care and the trauma teams at all three campuses are well equipped to handle whatever situation they encounter.
Comprehensive care
When a child comes to one of our hospitals with a traumatic injury, they are cared for by members of one of our trauma teams either at the Medical Center Campus, at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands or at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus.
The trauma centers at The Woodlands and West Campus were recently designated Level IV trauma centers by the Department of State Health Services. The trauma center at the Medical Center Campus is a Level I Trauma Center and has been designated as such since 2010.
The teams at these centers are responsible for a patient’s care throughout their journey at Texas Children’s, which can sometimes be months long. During this time, team members work with departments across the system to coordinate a patient’s care.
“The integration across our system is so important,” said Tarra Kerr, director of the trauma program at all three campuses. “We all work together to make sure our patients get the right treatment so they can return home and have the best possible outcome.”
At the Medical Center Campus, the Level I pediatric trauma center provides around-the-clock coverage to evaluate and treat the most severely injured pediatric patients. Averaging over 1,000 trauma admissions per year, teamwork is crucial in the rapid and decisive actions needed to treat traumatic injuries.
Dedicated space for trauma cases is available in the Emergency Center, our main operating room suite and inpatient units. Approximately 70 percent of all trauma cases come from within the Metro Houston area, which consists of nine counties covering more than 9,500 square miles.
Over 50 percent of the trauma patients cared for at the Medical Center Campus are transferred from other hospitals. The average time to accept a transfer is 15 minutes, well below the 30 minute threshold that is allowed by federal regulation.
The Level IV trauma centers at West Campus and in The Woodlands are capable of stabilizing any trauma patient received, handling onsite single-system orthopedic injuries and superficial lacerations. More complex cases are stabilized and then transferred to a higher level trauma center such as our Level I trauma center in the Medical Center.
The Level IV designation sends a clear signal to first responders that our community hospitals are equipped to handle such trauma patients. West Campus and The Woodlands have been caring for such patients since the hospitals opened their doors, however the designation formalizes that process and holds the centers to certain quality and process improvement standards.
“We are a solid, tri-campus trauma center,” Kerr said. “We have made a lot of progress over the years that better ensures patients receive the right care at the right place at the right time.”
Injury prevention and research
Another area of focus for Texas Children’s trauma centers is injury prevention and research. Kristen Beckworth manages this aspect of the trauma centers at all three campuses. Her team of six educators works in the hospitals and the communities that surround them.
“The goal of the Center for Childhood Injury Prevention is to address major areas of unintentional injuries to children in our local area,” Beckworth said. “This is accomplished by raising awareness among adults and children, providing lifesaving education and resources, and by making childhood injury a public priority.”
With pediatric injury being the No. 1 cause of injury and death of children in the United States, the center educates thousands of parents and children each year on a variety of child safety topics, such as child passenger safety, safe sleep, home safety and bike and pedestrian safety. The center works with trauma center registrars to determine trends, write grants, and implement programming so that what they do is evidence based and in line with what the community needs.
Valuable local partners are key to the center’s success, especially during the pandemic when Beckworth and her team are tied to their decks more than giving in-person education and working with people face to face.
“It’s been challenging, but we are doing what we can,” Beckworth said. “People have been very appreciative of our continued commitment to our program during such trying times.”
Some things Beckworth and her team have done since the pandemic is offered virtual car seat checks, partnered with Houston Apartment Association and Home Owner’s Association to distribute water safety tip sheets, and reached out to all Texas Children’s Pediatrics practices and Texas Children’s Urgent Cares to inform them about the increase in traumatic injuries and tips on how to prevent them.
In addition to injury prevention, Texas Children’s trauma centers aims to continuously evaluate and improve the quality of care given to trauma patients from the perspective of our patients, parents, providers and system. Our trauma process improvement program monitors and evaluates patient care and system performance, while ensuring implementation of a culture of safety. The team participates in the American College of Surgeons’ Trauma Quality Improvement Program and attends the annual scientific meeting and training which compares and provides benchmarking for all level I and II trauma centers.
“We have a very active research program and put a lot of protocols into place that increase the quality of care for our patients, many of whom are forever changed by their injuries and have a strong bond with the people who helped them through one of the toughest times in their lives,” Naik-Mathuria said. “I am very proud of what we and everyone involved has accomplished for the betterment of our patients and their families.”
For more information about Texas Children’s trauma centers and the teams that support them, click here. For more information about the Center for Childhood Injury and Prevention, click here.
September 16, 2019
More than 1 million patients are harmed each year in the United States because of medical errors. The most common, yet preventable types of medical errors are those involving patient misidentification.
Collecting blood specimen and other lab results from patients is more than just placing a label on a tube. It’s a complex, multi-step process that involves meticulously checking and re-checking to ensure that the specimen being collected, labeled, processed and handled matches the right patient, every time.
“We know that safe, quality care for every patient at Texas Children’s is the most important responsibility of each staff member and employee here,” said Texas Children’s Vice President Trudy Leidich. “While no hospital is completely immune to medical errors, Texas Children’s continues to take proactive steps to improve the positive patient identification process in order to eliminate preventable harm to our patients.”
In conjunction with World Patient Safety Day on September 17, Texas Children’s has launched a new campaign – Don’t Skip the Check: ID every patient, every time – to engage our employees system wide around PPID efforts and to ensure error prevention alertness and accountability are always top of mind.
“We have several teams anchored around specific PPID goals,” said Denise Tanner-Brown, Director of Patient Care Services at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus. “They’ve helped us assess and refine our PPID processes and develop learning principles that translate into safe practice at the point of care.”
Since one of the top safety risks nationwide is misidentification, Texas Children’s PPID leaders took an introspective look at our organization to re-assess and identify our potential safety risks. As part of our PPID improvement efforts, the Quality and Safety teams reviewed safety scoops from March 2018 to February 2019, and found that mislabeled specimens was by far the greatest risk of preventable harm.
“Our review of near miss safety events were invaluable lessons for us,” said Nicole Crews, a nurse practitioner in Pathology and Transfusion Safety Officer for the PPID Leadership Team. “By comparing these data trends, we saw what areas we’ve improved upon and what areas need more reinforcement, which subsequently has helped us proactively address these issues and remove barriers to success.”
PPID education roll-out plan – what to expect
The PPID education roll-out initiative will be conducted in several phases across the organization for clinical staff as well as nonclinical employees who have direct encounters with patients and their families.
The training modules accessible via Health Stream include an overview of Texas Children’s PPID policies and processes during blood specimen collection, processing and blood product handling. The modules also include patient families’ stories about misidentification to underscore the important role each of us play in helping to cultivate a harm-free environment for our patients and families at Texas Children’s.
To further drive home this message, the PPID Leadership team collaborated with Marketing to produce electronic slides and screen savers with our call-to-action messaging – Don’t skip the check: ID every patient, every time – that will be used across our three hospital campuses to keep positive patient identification top of mind. Posters will also be placed in our patient units to serve as a visible reminder.
In addition to this, Texas Children’s PPID campaign also includes efforts to educate our patients and families about the importance of wearing ID bands at all times while in our care to ensure their safety.
“September 17 marks a cultural revolution at Texas Children’s Hospital,” said Associate Chief Nursing Officer Jackie Ward, and executive co-sponsor of the PPID Initiative. “We want to ensure every patient has a positive PPID experience and that we’re providing the right care to the right patient every time.”
August 13, 2019
When you watch the news these days, it’s hard not to be inundated with tragic stories and heart-wrenching events happening around the world – with some hitting very close to home.
The recent shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, impacted many people throughout the country. While these tragic events could happen anywhere, you might be asking yourself, “What is Texas Children’s doing to keep our employees, staff, patients and their families safe?”
“Creating a safe workplace environment at Texas Children’s continues to remain a priority,” said Organizational Resilience Director James Mitchell. “Our collaborative efforts to keep employees safe has matured over the years to include active shooter and workplace violence training.”
Over the past several years, Mitchell and his team have gone from implementing table-top exercises on mass shooting incidents to large-scale exercises. Beginning in early 2017 through earlier this year, they have conducted large scale active shooter exercises at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus, Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower and at Texas Children’s Health Plan. Additional exercises will be planned for 2020.
Also, the successful implementation of Everbridge, the hospital’s emergency notification system, has allowed his team and others to alert all employees quickly and over various methods – phone, text and email – in the event of an emergency, including an active shooter event.
“Our security team, led by Mike Crum, will upon request, provide any department within the Texas Children’s system active shooter and/or workplace violence training,” Mitchell said. “Our Emergency Management team can also provide this type of training to our staff if necessary.”
Along with training programs, additional steps are underway at Texas Children’s to promote workplace safety, while also keeping the safety of our patients and their families in mind.
With more than 12-million square feet of space among our 125 Texas Children’s locations, there are multiple entrances and exits to our facilities, especially at our Medical Center campus. The organization is looking at ways to reduce entry points to improve better monitoring.
“Our team has conducted risk assessments at 18 of our Texas Children’s locations,” said Vice President of Facilities Operations Bert Gumeringer. “By the end of the year, we will have completed assessments at all of our Texas Children’s facilities. The information gathered from these locations will help us identify other safety measures we may consider putting in place.”
In addition to improved lighting in our parking lots and an increase in security presence in certain areas, Gumeringer and his team are looking into implementing a visitor management program in other areas of the hospital similar to the one in place at Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower. This program operates by having a security officer present on each floor of Legacy Tower. Before gaining entry, visitors must present a government issued ID and wear an ID wristband that is tied to the hospital’s database.
While Texas Children’s biggest violent threat continues to be domestic in nature, Texas Children’s understands that mass shootings are of concern and could happen anywhere. That’s why the organization will continue to train and prepare staff for such an event.
At Texas Children’s, every employee plays a role in promoting workplace safety. If you see something that isn’t right, say something so these potential safety concerns can be addressed.
If your department is interested in scheduling active shooter or workplace violence training, contact Michael Crum at mccrum@texaschildrens.org
August 5, 2019
Texas Children’s Health & Well-Being team has partnered with colleagues from Environmental Health & Safety, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Occupational & Physical Therapy to launch a new video series aimed at preventing an all-too-common occurrence among our employees: the twinges and aches of lower back pain.
The latest offering in our ongoing effort to introduce programs and resources that help keep our workforce healthy and strong, the “We’ve Got Your Back” video series provides expert insight and information to empower you to take care of your back while on the job – no matter your work location, shift or role. Each video in the four-part series features quick, practical tips and advice for avoiding back pain by:
Using ergonomics to set up your desk and arrange your work area for optimal comfort and safety.
Adopting the proper body mechanics and techniques to lift and carry objects without strain or injury.
Completing stretching and strengthening exercises to help maintain flexibility and build up your core.
Loosening and relieving tension in your spine with simple and effective stretches you can do right at your desk.
“We know that Texas Children’s has grown exponentially in the last few years and we want to make sure that we provide all of our employees with robust resources to improve their health and well-being,” said Health Coach Jackie Pacheco, who is also a certified personal trainer, ergonomics and safety specialist and athletic trainer.
We’ve Got Your Back Episode 1: Ergonomics
Ready to start learning how to put back pain on the backburner? Click here to watch Episode 1: Ergonomics with Industrial Hygienist Gary Chang, who shows you how making small changes to your work environment – like adjusting the height of your chair or placing your phone closer within your reach – can make a big impact.
“The goal of the Environmental Health & Safety Department is to identify and correct existing ergonomic injury risks and to proactively identify those jobs that could put employees at risk of a musculoskeletal injury,” Chang said, noting that taking preventative steps can also help reduce the high cost of work-related injuries and mitigate the resulting impacts on our colleagues, our patients and their families.
“Ergonomics interventions allow employees to work safely and reduce the risks of musculoskeletal disorders.”
