December 5, 2017

A little over a year ago, Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands Outpatient Building opened its doors to the Greater Houston area and beyond. Since then, the ever-growing team of providers and support staff have seen 50,000 plus patients in the outpatient areas and received numerous compliments from the patients and family members they serve.

“Our first year has been packed with many new and exciting opportunities,” said Julie Barrett, director of outpatient and clinical support services for the Outpatient Building. “We have grown substantially, adding new service lines, providers and staff, and we have established a culture that exemplifies our mission to provide the best possible care for our patients and their families.”

Designed with a “spirit of the woods” theme to incorporate the lush, woodsy landscape that surrounds it, the six-floor, 209,973-square-foot Outpatient Building opened in October 2016 housing almost 20 areas of specialized care including cardiology, sports medicine, neurology and hematology/oncology. A dedicated medical staff at the facility works in conjunction with the Texas Children’s system to provide top-notch medical care.

Connected to the almost year-old Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands on floors one and two, the Outpatient Building offers a fresh, new kid-friendly environment to families seeking the best pediatric care for their children. A state-of-the art sports physical therapy gym is on the first floor, check-in and check-out stations resembling a child’s club house are at the entrance of each clinic, and spacious exam rooms and provider work stations line many of the building’s halls.

Susan Niles, a senior athletic trainer with Sports Medicine, said the Outpatient Building’s Sports Medicine staff has grown substantially since it starting seeing patients a year ago, adding nurses, physical therapists, athletic trainers and a sports dietitian. Such growth has allowed the staff to provide quicker access to therapy services, Niles said. It also has provided opportunities for research.

“Using technology from the motion analysis lab, we have launched a research project that we hope will provide breakthrough information on concussions,” Niles said. “We are the only campus with a motion analysis lab and we are excited to use the technology for our patients.”

Ambulatory Services Therapy Manager Jay Mennel said another unique service offered in The Woodlands comes by way of an Alter-G treadmill, an anti-gravity treadmill utilized by sports therapy patients, he said. Such a specialized service combined with other specialty clinics led to the therapy staff completing more than 18,000 outpatient visits during the Outpatient Building’s first year in operation.

“We have some fantastic physicians and great senior leadership at The Woodlands, which has helped our department grow at an exceptional rate,” Mennel said. “We hope to continue to grow this next fiscal year.”

Heather Jordan, a staff nurse in Outpatient Surgical Services, Melanie Garcia, a medical assistant with Plastic Surgery, and Yvonne Barham a staff nurse with Diabetes and Endocrine, all said they have seen tremendous growth in their areas and that they have seen patients from all over Texas and surrounding states.

“Our patients have come from Nacogdoches, Lufkin, Bryan/College Station, Corpus Christi, Port Arthur, and Louisiana,” Barham said. “Many of the local residents have stated how happy they are to not have to travel for their regular office visits.”

Garcia agreed and said patient experience is something that everyone at The Woodlands Outpatient Building takes to heart. “We go above and beyond on a daily basis to make sure every patient feels special,” she said. “We are always improving, always compassionately serving each other and our patients.”

When asked what’s next, leaders, providers and staff point to continued growth and involvement in The Woodlands community.

“Now that we are here and have established workflows, processes and procedures, we can begin to work on things such as more access to patients and families, and staff being more involved in the community,” said Shawnda Kelley, ambulatory manager of various service lines at the Outpatient Building. “I am happy and proud to be a part of this new beginning and can’t wait to see what’s next.”

October 25, 2016

View a testimonial from Sports Medicine Physical Therapist Burke Wilson about what it’s like to work at Texas Children’s.

August 16, 2016

81716adolescentsportsinside640Thirty years ago, Dr. Ralph D. Feigin recruited Dr. Albert Hergenroeder from Seattle to start an Adolescent Medicine & Sports Medicine Section at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital to address the growing need for quality, pediatric care of adolescent patients and young athletes with a variety of complex medical issues.

What began as a small section is now a burgeoning part of Texas Children’s Hospital with an ever-growing staff and a wide national reach. Each branch of the department conducts original research and sees more than ten thousand patients a year.

“We have accomplished a lot in the past three decades that have enabled us to put ourselves on the map as one of the best Adolescent Medicine & Sports Medicine programs in the country, and we are not slowing down,” Hergenroeder said. “The past few years have been filled with growth and expanded services, a trend we plan to continue for the foreseeable future.”

Sports Medicine

Sports Medicine specifically has undergone dramatic growth in the past couple of years adding four primary care physicians to the program’s existing three: Hergenroeder and Drs. Joe Chorley and Jorge Gomez. In addition to that, Texas Children’s Hospital has developed a robust sports physical therapy program. Led by Dr. Gabriel Brooks, the program has more than 30 sports medicine physical therapists located around the Houston area.

“Most of the conditions that we see in sports medicine don’t need surgery,” Hergenroeder said. “However, the vast majority need at least some physical therapy consultation. With the proper diagnosis, it is the sports specific physical therapy that helps them improve and makes it less likely they will be reinjured.”

The bulk of what the Sports Medicine program does is care for children, adolescents and young adults who are hurt while doing some sort of physical activity. The section’s staff also specializes in other sports related problems, such as concussions, the unique problems of the female athlete and the staff refers to their orthopedic surgical colleagues who have specific training in sports medicine and pediatric orthopedic issues to perform surgery when necessary. The primary care sports medicine and orthopedic physicians work as one team. Their goal is to get their patients back on the field, dance floor, or wherever they go to remain physically fit.

“We are a comprehensive sports medicine program, Hergenroeder said, and what makes us different from other sports medicine programs in the city is that we’re pediatric based. We understand the pediatric and adolescent athlete as we were trained as pediatricians and adolescent medicine physicians first, and specialized in sports medicine with an emphasis on the young athlete.”

Members of the team are located at Main and West campuses, and are in Texas Children’s Health Centers across the greater Houston area, including Sugar Land, Cy-Fair and The Woodlands.

Adolescent Medicine

The Adolescent Medicine program in the Adolescent Medicine & Sports Medicine Section is one of the best in the best in the country with a staff of five adolescent medicine physician specialists, three psychologists and a dietitian.

The staff takes care of complicated problems in adolescents and young adults such as eating disorders, obesity, chronic fatigue, polycystic ovarian syndrome and reproductive health issues. The division has an inpatient component, an outpatient clinic and is developing an intensive outpatient program that will act as a bridge between the two.

“Typically, we take care of the sickest, most medically fragile patients with eating disorders,” Hergenroeder said, adding that this division does research to advance the medical care of such complex issues. “We believe we are one of the best eating disorder programs in the U.S.”

Hergenroeder said he plans on continuing to grow this part of the section and that in five to 10 years he expects the program to continue to be one of the premier adolescent medicine programs in the country.

For more information about adolescent medicine click here and for more information about sports medicine click here.

October 20, 2015

102115kingwoodanniv640A year ago this October, Texas Children’s Hospital Outpatient Therapy at Kingwood Glen and the Texas Children’s Hospital Sports Medicine Therapy at Kingwood Glen opened their doors to the north Houston community of Kingwood to make services more convenient to patients and families who live there. Since then, the locations’ therapy staff has grown, referrals from local primary care physicians have increased and families have praised the facilities and their staff for making their lives easier and better.

One mom said her child, who visits the facilities regularly for therapy, is doing incredible. “We are very pleased with the skill level of the therapist there and the care they provide,” the mother said. Another family member of a child who receives therapy at Kingwood Glen said she is “so excited to have a Texas Children’s facility close to our home.”

Texas Children’s Hospital Outpatient Therapy at Kingwood Glen and the Texas Children’s Hospital Sports Medicine Therapy at Kingwood Glen occupy a 12,666- square-foot space on the corner of Farm to Market Road 1960 and West Lake Houston Parkway in Humble. Therapy services offered at the locations include physical, occupational and speech therapy as well as orthopedic and sports medicine therapy.

Both locations have added additional personnel, bringing the number of therapists to 13 and the support staff to four. Due to their hard work, the locations have increased referrals from our local Texas Children’s Pediatrics associates by 43 percent.

“The staff has dedicated themselves to family-centered care and imbedding themselves in the community in which they work,” therapy manager Jenna Henry said. “As we approach our one-year anniversary, we look back on the journey of opening a new clinic from the ground up, building relationships with our referring providers and are looking forward to continuing to grow to service the community around us.”

July 8, 2014

7914Sportsmedicine640

The West Campus Sports Medicine program sponsored its first symposium June 26 to educate athletic trainers, coaches, physical therapists and school nurses on common sports-related healthcare issues in pediatric and adolescent athletes.

In a filled-to-capacity seminar, the Sports Medicine clinical care team spoke on topics that ranged from common injuries and rehabilitation to concussions and nutrition.

“The seminar was an excellent opportunity for participants to gather information on how to keep their athletes healthy and to let them know that our Sports Medicine program can provide help when needed,” said Dr. Megan May, a Texas Children’s orthopedic surgeon and one of the organizers of the symposium.

Attendees were asked to complete surveys at the end of the seminar. Overall, the enormous feedback was very positive with one participant commenting, “This was a top rated first class seminar from start to finish. I was very impressed with the dedication and expertise of all the speakers. Way to go TCH.”

Texas Children’s Sports Medicine program uses an interdisciplinary team approach to diagnose and treat young athletes while placing an emphasis on wellness and injury prevention. It’s the only sports medicine program in the Houston area that focuses exclusively on the unique needs of child athletes.

If you haven’t checked out the Sports Medicine Clinic at West Campus in Katy, you’ll be impressed. Our facility houses a 3,000-square-foot gym, two radiology exam rooms, three casting rooms and 16 exam rooms, and offers advanced technologies, including robotic dynamomentry for isokinetic testing, motion recording and analysis to enhance rehabilitation.

Click here to learn more about Texas Children’s Sports Medicine Clinic.