July 28, 2020

When Nurmeen Khokhr called her pediatrician’s office to schedule a time to come in and get the vaccinations she needed before going off to college in the fall, she was pleased to hear she didn’t have to step out of her car.

A new program called Car Side Care is being piloted at Texas Children’s Pediatrics Cypresswood in Spring and allows patients nine and older to receive vaccinations from the comfort and safety of their vehicles. All patients have to do is make an appointment, answer a few screening questions, get their temperature taken and roll up their sleeves.

“We are providing the same high-quality care in parking spaces outside our practices as we provide inside our buildings,” said Assistant Vice President Sara Montenegro. “In doing so, we are helping reduce patients’ and staff members’ potential exposure to COVID-19.”

The idea for Car Side Care followed a national drop in the number of patients coming in to get their routine vaccinations. When asked, many patients and/or their family members sited fear of being exposed to the virus as their reason for delaying their shots.

Dr. Stanley Spinner, chief medical officer and vice president of Texas Children’s Pediatrics, said he doesn’t blame people for being cautious, but emphasized the importance of routine childhood vaccines does not lessen during a pandemic. In fact, Spinner said, children should be getting them now more than ever with back to school and flu season right around the corner.

“Vaccines are arguably the most effective public health measure we have next to clean water,” Spinner said. “They are that important, and with the pandemic, they are even more so. I would hate to see a child sick with both COVID-19 and something else like the flu.”

In addition to routine vaccinations, getting kids inoculated against the flu is one of the main drivers behind Car Side Care. Prior to the pandemic, patients needing a flu vaccine often would call their pediatrician’s office, make a nurse’s appointment, and drop by and get their vaccine. That won’t work today with COVID-19 when so many extra precautions are necessary to limit exposure.

“Our offices are very cautious about safety precautions, and with that, needed creative solutions to see hundreds of children for flu vaccine and childhood immunizations quickly, without needing to come in our facilities,” Montenegro said. “Care Side Care is a perfect way to handle this and to hopefully remain on top of the upcoming flu season by vaccinating as many children as possible.”

Car Side Care was launched as a pilot at Texas Children’s Pediatrics Cypresswood and has grown across more than 15 Texas Children’s Pediatrics sites, as we work closely with our landlords to allocate parking spaces to support this program.

Each location will designate four parking spots a couple of times a week to patients wanting to come by and get their vaccines. An appointment will be necessary as well as a COVID-19 screening. Patients and anyone else in the vehicle will be required to wear a mask. Clinicians will wear a mask, goggles and a protective gown. The program has also been expanded from caring for older children to caring fo children of any age over the past two months.

“Texas Children’s Pediatrics has done a very good job at continually finding ways to provide the care our kids need in the safest possible environment,” Spinner said. “Our families seem very happy with the modifications we’ve made thus far and they seem pleased with our commitment to maintain the quality of care we’ve always provided.”

Khokhr said she was very pleased with her Car Side Care experience. It was convenient and gave her the sense of safety she needed to get the shots required by her school.

“I’m glad Texas Children’s Pediatrics is doing this,” she said. “I think it will help ease the nerves of a lot of patients who want to come in and get their vaccines.”

May 18, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to dominate the news and impact our normal way of life, there is one thing that has not changed – our commitment to ensuring our patients and families have convenient access to the care they need, when they need it, while also continuing to protect their health and safety.

As we begin to adapt to this new normal, more in-person visits are being converted to video or phone appointments. Texas Children’s e-Health team, in collaboration with multiple departments across the system, has rapidly expanded and enhanced these e-Health services to make it easier and more convenient for patients to connect with a Texas Children’s provider without leaving their home.

In less than three months, the organization has seen a rapid growth in e-Health visits across the system. On March 2, Texas Children’s completed 39 video and telephone appointments. As of May 8, our providers had completed 72,285 telephone and video visits across Texas Children’s Hospital, Texas Children’s Pediatrics, Texas Children’s Urgent Care, Texas Children’s Health Plan and Texas Children’s® Anywhere Care. Along with this impressive milestone, over 1,000 providers have been trained to provide care through video visits to their patients across the system.

The Health Plan’s e-Health platform, Texas Children’s® Anywhere Care, which has been a major focus in the organization’s e-Health efforts, has seen an uptick in patient visits. Since launching the platform last summer, over 1,520 video appointments have been completed. A total of 750 e-Health visits were completed from March 1 to May 5 of this year.

“Our recent successes are attributed to the collaborative efforts that went into building the infrastructure that has enabled us to expand our e-Health capabilities more broadly across the system,” said Laura Laux Higgins, director of strategic projects in Information Services and member of the e-Health Executive Steering Team. “Not only did we investigate the technology solutions and invest in them, we had a team of e-Health experts in place across information security, EPIC, MyChart, billing, compliance, legal, credentialing, risk, and administrative and physician leadership who were able to help us move forward quickly because of the work they had done over the past year.”

With the demand for e-Health services on the rise due to COVID-19, Texas Children’s Heart Center, like many other subspecialties across the system, are leveraging the mutual benefits of e-Health services.

Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic set in and local, state and federal governments asked non-essential businesses to close and residents to stay home, the Heart Center worked swiftly with physicians and staff to engage e-Health services for new and existing patients 6 months old and older who did not need to be seen in person.

Within about a week, the Heart Center was booking about half of its appointments at the Texas Children’s Medical Center Campus via video or phone. Although that number has decreased since Gov. Greg Abbott has started to reopen parts of the state, the Heart Center is still using e-Health services and is dedicated to the virtual patient care model for the foreseeable future.

“Our will to continue to work hard and keep our patients, families and staff safe has never been stronger,” said Chief of Pediatric Cardiology Dr. Daniel Penny. “e-Health is a way we can continue to serve our patients without putting them at unnecessary risk.”

All potential e-Health appointments at the Heart Center are reviewed by a pediatric cardiologist or advanced practice provider to determine whether it is clinically appropriate for a child’s appointment to be completed using one of these modes of virtual visit. If the cardiologist considers that a child’s appointment can be completed in this way, the clinic staff will contact the child’s family to provide more details and guide them through the new system.

Dr. Jeffrey Kim, director of the Arrhythmia and Pacing (Electrophysiology) Service at Texas Children’s Hospital, said his patients are good candidates for e-Health visits because they typically don’t need surgical intervention. For about a month during the pandemic, Kim said almost all arrhythmia and pacing patients were utilizing e-Health visits. Now, about half are using the service.

“Patients are very appreciative of the virtual visits,” Kim said, adding he conducted an appointment with a patient while they were standing in the middle of a field on their ranch. “They are thankful they don’t have to come in and expose themselves if they don’t have to.”

In addition to safety, Kim said e-Health services can be used to treat people in areas where there are limited pediatric cardiology services. Patients in these areas might not be able to drive into places like Houston for an appointment forgoing care altogether or seeking it in less-than-ideal places. e-Health would bring the visit to them, allowing our experts to reach more children and families.

“e-Health has a lot of benefits and possibilities,” Kim said. “I’m excited to see how it develops.”

April 7, 2020

As COVID-19 continues to dominate the news, cause widespread closures and cancellations, and disrupt our normal way of life, it can be especially challenging for patients and their families who depend on us for their care. As we adjust to this new change, there’s one thing that has not changed – our commitment to ensuring our patients and families have convenient access to the care they need, when they need it.

One of the ways to help stop the spread of COVID-19 is to limit the number of patients and visitors at all of our locations across Texas – including hospitals, specialty care clinics, Pavilion for Women community clinics, Texas Children’s Pediatrics, Texas Children’s Urgent Care and The Centers for Children and Women. To keep everyone safe, many in-person visits can now be converted to a phone or video appointment. Texas Children’s e-Health team – in collaboration with other departments across the system – has rapidly expanded and enhanced e-Health services to make it easier and more convenient for patients to connect with a Texas Children’s provider without leaving their home.

“Providers are very eager and excited to offer virtual visits to ensure the continuity and convenience of care to children and women especially during these challenging times,” said Dr. Robert Ball, maternal fetal medicine physician and medical director of e-Health. “As more physicians are trained and enabled to provide virtual care to their patients, we are rapidly transforming the landscape across Texas Children’s.”

Texas Children’s providers and patients are taking advantage of the benefits of e-Health capabilities. On March 23, providers began having telephone appointments with patients. In the first three days alone, almost 2,500 patients were able receive care via telephone from the safety of their home across Texas Children’s Hospital, Texas Children’s Pediatrics and Texas Children’s Health Plan. On March 26, almost 1,000 providers across the hospital were introduced to training to be able to give face to face care through video visits to their patients. This is also expected to take off rapidly and be a “customer obsessed” solution for our patients. The roll out of video visits across care locations change how Texas Children’s delivers care, not just during this emergent time, but for the long-term.

With the demand for e-Health services on the rise due to COVID-19, our e-Health team, nurses and leaders have worked collaboratively to develop other strategies to meet our patients’ needs. Below is an overview of some of the enhancements that have been recently implemented:

COVID-19 Nurse Triage Line – This new feature allows parents of current patients to call 832-822-6843 (832-82COVID) if they think their child has symptoms or has been exposed to COVID-19. The line is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and operated by specially trained pediatric nurses. The nurses will triage calls, provide basic COVID-19 information, or schedule a video visit with a provider for further evaluation. The COVID-19 nurse triage line is for pediatric patients only.

Virtual Visits – To keep our patients, their families and our staff safe, many pediatric and women’s services in-person visits are now being converted to a phone or video appointment. If a patient’s appointment is a fit for either option, clinic team members will contact patients directly to provide more details. We encourage patients to continue to schedule appointments with their Texas Children’s providers, and to visit texaschildrens.org/appointment for more information about current options.

Texas Children’s Pediatrics (TCP): TCP has changed its scheduling work flow to have a physician review all appointment requests for the health and safety of all patients arriving at TCP locations across Houston, Austin and College Station. If a patient’s health screen indicates symptoms or exposure to COVID-19, TCP will convert the patient to a phone or video appointment. e-Health options are new for TCP practices and is growing quickly. Between March 12 and March 27, TCP completed 567 video and 1,653 phone appointments.

Texas Children’s Health Plan (TCHP): TCHP has also been focused on getting key provider communications pushed out, with the most important messaging being around supporting the delivery of telemedicine services. The Centers for Children and Women are conducting their visits via phone and have added nine trained providers to the ranks of approved physicians licensed to conduct video visits. Additionally, Texas Children’s telemedicine platform Anywhere Care has seen an uptick in patient visits. For more information about Anywhere Care, click here.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has really impacted the way we provide care,” said Texas Children’s Chief Information Innovation Officer Myra Davis. “This health crisis has presented an opportunity for us to leverage the benefits of e-Health. Historically our outpatient care has been provided at Texas Children’s locations, and e-Health has created a paradigm shift where we our meeting patients where they are.”

Ball has seen the benefits that e-Health offers to our providers and patients, especially those patients and families where physical access to a Texas Children’s facility can be difficult.

“I think e-Health has been an incredible game changer for us,” Ball said. “Everybody deserves a Texas Children’s provider, and this is an effective tool that we can use to create this opportunity for them.”

E-health Resources

Please visit Texas Children’s Coronavirus Connect page where you will find links to internal documents with updated information about COVID-19, as well as our e-Health Training and Resource page that includes information on telephone and video visit requirements, consenting, and FAQs.

January 13, 2020

Tellepsen, a local construction company, hosted their fourth annual Bikes4Smiles event during the Christmas holiday. Tellepsen presented bicycles to various deserving Texas Children’s patients. Every year the event expands and this year was no exception. Along with the Woodlands Campus and Texas Children’s Pediatrics East, patients at West Campus were in for a treat this year.

All events began with a formal introduction of the Tellepsen team and their relationship with our organization. In 2015, Tellepsen participated in a donation project that ultimately led to the birth of the Bikes4Smiles event. Tellepsen’s Bikes4Smiles project was born in 2016, raising approximately 265 bikes. Today, with Texas Children’s patients added to the list of recipients, the company has donated over a thousand bicycles in total. Construction Manager of Tellepsen, John Brock, has been an integral part in producing this event since the beginning, and says that Bikes4Smiles is the best way to wrap up his year.

“I am always so excited to put a smile on these kids’ faces,” Brock said. “The fact that we are able to do more and more every year and expand to other parts of Texas Children’s makes everything worth it.”

Santa Clause also arrived to greet and entertain patients and their families. In addition, helmets were provided to each child that received a bicycle. They were distributed as part of the Bike and Pedestrian Safety grant program, funded by the Texas Department of Transportation. This program is within Texas Children’s Center for Childhood Injury Prevention, and is the lead organization for Safe Kids Greater Houston Coalition.

All Texas Children’s locations did a great job identifying deserving families and coordinating with Tellepsen on the delivery and presentation of the bicycles. With this being the first year for the program at West Campus, child life specialists and leadership went above and beyond to make this a memorable moment for their patients.

“This has been so exciting! When The Woodlands campus said the Bikes4 Smiles program was expanding to West Campus, we were really excited to be able to offer that to families and patients,” Child Life Specialist Sarah Beasley stated. “Being able to call the families and tell them was the highlight for us because the parents were incredibly excited and thankful.”

Texas Children’s Pediatrics East staff were very particular when they selected the bike recipients. Many of the children chosen are either being raised by a single parent or other family members. According to the practice’s staff, socialization is limited for most of the children because of their family’s lack of resources, time and energy. Therefore, when the Bike4Smiles event came around, they knew this would be the perfect Christmas gift.

“We have found that the families are often on a fixed budget, making things like, a bike, less of a priority for them,” Texas Children’s Pediatrics East Practice Manager Kria Hardy said. “Being able to gift the bikes to the children will not only assist the grandparents in resources, but will also provide an outlet for the children and families. On behalf of the Texas Children’s Pediatrics East we greatly appreciate and thank Tellepsen for the opportunity to bless our families with bikes.”

As families arrived to the locations, patients and their siblings were measured for their helmets then escorted into a room filled with bicycles.

“I like bikes so much; I’m so excited,” Texas Children’s Pediatrics East patient Max Garcia exclaimed! “I’m so ready to get my bike, this is the best present ever.”

The Tellepsen team, along with parents and Texas Children’s employees gathered and glared with gleefulness as the children sped out of the rooms on their brand new wheels. This is just one of many events that illustrates the bond and commitment we receive consistently from our community partnerships.

“This event was amazing! It was great to hear from the patients themselves how this was their first, or only bicycle,” Assistant Vice President of Texas Children’s Pediatrics Sara Montenegro said. “It is clear that Tellepsen enjoys connecting with our patients and their families, and it is great that they are able to be here with us to enjoy this moment as well.”

September 23, 2019

The Texas Children’s footprint continues to expand in the capital. On September 16, Texas Children’s Pediatrics Dawson & Ramirez Pediatrics located at 1111 W 34th suite 102 Austin, TX 78705, opened its doors and became the fourth location in the city.

Drs. Thomas Dawson, Jaime Ramirez and Britni LeBoeuf lead the Practice’s care team, and are dedicated to understanding the importance of a parent feeling completely comfortable with a child’s primary care physician. These board-certified, expert pediatricians have extensive training in children’s health care, and will focus on maintaining Texas Children’s mission of providing high quality care in the Austin community.

“I’m excited to welcome Drs. Dawson, Ramirez and LeBoeuf, as well as their amazing team, to our TCP family,” Kay Tittle, president of Texas Children’s Pediatrics, said. “We know the value pediatricians bring to the community. They are more than doctors – they are partners in your child’s health.”

Texas Children’s Pediatrics locations provide full-service pediatric care for children of all ages including, among other offerings, prenatal counseling; newborn and infant care; well and sick child visits; immunizations; and hearing and vision screenings; as well as camp, school and sports physicals.

In 2018, Texas Children’s expanded its pediatric health care offerings into the Austin community. The first Texas Children’s Pediatrics practice in Austin, Texas Children’s Pediatrics Austin Pediatrics at 5625 Eiger Road, suite 225 opened on June 18.

For more information about Texas Children’s Pediatrics in Austin, visit www.texaschildrenspediatricsaustin.org

June 11, 2019

More Texas Children’s Pediatrics patients over the age of 18 will have the opportunity for a smooth shift to adult care as the Transition Medicine program expands to include seven locations: Corinthian Pointe, East, Gulfgate, Gulfton, Kingsland, Palm Center, and Ripley House.

Transition Medicine is the process of educating, organizing and eventually transferring patient care from the pediatric to the adult health care system. During this time the patient and their parent are informed of various ways to optimize the patient’s health moving forward. Texas Children’s is dedicated to helping patients transfer care smoothly without a decline or break in their treatment.

In 2016 Dr. Cynthia Peacock, medical director of Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine’s Transition Medicine Clinic, was awarded the “Healthy Tomorrows Partnership for Children Program” 5-year grant from the Health Services Research Administration to increase transition readiness at Texas Children’s Pediatrics.

“I wrote the grant to help the Texas Children’s practices because lots of the referrals within the Texas Children’s family were struggling in the community to find someone to take care of them,” Peacock said. “This was especially prevalent amongst children and youth with special health care needs.”

The grant provides funding that also serves as an incentive to encourage clinics to become involved in the program and begin developing their own transition medicine process by educating their staff and providers.

“As we are providing care for an increasing number of complex care patients, our need to have a well-defined system for transitioning care to adult providers who are capable of continuing to provide the care these patients and their families need has never been greater,” Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Texas Children’s Pediatrics and Texas Children’s Urgent Care, Dr. Stan Spinner said. “Our partnership with Dr. Peacock is providing us with the education and the tools necessary to help ensure a successful transition for our patients and their families.”

Upon receiving the grant, Dr. Rebecca Laster was selected as the physician leader to work with the clinics and help them identify specific tools that they could use to promote transition readiness and transfer. Her experience as a physician in the community clinics sparked her desire to want to assist these patients during this transition.

“I always think back to a time when one of my patients had a really hard time transitioning to adult medicine. That made me want to learn more about the process so I could better assist them,” Laster said. “Although, we have a lot of patients who’d like to stay with us forever, sometimes that’s not appropriate because we’re not trained in adult care. Therefore, I have the transition conversation with every single one of my patients so they know how important it is to eventually find an adult physician, and if they can start the process of thinking about it early on then everybody’s prepared.”

Many young adults between the ages of 18 to 21 transition their care to adult providers when they leave for college or enter the workforce. But for those with complex chronic pediatric diseases, transitioning is a struggle filled with barriers and challenges that include patient maturity, psychosocial and family needs, coordination and reimbursement issues, and identification of adult providers able to care for unique patient populations.

“Coordination of care is essential to avoiding gaps in care and adverse health outcomes for our patients. This is especially true with our vulnerable populations who have multiple chronic illnesses and complex health and social needs,” Nurse Care Coordinator of Texas Children’s Pediatrics, Pam Brock said. “We help provide support and guidance to our patient/families in navigating this process and by making sure all needs are met prior to transition. This helps to ensure a smooth transfer and avoids disruptions in their care. This program has increased overall fund of knowledge surrounding transition and continues to help improve the transition process for our patient/families.”

Jimmy Garcia is a 20-year-old patient at the Texas Children’s Pediatrics Ripley House location and has recently transitioned to adult care at The Transition Medicine Clinic at Baylor College of Medicine (BMC). Garcia has a global developmental delay, cerebral palsy, scoliosis, an intellectual delay, and is also non-verbal and non-mobile. He has been a patient at Texas Children’s since he was only a few months old, and is one of the many patients who benefit from the Transition Medicine program as they get older. His mother, Cynthia Garcia says that she didn’t know what to expect during the transitioning process, and is thankful for the assistance that their physician provided.

“I still wanted him to continue to see Dr. Wright,” Garcia said. “She was such a great pediatrician to him and our family, and Jimmy just feels so comfortable with her. However, everyone in the office was very positive during the process and prepared and helped us to be comfortable with accepting that Jimmy was eventually going to leave them.”

Texas Children’s academic partnership with BCM allows for an effortless transition for our patients. The goal of the BMC clinic is to prevent urgent health care crisis and to minimize the impact of a shrinking social support network that these patients and families have come to rely on in the pediatric health care system. According to Garcia, transitioning into adult care was just as easy as transferring out of the pediatric system. Their pediatrician, along with the Garcia’s social worker were very instrumental in assisting with paperwork and other aspects of the process.

“When it came time to schedule Jimmy’s first appointment, it was so smooth and easy,” Garcia said. “Our first visit to the transition clinic was also amazing. It was a joy seeing everyone so accepting of Jimmy. When we go to the doctor now, he knows the clinic, and he recognizes the environment. Jimmy is non-verbal so he doesn’t exactly express his words or anything, but the smiles, his reactions, those are things that let us know he’s comfortable and he’s aware of his surroundings. He’s doing really well!”

The program began with two clinics during the pilot year and grew through the third year. While currently in its fourth year of the grant, the goal is to identify additional clinics that are willing to participate. At the beginning of the process, clinics sign a memorandum of understanding, then identify the activities they would like to implement and goals they want to achieve to help with addressing transition.

Patients like Garcia represent the hard work that the transition medicine team has put forth, and the success of the program as a whole allows for more practices to be added and even more patients to be helped. Identifying patients who will need help transitioning in the future is key.

“Transition is not an event, it’s a process,” Peacock said. “You can’t drop someone off at the curb. It’s really about making sure that they engage.”

Engaging with the teenager and parent to make sure they have a plan, looking into insurance options, knowing what the next steps will be in advance helps to facilitate the transfer more efficiently. All seven participating practices have done this and more as they recently met their goals for the 2018 grant cycle and are looking forward to celebrating their continued success.

“Texas Children’s Pediatrics is excited to have many locations become a part of the Transition Medicine Program,” President of Texas Children’s Pediatrics, Kay Tittle said. “The goal is that this success continues on past the length of the grant, more practices are added, and we to continue to address transition effectively.”

These clinics are provided with an array of resources in the form of trainings, Epic tools, and supports for developing their own transition initiatives. If you work with TCP and are interested in learning more about Transition Medicine and how you can help support these efforts, please reach out to Pam Brock, RN pmbrock@texaschildrens.org, or Dr. Rebecca Laster, rblaster@texaschildrens.org.

January 15, 2019

On January 11, University Pediatric Association, became Texas Children’s Pediatrics’ latest addition.

Last year Texas Children’s Pediatrics expanded outside of the Houston area opening its first primary care site in Austin, today that expansion has made its way to College Station, marking yet another milestone in Texas Children’s path toward creating a network of quality pediatric care for children and families throughout the state of Texas.

Located at 1602 Rock Prairie Road, Suite 1100 College Station, Texas, Texas Children’s Pediatrics University Pediatric Association has seven board certified physicians, two nurse practitioners, and a host of other employees dedicated to meeting the healthcare needs of infants to teenagers. Our expert physicians offer full-service pediatric care including:

  • Prenatal consultations
  • Well-child visits
  • Care of illnesses
  • Care and treatment of minor injuries
  • Vaccinations and immunizations
  • Preventative health care
  • School and sports physicals
  • Hearing and vision screening
  • Health care and nutrition education

“This is the largest practice that we will have acquired in a long time,” President of Texas Children’s Pediatrics, Kay Tittle said. “We are very excited about moving into a new city and providing quality primary pediatric care to children and their families in the College Station area.”

Click here for more information about Texas Children’s Pediatrics University Pediatric Association.