February 10, 2015

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Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus is proud to announce Dr. Allen Milewicz as chief surgical officer of the hospital. In his new role, Milewicz will be responsible for organizing Texas Children’s surgery within the community, focusing on Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus. Additionally, he will be working in conjunction with the entire Texas Children’s Department of Surgery to optimize surgical service for patients, families and referring physicians.

“I look forward to expanding surgical services in the community while ensuring that each patient receives the experience, expertise and clinical outcomes for which Texas Children’s is known,” Milewicz said.

Board-certified by the American Board of Pediatric Surgery, Milewicz received his undergraduate degree from City College of New York and earned his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine. After completing his general surgery residency program at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, he went on to pursue specialized training in pediatric surgery. Milewicz is a member of the American Pediatric Surgery Association and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He also is an associate professor of pediatrics-surgery at Baylor.

December 23, 2014

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Michelle Riley-Brown and Dr. Charles Hankins received a heartfelt goodbye December 16 from the people they have served during the past four years at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus.

The farewell came as a surprise to the leaders, who will be moving to Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands at the beginning of the new year. Soon after they arrived at what they thought was a routine leaders meeting, a room packed with colleagues directed their attention to a video about the history of West Campus and how Riley-Brown and Hankins have been key to its success.

“The Woodlands is lucky to get such a great team,” one employee said in the video.

“It’s because of you that we are the best of the west,” another employee said.

“Please come back!” another employee jokingly pleaded.

With tears in their eyes, Riley-Brown and Hankins watched the video and the many other gestures of appreciation their colleagues made during the hour-long affair.

Some of those gestures include:

  • A framed photo of a large group of West Campus employees standing next to a large “Thank You” sign.
  • A T-shirt with Riley-Brown’s signature saying, “That’s how we roll.”
  • The unveiling of a “That’s how we roll” program that will give children coming into the hospital the opportunity to hitch a ride to their appointment in a toy car.
  • The announcement that Riley-Brown and Hankins are the Best of the West winners for the month of December.

“I am going to miss every one of you,” Riley-Brown said at the meeting. “It’s been a true blessing working with you.”
Hankins said he would take all of his colleagues at West Campus with him to The Woodlands if he could, but that wouldn’t be the right thing to do.

“The reason I wanted to go to The Woodlands is because I didn’t want to compete, I wanted to cooperate,” he said. “We all are going to work together to make Texas Children’s better for the whole community.”

Riley-Brown will become president of Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, and Hankins will become chief medical officer of the institution, which will open its doors to outpatient care in the fall of 2016 and inpatient services the following year. Riley-Brown and Hankins will assume their new roles in January.

December 16, 2014

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Representatives from seven Houston area Chuy’s Mexican Food restaurants presented on December 9 a Vecta Distraction Station to Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus. The machine, which helps promote a calming and relaxing environment for patients, was purchased with $7,000 raised at participating restaurants.

The Vecta Distraction Station aids in normalizing the hospital setting and turns an unfamiliar environment into a friendly and inviting space. The machine moves from room to room and transforms the space with a bubble column, projector and fiber optics. Child life specialists use the machine as a distraction tool during procedures, to normalize the hospital setting and to build rapport with patients during hospital visits.

“We are so appreciative of the continued support from our local Chuy’s restaurants,” said Katy Williford, child life specialist at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus. “This donation will impact many patients and families who walk through our doors and will make their stay a little bit brighter.”

December 9, 2014

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Texas Children’s announced on December 4 our plan to build an eight-bed special isolation unit at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus. This unit will be designed for children with highly contagious infectious diseases, such as pandemic influenza, enterovirus D68, Ebola, and many others. Additionally, we announced the state’s designation of our organization as a pediatric Ebola treatment center.

About the isolation unit

This new isolation unit at Texas Children’s will be similar to the four other biocontainment units in the country. Such units are equipped and staffed to care for patients with contagious infectious diseases.

“We will build a state-of-the-art isolation unit designed and staffed to provide the highest quality care and treatment for infants and children with serious or life-threatening infectious diseases of public health significance, always with the greatest possible margin of safety,” said Texas Children’s Physician-in-Chief Dr. Mark W. Kline. “We believe this will be an indispensable resource to our local community, Texas and the nation.”

This new unit will incorporate all of the latest scientific and technological approaches to biocontainment, including negative air pressure, laminar air flow, high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration, separate ventilation, anterooms, biosafety cabinets, a point-of-care laboratory, special security access, autoclaves and incinerators. There will be two levels of protection from airborne particles, as well as a comprehensive waste management plan, among other safety features.

It will be fully equipped to care for any infant or child with a serious communicable disease, with all of the measures available to assure safety of the health care team, other patients and their families. A point-of-care biosafety level 3 laboratory will enable the care team to monitor the progress of patients and perform rapid detection methods to identify unusual pathogens. Housed at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus, the unit is anticipated to have capacity for eight patients, all in private rooms.

This specialized unit will be led by Dr. Gordon Schutze, who will serve as medical director, as well as Dr. Judith Campbell and Dr. Amy Arrington, who will be the unit’s associate medical directors. It will be staffed by an elite team of experienced critical care and infectious disease nurses and physicians, all of whom will have successfully completed an intensive advanced certification course and practicum in infection control, hospital epidemiology and management of infectious diseases in the critical care setting. The staff will maintain their certification through participation in ongoing educational activities.

Kline said Texas Children’s is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to design, build, equip and staff the unit, which is expected to be operational within nine months and cost approximately $16 million to build.

“I could not be more impressed with Texas Children’s desire to run towards issues of critical importance to the health and well-being of the children of Texas and our nation,” said Dr. Brett Giroir, director of the Texas Task Force on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response and chief executive officer of the Texas A&M Health Science Center.

Caring for potential Ebola patients

Since the summer, Texas Children’s has been implementing a detailed plan to identify, isolate and treat suspected cases of Ebola, if necessary. As a result, following a visit from the CDC, the State of Texas designated Texas Children’s as a pediatric Ebola treatment center.

As part of the hospital’s preparation, specific protocols were developed outlining steps staff would take if and when a patient with Ebola symptoms arrived at a Texas Children’s facility. Additionally, in order to decrease the risk of exposure and provide the complex care required, the hospital identified specific areas and units responsible for caring for any patient with Ebola. The health care workers in those areas have received intense, ongoing training and simulation to help them prepare.

“This unit is part of the hospital’s long-term vision to care for children with the most serious and complex medical conditions,” said Michelle Riley-Brown, president of Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus. “Our leadership’s decision to build this new isolation unit at West Campus speaks volumes about our staff and employees’ skill, expertise and experience here. Our agility and responsiveness were tested just a few months ago when we had a patient with suspected Ebola under investigation. Our handling of that case demonstrated our competency here at West Campus, and it boosted the entire organization’s confidence in the readiness across the system.”

West Campus staff and employess helped lead the way for the organization to refine our protocols for care, and now Texas Children’s will lead the way for centers across the country. If you have questions about the unit or an interest in being trained to be part of the care team that will staff this unit, please contact your leader for more information.

Return to Ebola Response site.

December 2, 2014

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Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus has been recognized as a top children’s hospital by the Leapfrog Group for the second consecutive year.

The Leapfrog Group is an organization that provides the only national, public comparison of hospitals across safety, quality and efficiency dimensions.

Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus is among an elite group of only nine children’s hospitals selected out of more than 1,400 rural, urban and children’s hospitals surveyed, and the only children’s hospital in Houston to be recognized with this prestigious distinction.

“We are honored to again be recognized as a top performing children’s hospital,” said Michelle Riley-Brown, president of Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus. “Our physicians, nurses and employees continuously strive to provide high quality care for our patients and families while keeping their safety our top priority.”

This year’s list of recognized hospitals includes 60 Top Rural Hospitals, 25 Top Urban Hospitals and nine Top Children’s Hospitals. To be selected as a Top Hospital, organizations must meet or exceed Leapfrog criteria in three critical areas of hospital care: how patients fare, resource use and management structures in place to prevent errors.

The Leapfrog Group was founded to work for improvements in health care safety, quality and affordability. The annual survey is the only voluntary effort of its kind. The Top Hospitals will be honored at Leapfrog’s Annual Meeting on December 2 in Arlington, Virginia, which gathers key decision-makers from Leapfrog’s network of purchaser members, industry partners, health care stakeholders and national collaborators.

For more information, or to see a complete list of The Leapfrog Group’s 2014 Top Hospitals, visit www.leapfroggroup.org/news.

November 25, 2014

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Last week, Jim McIngvale, better known as Mattress Mack, spoke at the West Campus Patient Experience Leadership Meeting.

The fast-talking owner of the Gallery Furniture retail chain shared his best practices in customer service that he’s developed over the past 33 years. His catchphrase, “The customer is the business, and the business is the customer” resonated with the group of more than 30 employees who strive to make the patient experience a positive one on a daily basis.

McIngvale added that in order to convey passion to your customers, you have to be passionate about the job you are doing. This is a quality Mattress Mack said is very evident at Texas Children’s Hospital.

October 28, 2014

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Anesthesia Tech Kelly Urquico recently received the Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus “Best of the West” employee recognition award.

The award is given out quarterly to employees who go above and beyond their normal job responsibilities.

Urquico joined Texas Children’s in February 2011 just as the organization was preparing to open the West Campus. He has been instrumental in the success of West Campus’ surgical services and is described by his colleagues as being diligent, willing to take on additional tasks without being asked, and helpful to all of his co-workers, including those outside his department.

“Kelly is passionate about his job, assists in training other employees, and consistently acts as a resource for the Perioperative Services Team,” said Michelle-Riley Brown, president of Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus. “He takes great pride in his work and always has a great attitude.”