January 27, 2017

12717emmansuperbowl640Although this year’s Super Bowl is more than a week away, the festivities that will bring droves of people to the Houston area have begun. Multiple events across the city are scheduled throughout the week and will culminate with the big game on Sunday, February 5 at NRG Stadium.

Overall, the Houston Visitor’s Center predicts nearly 1 million people will visit the Houston area during the week leading up to the Super Bowl. This influx of people will affect traffic and will require heightened security measures.

To prepare for this large event, Texas Children’s is committed to maintaining a high level of preparedness so that we are ready to adequately respond in the event of an emergency.

Training

Over the past few months Texas Children’s employees have conducted a large scale, multi-agency Mass Casualty Incident exercise, decontamination exercises at Main and West campuses, and created and tested a Family Reception Center Plan in anticipation of the upcoming big game.

Incident Command

Further, throughout Super Bowl week, we have set up the rooms where our Incident Command and Operations Command Centers operate out of so that they we are prepared to respond quickly and efficiently should any threats materialize.

Increased staffing

To support our preparedness efforts, many teams including Emergency Center Nursing, Patient and Family Services and the Kangaroo Crew have special staffing plans in place over the game day weekend. Other teams have created special on-call rotations of team members specifically prepared to respond over Super Bowl weekend.

Parking

The upcoming Super Bowl events scheduled throughout the next week are expected to increase traffic congestion and parking demand throughout the city as well as in the Texas Medical Center. Please allow additional travel time for your commute to and from work during this time. Also, please park in your assigned location to ensure adequate parking is available in our visitor garages for our patients, families and visitors.

Texas Children’s will work with Texas Medical Center to limit parking access in our visitor garages to hospital patients, families, visitors, and after-hours employees.

  • Pavilion for Women after-hours employees can continue to park in the PFW/Garage 21 as usual.
  • There will be an access change for the non-Pavilion employees who use Clinical Care/Garage 16 for after-hours weekend parking for Super Bowl weekend only.  These employees will be allowed to enter the garage from Friday, February 3, at 6 p.m. through Monday, February 6, at 2 a.m. (Current after-hours programming restricts entrance after 4 p.m. on Sundays.)
  • All after-hours employees should exit the visitor garages by no later than 8 a.m. on Monday to ensure parking is available for our patients and families.
  • After-hours employees also have the option to park in Garage 19, the Meyer North and Meyer South lots and ride the rail to campus.
  • During the week before the event Texas Children’s Hospital Shuttle Services may experience some delays due to the increased traffic in the area. The Texas Children’s Hospital Shuttle Services will be following its normal schedule and will not operate.
Emergency Notification System

Please ensure you have updated your personal contact information in MOLI so that you receive all emergency notifications. Click here for detailed instructions on how to sign up and here to learn more about how to respond to a notification when you receive one.

General safety

Because there will be more people in the Houston area, particularly around the Medical Center and downtown, there is a possibility that there will be more people coming to and from our Main Campus buildings. Therefore, we all need to be mindful of surroundings and report anything out of the ordinary to our security team at ext. 4-5400.

Texas Children’s maintains a high level of emergency preparedness at all times, but as you can see extra steps are planned next week to increase our level of preparedness in response to the scope and scale of the event.

If you have any questions, please contact Emergency Management at ext. 4-1237.

January 24, 2017

12517urology640Texas Children’s Urology Division and the innovative work they are doing in the operating room will be highlighted beginning Saturday, January 28, at a nine-day fan festival at Discovery Green in celebration of this year’s professional football championship game.

The festival will feature live music and performances, a 90-foot tall virtual reality trip to Mars and interactive exhibits, including one hosted by the Texas Medical Center that will offer fans an unforgettable experience and tell the story of innovation in Houston, specifically among the medical community.

Four virtual reality videos will take fans behind the scenes at TMC and showcase innovation at work. The video highlighting Texas Children’s will take viewers into the operating room as Dr. Chester Koh performs a robotic pyeloplasty on a one-year-old patient.

“This is such an exciting way to talk about the innovative work we are doing here in the Urology Division in the Department of Surgery at Texas Children’s,” Koh said. “It will allow us to reach a vast national audience about the services we offer to children and their families.”

Texas Children’s pediatric robotic surgery program ranks among the highest in annual pediatric robotic surgery volumes in the U.S. In 2013, Texas Children’s adopted a cutting-edge robot assisted surgical system designed to decrease post-operative pain, reduce hospital stay length and minimize scarring thanks to smaller incisions.

To learn more about the program click here. For more information on the festival click here.

12517retirement640As we welcome 2017, take this opportunity to include retirement planning among your New Year’s resolutions.

To help you in your retirement planning process, Human Resources is excited to announce three new educational tools on our benefits website to help you achieve your New Year’s resolution to plan for the right retirement.

Our new interactive retirement modules streamline the retirement planning process into three different career/life stages with tips and tools best suited for your needs. Valuable information on Texas Children’s retirement benefits, including the 403(b) Savings Plan and a Pension Plan, are available in addition to various resources that aid in retirement planning and saving.

Take advantage of tools such as:

  • Retirement calculator for projected cost of living
  • Money management tips
  • Overview of various financial considerations during different life stages

As you commit to your New Year’s resolutions, make the commitment to plan the right retirement strategy today!

Throughout the year, we will continue to announce additional retirement resources such as Fidelity one-on-one consultations and workshops, so stay tuned!

Did you know?
In 2016, Texas Children’s contributed $18.6 million to match your 403(b) Savings Plan investments and $22 million for approximately 9,000 participants in our Pension Plan. Also, Texas Children’s matches 50 percent on the first 6 percent of your pre-tax contributions per pay period. To learn more about your retirement benefits, click here.

12517Barcodemilk640On January 17, Texas Children’s implemented barcode scanning for breast milk to reduce administration errors system-wide by ensuring that the correct breast milk is delivered to the right baby every time.

“Since 80 percent of breast milk orders originate in the NICU, we implemented barcode scanning in our Newborn Center last September as part of a pilot project which produced amazing results,” said Texas Children’s Patient Care Services and Clinical Informatics Director Jennifer Sanders. “We are excited to deliver this functionality across our Medical Center campus, the Pavilion for Women and West Campus.”

Using the same barcode scanning system to prevent medication administration errors, the Positive Patient Identification (PPID) process incorporates Epic Rover, a mobile software application that uses barcode technology to positively match breast milk orders to the right patient, subsequently reducing the potential risk of adverse patient safety events during the milk handling process.

Once Epic Rover is downloaded to an iPod Touch equipped with a scanner or sled, a nurse scans the barcode on the patient’s wristband and the barcode on the breast milk container at the patient’s bedside instead of having to manually check it prior to a feeding. The milk order documentation then flows real-time from Epic Rover into Epic, which also documents any supplements added to the breast milk.

“Since using Epic Rover in our Newborn Center, our compliance rates have consistently soared above the 95 percent goal,” said Texas Children’s Clinical Informatics Manager Erin Davies. “We have avoided documented near misses where Epic Rover detected the wrong breast milk with the wrong baby, which demonstrates the tremendous impact barcode scanning has on ensuring the safety of our patients.”

The successful implementation of Epic Rover at Texas Children’s involved the collaboration of several departments including Clinical Informatics, Information Services, Food and Nutrition Services, Milk Bank, Pharmacy, Nursing, and the Nursing Professional Development team that helped apply PPID safety protocols to breast milk.

Barcode scanning for breast milk will also go live at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands when the facility opens this spring.

12517MLKholiday640In an email announcement Monday morning, Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark Wallace shared exciting news: beginning in 2018, Texas Children’s will observe Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an organizational holiday.

This holiday is a new holiday and will be added to all of the holidays employees currently enjoy as a benefit of working at Texas Children’s – employees will not lose My Day or any other holiday. Here is Mr. Wallace’s announcement in its entirety:

Dear Texas Children’s Family,

I am very pleased to share something with you that I have been considering for quite some time now. Beginning in 2018, Texas Children’s will observe Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an organizational holiday.

I often think about the beliefs and work of Dr. King and how closely aligned they are with the mission of Texas Children’s. Our organization is one that, since its inception nearly 63 years ago, has prided itself in the rich diversity of our culture and the families we serve. We, like Dr. King, embrace inclusiveness and greatly appreciate working in an organization that values all ideas and aspirations, working together for the greater good. Simply put, this is right for our organization. In addition, this makes sense for us operationally, as our partners at Baylor College of Medicine observe the MLK Day holiday.

While you likely understand the sentiment, you might naturally wonder, “Why now?” I want you to understand that while the announcement is occurring today, this has long been on my heart and mind. In fact, we were considering adding MLK Day as an organizational holiday many years ago. However, we also had to consider whether we would subsequently add other observations. Ultimately, we determined that providing employees with the My Day PTO day would allow all to observe MLK Day or, alternately, another special day that may be personally important to them. I sincerely believe that was a good thing for our employees, but I admit to you that I think so many years have passed that the impetus for My Day has been lost.

I also admit to you that the nation’s racial climate in recent years stirs me. America has always been considered a melting pot, but we are now growing increasingly more diverse at a much more rapid pace than most people have ever experienced. We, as a nation, are learning how to redefine our country, but not without growing pains. Yet, in the midst of this, I see how we at Texas Children’s use our differences to make us better. The brilliant tapestry of our cultures, religions, races and genders is woven perfectly with our collective talents, gifts and aspirations. This is beautiful, and it is worth celebrating on the day that salutes the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I hope you will join me in my excitement and look forward to enjoying this special day of reflection for years to come.

Regards,

Mark

12517Austin175Texas Children’s Hospital is excited to welcome Dr. Paul Austin to the Division of Urology.

Beginning July 1, Austin will lead the Division’s Complex Urological Reconstruction Program as well as serve as Urologic Director for the Spina Bifida, ARM, and Gender Medicine multidisciplinary clinics. He also will establish a new Pediatric Urologic Basic Science Research Lab. Austin’s research interests include bladder pathology, kidney repair, renal fibrosis, stone disease, and kidney development.

Austin comes to Texas Children’s Hospital from Washington University in St. Louis, where he is currently Professor of Surgery, Director of the Multidisciplinary Spina Bifida Program, and leader of a robust basic science research lab with substantial NIH funding.

For his many contributions to the field of Pediatric Urology, Austin was recognized with the John W. Duckett Pediatric Research Excellence Award from the American Urology Association’s Urology Care Foundation in 2016.

12517RebaHillawardsinside640The 17th Annual Reba Michels Hill Memorial Grand Rounds were held recently. Awards were given to Neonatology non-physicians who have made a significant contribution to advancing the quality to which Dr. Hill was dedicated: compassionate commitment to education, patient care, research and family.