December 18, 2018

Texas Children’s Division of Otolaryngology recently hosted the 45th Annual Meeting of SENTAC (Society of Ear, Nose and Throat Advances in Children), one of the nation’s oldest and most respected ENT societies. It was the largest SENTAC conference ever, with nearly 300 national and international otolaryngology experts in attendance, including the largest ever turnout of allied health professionals.

“Multidisciplinary collaboration is one of the hallmarks of SENTAC,” said Dr. Deepak Mehta, Director of Texas Children’s Pediatric Aerodigestive Center and 2018 SENTAC president. “This event is not only for physicians, but also for audiologists, speech and language pathologists and therapists, advance practice providers, pediatricians, nurses and students. This experience is unique in that it brings us all together for a common purpose.”

The four-day event covered the entire spectrum of pediatric ENT topics, including sleep disorders, swallowing disorders, tracheostomy care and hearing loss. During the conference, over 60 presentations were given, including eight by experts from Texas Children’s – two of which won awards. Jessie Marcet-Gonzalez, CPNP, won first place for best podium presentation for her paper, “Effect of Inpatient Multidisciplinary Tracheostomy Team Rounds on Timely Outpatient Follow.” Texas Children’s audiologist Dr. Barbara Novak won second place for her paper, “Improving Loss to Follow-up: A Collaborative Citywide Initiation,” a project on newborn hearing screening in collaboration with Texas Children’s audiology clinical and cochlear implant specialist Dr. Samantha Lemelle, AuD.

Other event highlights included a banquet with live music and holiday lights at the Houston Zoo, and the first annual SENTAC Pediatric Otolaryngology Academic Bowl, presented by the Young Providers Committee. Texas Children’s took home the trophy, defeating teams from Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Throughout the weekend, many said this was one of the best SENTAC conferences yet, both in terms of content and host venue.

“I feel pride in being part of Texas Children’s and all of us working together to put together such a fantastic meeting,” Mehta said. “The amazing support from Texas Children’s leadership and all the staff involved truly made it a success.”

December 11, 2018

Texas Children’s and the Houston Texans capped off this year’s fun-filled PLAY 60 Week by cheering on the Houston Texas as they played the Indianapolis Colts in the 3rd Annual Texans Kids Day presented by Texas Children’s Hospital.

Texans Kids Day highlights the National Football League’s PLAY 60 initiative, a campaign that encourages kids to be active for 60 minutes a day in order to reverse the trend of childhood obesity. Texas Children’s Hospital, the local presenting sponsor of PLAY 60, was featured throughout Sunday’s game including signage, TORO headband gate giveaways and kids jobs.

Additionally, GW McMaster, an avid Houston Texans fan and patient at Texas Children’s Hospital’s Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit, served as the Honorary Coin Toss Captain. Before the game began, the 16-year-old and his family spent time on the sideline watching pregame warmups and taking in the incredible experience of his first Texans game. Shortly before the coin toss, GW met his favorite player, DeAndre Hopkins along with Houston Texans legend Andre Johnson and Houston Astros second baseman, Alex Bregman. The smile on GW’s face lit up the whole stadium.

Nine employees recognized by the Texas Children’s Caught You Caring program as well as our 2019 Catalyst Award winners, their guests and leaders got to watch the game as a thank you for their compassion and dedication to the Texas Children’s mission. The tickets to the game are one of the benefits of Texas Children’s Hospital being the official children’s hospital of the Houston Texans football team. To learn more about those Caught You Caring recipients, click here. To learn more about our 2019 Catalyst Award winners, click here.

PLAY 60 Week ran from December 3 through December 9 and was full of fun events aimed at helping further the PLAY 60 message and get children across the Houston moving. The week kicked off with Smith Legacy Tower being lit red, white and blue – the official colors of the Houston Texans. The building’s first and third floor lobby ceilings and east windows stayed lit in these colors throughout the week.

Below is a recap of some of the other events during the week. View photos from all of last week’s events below.

PRE-GAME PEP RALLY:
Last week, we hosted a pre-game pep rally at the hospital’s play garden to help get some of our patients excited about the game and remind them about how important it is to PLAY 60. Texans players Greg Mancz and Julie’n Davenport, Texans Cheerleaders and TORO were in attendance and took photos, played games and signed autographs with patients and their families. Texas Children’s Heart Center patient Taylor Berry also was at the pep rally sharing his story of being a three-time heart transplant patient and putting smiles on the faces of patients he sympathizes with so well. Click here to see a video of him interacting with patients.

PLAY 60 AT THE PARK:
On December 3, Texas Children’s Hospital and the Houston Texans hosted the 2nd annual PLAY 60 at the Park event at Levy Park Conservancy to kick off PLAY 60 Week in Houston. As the local sponsor of PLAY 60, the NFL-led initiative, which encourages kids to get at least 60 minutes of active play per day, Texas Children’s invited the community to join in an evening of fun and games aimed at keeping kids healthy.

Special guests included Texans running back Alfred Blue and Texans linebacker Dylan Cole, Texans Ambassador Kevin Walter, TORO, the Texans Mascot, Houston Texans Cheerleaders and more.

PLAY 60 KID OF THE MONTH:
Last week, PLAY 60 Kid of the Month winners met for their special NRG Stadium experience which included Houston Texans prize packs, surprise visit with TORO, stadium tour, radio interview with the voice of the Houston Texans, Marc Vandermeer, and a walk on the field. Thank you to everyone who applied to be a PLAY 60 Kid of the Month by showing us how you get your 60 minutes of play each day.

Texas Children’s Hospital and the Houston Texans are two winning teams that share one goal – keeping Houston kids healthy and encouraging them to be more active. To learn more about our partnership, visit: texaschildrens.org/Texans.

We are getting ready for the holidays at Texas Children’s, and both the Medical Center Campus and the Woodlands campus hosted their annual tree lighting ceremonies to kick off the season.

On November 28, over 200 people attended The Woodlands campus’ second annual Tree Lighting event. Volunteer Services and Child Life arranged a fun filled holiday experience for patients, their families, and The Woodlands community. The event began with carols from the Caney Creek High School Choir on the lobby staircase. Moments later, everyone gazed and applauded as Santa Clause strolled down the same staircase toward the Christmas tree.

The Woodlands Vice-President, Trent Johnson, welcomed everyone and thanked the community partners for attending, and proceeded to introduce Santa, who magically lit the Christmas tree. As some kids lined up to take pictures with Santa, other played games, participated in arts and crafts, and indulged in the refreshments that included the a hot cocoa bar and tons or sweet treats.

Many Woodlands community partners helped this event come together this year, such as: The Newfield Exploration, the Panther Creek Inspiration Ranch, The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Caney Creek High School Choir, The Woodlands Art Council/Woodlands Children’s Museum, The Junior League of The Woodlands, Ray Larson Realty, and Texas Children’s Hospital partner, Morrison’s catering.

“The Tree Lighting event was a fun and exciting way to start of the holiday season,” Manager of Patient and Family Services, Cynda Parrish said. “Because of our wonderful community partners we were able to provide a festive and engaging experience for our patients and families. This resulted in our attendance doubling this year! We look forward to continuing this annual tradition at our campus each year.”

The very next day, Senior Vice President of Texas Children’s Hospital, Tabitha Rice kicked off the annual tree lighting event hosted by The Auxiliary to Texas Children’s Hospital and Volunteer Services, located on The Auxiliary Bridge of the Medical Center campus. With the help of a lucky patient, the bright lights magically turned on and Santa’s HO HO HO could be heard as he and Mrs. Clause walked down the hallway. Santa also visited patients who were not able to leave their rooms, and St. John’s School’s Kantorei choir sang holiday carols to more than 50 patients and their families.

“This event has become a treasured tradition for ringing in the holidays at the hospital,” Director of Volunteer services, Paige Schulz said. “The tree lighting is so special because it brings holiday cheer to the hospital in a way patients and families might not be able to otherwise experience when caring for a sick or hospitalized loved one. It is a pleasure to sponsor the event and The Auxiliary and Volunteer Services look forward to continuing the tradition for years to come.”

With the holiday season upon us, there’s plenty of cheer left for patients, families and employees throughout the rest of the month. View photos below from both tree lighting ceremonies.

On December 10, Texas Children’s posted the 2018 Pension Plan deposit into the accounts of eligible employees. To see how much your pension plan has grown, log into your Mercer account. For new users, you may register by clicking on “Get Started.” On the Mercer website, you will also find useful tools to help you view your balance, estimate your future pension plan balance and verify/update your beneficiary information.

This pension plan is designed to provide a foundation for your retirement and is fully funded by Texas Children’s. You are automatically enrolled in the plan on April 1 or October 1 once you reach 21 years of age and have worked 1,000 hours or more during the 12 consecutive months after your initial date of hire. Contributions are vested according to the schedule shown here.

To learn more about Texas Children’s Pension Plan, visit our Benefits website or call 800-752-8230 to speak with a Mercer representative.

Texas Children’s 403(b) Savings Plan

The IRS has increased retirement contribution limits for 2019. The maximum amount an employee can contribute to their Texas Children’s 403(b) Savings Plan during 2019 is $19,000. Employees turning age 50 or over can contribute an additional $6,000 during 2019.

Texas Children’s matches 50 percent on the first 6 percent of your deferral contributions per pay period, up to a maximum of $8,400 for 2019. Employer contributions are vested according to the schedule shown here.

If you are not already enrolled in the 403(b) savings plan or not contributing at least 6 percent, you should consider doing so now. To update your contribution elections or to enroll, please visit Fidelity NetBenefits to access your online account. If you are registering online for the first time, please click on “Register as a new user” in the log-in area.

Announcing New Roth Contributions in the 403(b) Savings Plan

Effective December 1, 2018, employees can now choose to make Roth after-tax contributions through the 403(b) savings plan. Just as with a traditional pre-tax plan, you elect how much of your salary you wish to contribute. Your contributions to a Roth 403(b) and traditional pre-tax 403(b) cannot exceed the IRS limit. Highly compensated individuals who are not eligible for a Roth IRA may utilize the Roth 403(b) contributions features.

Additional features include the opportunity to roll over existing Roth accounts from former employers into the 403(b) savings plan, and also converting existing pre-tax 403(b) savings plan contributions to a designated Roth account.

To learn more about Texas Children’s 403(b) Savings Plan, visit our Benefits website or call 800-343-0860 to speak with a Fidelity representative.

Beneficiary Elections
Please remember to review and update your beneficiaries. Elections can be made online through Mercer or Fidelity. Beneficiary elections for your retirement plans are not maintained in MOLI.

A little over a year ago, Larissa Fletcher took a huge leap of faith and walked into Texas Children’s Family Fertility Center to carry out the plan she and husband made years earlier on the darkest day of their lives.

On that dark day, Larissa and her late husband John Fletcher learned he had stage four esophageal cancer, and would, at best, live another year. Knowing they wanted to give their then 1-year-old daughter, Emma, a sibling, the couple decided to freeze John’s sperm and store it at the Fertility Center’s state-of-the-art in vitro fertilization (IVF) lab until Larissa was ready to try to have another child.

Shortly after that day came, Larissa watched her embryologist zoom her microscope in on what would become the now 4-month-old Elliana “Ellie” Joy Fletcher. Using a leading-edge embryo monitoring system called the EmbryoScope, Larissa also was able to watch a video of Ellie from when she was just a few cells all the way up to the time she was ready to be transferred into her mother’s belly to develop and grow for the next nine months.

“I was in awe of all of it,” Larissa said of the video. “In that moment, everything became very real for me.”

Texas Children’s Family Fertility Center’s three EmbryoScopes bring to life what reproductive endocrinology specialists see under a microscope and then describe to their patients. The technology, which provides continuous time-lapse imaging of embryos as they grow, also enables specialists to identify the healthiest embryo to transfer to the patient, for improved IVF success rates.

Dr. Richard Cochran, the Family Fertility Center’s Laboratory Director, said he and his colleagues in the lab are looking at whether the EmbryoScope can also help improve patient outcomes. The technology, he said, allows clinicians to see how an embryo divides, which in turn gives them the opportunity to see certain abnormalities.

“Sometimes embryos will divide, and then the cells will remerge, and then re-divide,” Cochran said. “That’s very abnormal, and that’s something we would not see in a traditional incubator setting.”

In such a setting, clinicians typically look at an embryo two days after fertilization is attempted, again a day or two later and so on. What happens in-between observations isn’t captured, and could be an important predictor of developmental abnormalities. For similar logistical reasons, the EmbryoScope already has proven to be helpful at enabling specialists to identify the healthiest embryo to transfer to a patient.

“In the vast majority of laboratories, embryos are put in traditional incubators where you have to take them out and expose them to room temperatures to see them,” said Texas Children’s Chief of Reproductive Medicine Dr. William Gibbons. “With the EmbryoScope, handling of the embryos is minimized and visibility is 24/7, enabling us to ensue embryos are growing and reach the appropriate stages at the appropriate times before transplantation.”

Texas Children’s Family Fertility Center is the only location in Texas other than Dallas that is using the EmbryoScope. The center has been using the technology since it opened in 2014 and currently has three. One of the scopes is dedicated to research while the other two are for clinical use.

Larissa, a former Fertility Center patient and a pediatrician with the Texas Children Newborn Center, said her experience at the center was extraordinary from beginning to beautiful end.

“When I was eight weeks pregnant and had to move my pregnancy care from the Family Fertility Center to a traditional OBGYN, it was bittersweet,” she said. “The people there were like my second family.”

To learn more about the EmbryoScope and how clinicians with the Texas Children’s Fertility Center uses the technology, click here.

Texas Children’s Family Fertility Center has earned national and international recognition for advancing the understanding and treatment of reproductive disorders. Our reproductive endocrinology specialists are proud of the impact we have made on the lives of our patients, women and families across the globe. To learn more about our Fertility Center, click here.

On December 3, a multidisciplinary surgical team at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands became the first to perform a spine surgery at one of our community hospital locations. The 17-year-old patient was able to go home just two days later, a testament to the expertise and precision of the surgical team.

“This is a milestone for Texas Children’s and our patients,” said Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Larry Hollier. “We have one of the largest teams of pediatric spine surgeons in the United States. We have the capacity in terms of expertise. Now we’re excited to expand that capacity to accommodate the growing demand in the areas surrounding Houston.”

Greater Houston is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country. As the communities around Houston continue to grow, so do the needs of our patients – including the need for spine surgery, specifically for idiopathic scoliosis (the most common form of the spine abnormality). A review of comparative patient data and geographic analysis by teams at Texas Children’s revealed that a large number of patients with idiopathic scoliosis were coming to us from The Woodlands and other communities outside Houston.

“For the past couple of years, our patients and families from The Woodlands were traveling down to our medical center campus for all pre-operative visits and surgeries – and our teams were traveling there as well,” said Dr. Jeffrey Shilt, chief surgical officer at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands. “We decided the best thing for our patients was to offer the same spine surgery expertise they would get at the medical center campus at our community hospital locations.”

Hospital leaders began laying the groundwork to grow Texas Children’s spine surgery capacity, first in The Woodlands and then at West Campus (March 2019). A team in The Woodlands led by Ketrese White, director of Patient Care Services in The Woodlands, Ramon Enad and Roxanne Vara, Assistant Clinical Directors, and Valencia Gant, Assistant Director of Ambulatory Services, began developing an expansion plan to ensure seamless work flow processes and to improve the patient experience.

“Previously, access to this kind of care was limited outside of the Texas Medical Center,” Enad said. “With increased surgical capacity, we will be able to schedule patients in a timely fashion and offer world-class surgery that’s closer to where they live.”

The expansion process has required multidisciplinary collaboration at every step and has included personnel from: Surgery, Anesthesia, Blood Bank, Nursing (perioperative and acute care), Admissions, Physical Therapy, Pediatric Radiology, Business Operations, and leadership from all hospital campuses.

Once the necessary infrastructure was in place in The Woodlands, including new surgical personnel and equipment, it was time to start testing the new system via Texas Children’s Simulation Center, which uses various scenarios to assess surgical space, processes, equipment and resources, and personnel roles.

The simulations followed the patient throughout the surgical journey, from check-in to the operating room to recovery, which is crucial for gauging needs and building capacity. Simulations provide a full picture of capabilities and allow teams to review lessons learned, and to see if any adjustments or enhancements need to be made to the process flow.

“This simulation and the first surgery were the culmination of months of meticulous planning, preparation and testing, with all stakeholders engaged across the organization,” said White. “This really was a multidisciplinary effort borne out of a commitment from everyone involved.”

The spine surgery expansion is just the latest effort in Texas Children’s ongoing mission to improve access for patients and families, to boost the patient experience, and to provide the best possible care for all who need us.

“It is our mission to provide our care and services in the safest, most convenient way possible,” Hollier said. “Bringing more complex procedures out of the Texas Medical Center and closer to home for thousands of our patients and families is, and will continue to be, a central focus for us.”

On November 30, faculty and staff from Texas Children’s Department of Surgery and Perioperative Services gathered for the inaugural presentation of the Department of Surgery Insight Series. The new series of inspirational lectures, given by well-known speakers, was created as a way to foster personal development within the department.

“We are so lucky to be able to do what we do every day for these children, and the professionals here at Texas Children’s do it with unmatched levels of skill, kindness and dignity; but it can exact a toll both physically and emotionally,” said Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Larry Hollier. “Seeking inspiration in what we do and where we are is important to help ease these burdens. The purpose of these talks is to inspire our faculty and staff, and to teach them new ways to approach their professional and personal lives.”

If the first presentation of the series was any indication, members of the Department of Surgery have much to look forward to.

The afternoon’s speaker was Ronan Tynan – physician, multiple medal-winning and record-setting Paralympian, and member of the renowned singing group, The Irish Tenors – whose fascinating personal story of triumph in the face of adversity had the audience laughing one moment and crying the next.

Tynan, who grew up in Ireland, was born with a lower limb disability that caused both his legs to be underdeveloped. However, this didn’t hinder Tynan from leading an active childhood on his family’s farm, where his favorite activities were horseback riding and racing motorcycles. Another setback occurred when Tynan was twenty and both legs had to be amputated due to serious complications following an auto accident. But in only a few weeks, he was bounding up flights of stairs on prosthetic legs, and within a year, he was winning medals and setting world records in the Paralympics. After his success as an athlete, Tynan set his sights on yet another goal – to become a physician – and earned a degree from Trinity College, specializing in orthopedic sports injuries.

That impressive résumé would be the dream of many, but Tynan was just getting warmed up. At the encouragement of his father, he decided to pursue another passion – singing. Shortly after beginning his formal training, he won a string of vocal competitions and awards, which ultimately led to his big break with the chart-topping trio, The Irish Tenors.

Tynan cited the importance of relationships in our lives. He cited the encouragement and support of others as a driving force behind his many personal victories, and reminded the audience that preparation, belief in one’s self and abilities, and the willingness to take chances are necessary parts of growing, succeeding and finding happiness.

“We are so honored to have had Dr. Tynan with us for this special presentation,” said Hollier. “His amazing story, and the fact that he has chosen to be happy despite, or perhaps because of, the challenges he’s faced, is an inspiration and lesson all of us can learn from.”