June 3, 2019

On May 31, nearly 100 guests – including Texas Children’s executive and physician leadership, members of the Board of Trustees, and the family of Lester and Sue Smith – gathered in the Russell and Glenda Gordy lobby for the official dedication and blessing of Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower.

Among late Houston philanthropist Lester Smith’s greatest joys was his dedication to the service of others. Most recently, Lester and his wife, Sue, announced a $50 million gift and helped raise a total of $83 million for Texas Children’s following the hospital’s Legacy of Motown Gala in Sept. 2018.

It’s been just over a year since Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower first opened its doors as the new home of heart, intensive care and surgery at Texas Children’s Medical Center campus. The cutting-edge, 640,000-square-foot facility allows Texas Children’s to continue providing the highest-quality care possible for the most critically ill children who come to us for help.

“When this tower was still under construction, we named it Legacy Tower,” said Mark Wallace, Texas Children’s president and CEO. “We knew this would be a place that would not only hold Texas Children’s legacy, but also the legacy of so many others, including our resilient patients and the dedicated team of caregivers who work hard each and every day to create healthier futures for children everywhere. Lester left so many legacies – his conviction and courage, his generosity, his triumphant spirit and his passion for life. Each of these legacies will be lived out every day in this building through the patients and families we serve.”

Prior to the official dedication, Lester’s daughter, Shelly, and her husband, Brian, along with his son Stuart and his wife, Limor, were surprised with the unveiling of two patient floors in the tower which were named in their honor by their late father.

“Lester brought so much joy to those he loves and cared for, and he often said that the most important thing we can do is care for the most vulnerable in our community – our children,” Sue Smith said. “We believe that the best place to heal sick children is right here at Texas Children’s, where all children are treated with the utmost compassion and expertise available, regardless of their family’s circumstances. That truly resonates with us and is what guides our giving.”

The first year in Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower was a busy one. As of May 2019, there had been 3,839 patient admissions in the pediatric and cardiac intensive care units. More than 9,000 patients received care at our outpatient Heart Center clinics, and over 700 catheterization and 476 MRI procedures were performed here.

A total of 3,455 surgeries were completed in the tower’s state-of-the-art surgical and cardiovascular operating rooms, totaling nearly 14,000 surgical hours. And since the tower’s helistop opened last November, Texas Children’s has had more than 120 landings, allowing for greater access to Texas Children’s for the sickest patients.

Texas Children’s® Health Plan members are now a secure video conference away from connecting with doctors and providers anytime, anywhere.

Through our very own Texas Children’s telehealth platform called Texas Children’s® Anywhere Care that was recently launched on May 22, Health Plan members will have the option of seeking urgent care services for certain conditions – like allergies, fever (in children older than 8 weeks), skin infections, pink eye, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea and more – via telehealth instead of in the emergency rooms, which will help to alleviate many barriers that our Medicaid patients currently face, like transportation.

“We want to ensure we provide the best care to our pediatric patients and women when they need it,” said Dr. Heidi Schwarzwald, Chief Medical Officer Pediatrics of Texas Children’s Health Plan. “For some of our Health Plan members, physical access to Texas Children’s can be difficult. Telehealth technology will enhance our current operations and allow us to improve the quality and access to care for children and pregnant women, while facilitating more efficient communication with patients and families.”

Health Plan members can register for the platform at www.texaschildrensanywherecare.org. Once the Texas Children’s Anywhere Care app – which will be available in Android and iPhone stores in the next few weeks – is downloaded onto a smart phone, they can connect with one of Texas Children’s telehealth physician partners via video for a consultation. This new telehealth option, available on demand in both English and Spanish, is not intended to replace a patient’s ongoing relationship with their primary care provider, but to supplement care when there are unavoidable gaps.

“Through our partnership with American Well, Texas Children’s Health Plan has access to providers in their Online Care Group which has enabled us to go live with 24/7 coverage for our urgent care visits,” said Laura Laux Higgins, director of Special Projects at Texas Children’s who co-leads the telehealth initiative at Texas Children’s under the supervision of the eHealth Executive Steering Committee. “As we expand our services, our long term goal is to build our own team of Texas Children’s e-health providers who are solely dedicated to telemedicine visits.”

Bringing telehealth services to the Health Plan would not have been possible without the collaboration from multiple departments across the system including Information Services, Legal, Finance, Treasury, Marketing, Texas Children’s Health Plan, Texas Children’s Pediatrics, and our Obstetrics-Gynecology, Quality and Safety teams.

“This project was not just about technology, but having the right vision, strategy and operational support to bring telehealth to Medicaid patients who comprise 85 percent of our Health Plan membership,” said Haley Jackson, senior project manager for Women’s Services and co-lead for the telehealth initiative. “This was a huge team effort across the board, and I am grateful for everyone’s support on this project.”

In September 2018, telehealth was also launched to all Texas Children’s employees and their eligible dependents who are enrolled in a Texas Children’s medical plan via Cigna, our health insurance provider. Employees who have used telehealth describe the service as a welcome addition to their Cigna benefits.

Click here to read a recent Connect article about Cigna Telehealth benefits. Click here for more information on Texas Children’s® Anywhere Care.

About Texas Children’s Health Plan

Texas Children’s Health Plan was founded in 1996 by Texas Children’s Hospital and is the nation’s first health maintenance organization created just for children. Texas Children’s Health Plan cover kids, teens, pregnant women, and adults. If a child is able to get Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Health Plan has a large group of more than 6,250 doctors, 7,811 specialists, 221 hospitals, and health resources to care for their needs. For more information, visit texaschildrenshealthplan.org.

Whenever anyone asks about Shamika Jenkins, the first observation made is about her infectious smile and enthusiastic personality.

Customer service isn’t just a specific portion of an employee’s job description, it affects a patient’s entire experience. As a clerical secretary, Jenkins comes in contact with just about every patient that checks in during her early morning shift. In the Pavilion for Women Surgery department the patient’s experience begins with her warm welcomes and persistence.

“Although it can be pretty busy, I love meeting all different kind of people,” Jenkins said. “There are times when some people may be in a bad mood, a wonderful mood, some may be lost, and others are as upbeat and cheery as I am. Regardless, it gives me joy to encounter all moods because no matter what, I’m here to make their day.”

The waiting area can be the most quiet and uneventful time during a patient’s hospital visit. Either following check in, during an appointment, or after surgery as a patient recovers, patients and their families can potentially spend hours sitting in the lobby. Jenkins has transformed her role into not just checking patients in for their appointments, but makes them feel comfortable as well.

“Shamika is always the pretty, smiling face and helpful person in the waiting room,” Nursing Manager of Pavilion for Women Perioperative Services, Aleli Cabali said. “Shamika goes above and beyond to make sure that families in the waiting room are updated while patients are in the operating room.”

Jenkins’ diligence and consistence in making sure all surgery patients are called and scheduled for their appointments helps both patients and her co-workers, and is what allows the department to continuously provide high quality care.

“I remember a time when several people from the department had to go on vacation, and Shamika called patients ahead of time and scheduled their appointment to make it easier on the rest of the team,” Cabali said. “This was a big help to the unit and is why she deserves this award.”

Jenkins says despite the constant verbal recognition that she receives, she was not expecting to get a hospital-wide award.

“To be honest I didn’t see this coming,” she said. “I just come into work, do my job, and always remember to be myself; that is probably what excites me the most about being recognized. When working at Texas Children’s you have to be ready to put your ‘A game’ on every day. We have people come from everywhere so we need to make sure we maintain that great customer service consistently, and I am more than happy to be that example.”

The Houston Business Journal recently named several Texas Children’s physicians 2019 Health Care Heroes, honoring them for going above and beyond in serving the healthcare industry. The physicians were honored at a May 23 ceremony and are listed below:

Outstanding Health Care Practitioner: Dr. Ricardo Flores, hematology/oncology; Dr. Joohi Jimenez-Shahed, neurology; Dr. Julie Kaplow, pediatrics and psychology; and Dr. Michele York, neurology.

Outstanding Physician: Dr. Daniel DeSalvo, pediatrics, diabetes and endocrinology; Dr. Lisa Hollier, obstetrics and gynecology; Dr. Peter Hotez, pediatrics and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine; Dr. Rayne Rouce, pediatrics and hematology/oncology.

Rising Star: Dr. Hsiao-Tuan Chao, neurology; and Dr. Arindam Sarkar, resident physician in family and community medicine.

The Clinical Research Center/Research Resources Office presented the Clinical Research Award for second Quarter 2019 to Dr. Patricia Baxter, Department of Pediatrics-Hematology/Oncology, Baylor College of Medicine.

The award was established by the Clinical Research Center in collaboration with the Research Resources Office to recognize and honor individual contributions to protecting the best interest of the research subjects and compliance with applicable rules and regulations.

Dr. Baxter’s research in the CRC is focused on evaluating novel therapeutic agents for recurrent pediatric cancers, with a special interest in brain tumors. She is a member of the Cancer and Hematology Centers Neuro-oncology and Developmental Therapeutics Teams and is an active participant in the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium (PBTC), Collaborative Network for Neuro-Oncology Clinical Trials (CONNECT) and Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium (PNOC). Dr. Baxter credits the CRC nurses and staff, as well as the research nurses in the Cancer Center for playing a critical role in moving this research forward and their compassionate care of the patients and family.

Theresa Mottes, pediatric nurse practitioner in Renal Services, was recently elected president of the Nephrology Nursing Certification Commission (NNCC), an organization established in 1987 to develop and implement certification examinations for nephrology nursing. The goal of NNCC is to promote the highest standards of nephrology nursing practice through the development, implementation, coordination, and evaluation of all aspects of the certification and re-certification process.

As part of her introduction in April 2019, Theresa was described as a dedicated leader with more than 25 years of pediatric renal replacement therapy experience and a passionate volunteer advocate for nephrology certification. Theresa also is an adjunct instructor with Baylor College of Medicine.

The NNCC is composed of nine Commissioners: eight with current experience and expertise in nephrology nursing and one public member. Officers of the NNCC include the President, President-Elect, Secretary and Treasurer.

Texas Children’s Hospital recently hosted Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher for a tour of Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower. It was a first visit for Fletcher, who represents Texas’ Seventh Congressional District, which includes residents of Houston, Bellaire, Bunker Hill Village, Hedwig Village, Hilshire Village, Hunters Creek Village, Jersey Village, Piney Point Village, Southside Place, Spring Valley Village, West University Place, and unincorporated Harris County west to Katy.

After being welcomed by President and CEO Mark Wallace, Fletcher visited Texas Children’s award-winning Mission Control. There she learned from Bert Gumeringer, vice president of Facilities Operations and Support Services; Gail Parazynski, vice president of Nursing; and Deb D’Ambrosio, director of Transport Services and Mission Control how the state-of-the-art operations center uses real-time data and cutting-edge technology to simplify and streamline processes, bringing together security, facilities, code response, critical care admissions, hospital-to-hospital transfers, critical clinical alarm monitoring and room management in one central location.

Next, Fletcher visited our therapy gym on the 23rd floor, where she observed a music therapy session for some of our youngest Texas Children’s Heart Center® patients. Chief of Pediatric Cardiology Dr. Daniel Penny and Chief of Congenital Heart Surgery Dr. Christopher Caldarone then led Fletcher through some of the facilities in our best-in-the-nation Heart Center. These included our outpatient cardiac clinic, the Charles E. Mullins Cardiac Catheterization Labs and our cardiovascular operating rooms.

Following her Heart Center tour, Fletcher concluded her time at Texas Children’s with a visit to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and our neurointensive care unit on the ninth floor of Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower. In the PICU, she had an opportunity to meet the parents of 10-month-old Emmy, who recently underwent a liver transplant. She was then guided through the neurointensive care unit by Medical Director of Neurocritical Care Dr. Jennifer Erklauer. This special unit – one of the first of its kind in the country – combines the latest neuro-monitoring techniques with collaborative team-based care for patients with neurologic issues. Fletcher saw firsthand the cutting-edge monitoring technology in our continuous EEG monitoring room, where patient brain wave activity is measured and reviewed in real time, 24/7, and can be used to detect seizure activity or acute changes in the brain that may require additional evaluation or intervention. While in the unit, she met the mother of 11-month-old Kayla, who has a rare seizure disorder.

The parents of both children told Fletcher about the helplessness they’d felt watching their infant children endure such dire health issues. But because of the expertise and care they’d experienced at Texas Children’s, they were filled with confidence that they were in the best possible place to help their children.