July 20, 2021

For more than a decade, Texas Children’s has been mentioned among the Houston Business Journal’s best workplaces, and it is all because of your consistent participation in their annual survey. Now it’s time for Houston to hear your voices again this year – loud and proud!

The Best Places to Work Survey is now open through August 6. During this timeframe, you have the opportunity to submit your own reflections on why Texas Children’s continues to be your employer of choice. HBJ administers the survey via Quantum Workplace, Inc., so all responses are confidential.

To participate, simply click or copy and paste the link below into your web browser to get started: https://survey.quantumworkplace.com/bpsurvey/oc_YFQP03107

If you have any questions about the survey, contact the Best Places to Work team directly at bestplaces@quantumworkplace.com or by calling 1-888-415-8302. As this is an external survey, the Texas Children’s IS Service Desk will not be able to assist you with any issues.

Kaitlin Perera shares how her experience participating in Nursing Shared Governance gave her the confidence to take a leap into a new world of nursing. Read more

July 19, 2021

Employees can receive $1,000 for referring a candidate who joins our team and $5,000 for helping to fill one of the featured jobs. Read more

This month’s Take FIVE recognizes that people have multiple parts of who they are, including race and gender – this is called intersectionality. Importantly, the ways these identities layer on top of one another can increase the challenges of each one. For Black women, this can create multiple opportunities for mistreatment.

  1. What is Intersectionality? Kimberlé Crenshaw describes intersectionality and powerfully highlights how it results in exclusion and erasure of African American women: https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality?language=en
  2. Young, Gifted, and Black – and Over-Monitored: Young Black female athletes have a history of being overly critiqued, especially in relation to how they look and present to the public. Recent examples of controversy and criticism include: Responses to champion tennis player Serena Williams’ catsuit at the 2018 French Open which she wore to manage blood clots following a medically challenging pregnancy (https://www.vox.com/2018/8/28/17791518/serena-williams-catsuit-ban-french-open-tennis-racist-sexist-country-club-sport), record-breaking sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson’s style and response to family trauma surrounding the qualifying trials for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics (https://www.thezoereport.com/beauty/history-of-black-track-field-athletes-manicures), and backlash to tennis star Naomi Osaka’s decision to take a break from press conferences to protect her mental health (https://time.com/6077128/naomi-osaka-essay-tokyo-olympics/).
  3. Barriers to Advancement in Academia: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones made headlines with the challenges, hurdles, and discrimination she faced in seeking Tenure for the Knight Chair professorship position she was offered at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her experience reflects the systemic roadblocks that Black academics – especially Black women – face in their careers (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/07/09/black-women-underrepresented-tenure-university-faculty/7890102002/).
  4. Persistent, Stark Wage Inequality: Houston Chronicle article spells out the many factors that systematically lead to higher poverty in Black women. They highlight data that Black women made 61.3 cents for every dollar made by non-Hispanic White men – and that the comparison is 47.1 cents to the dollar locally. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Gender-inequality-can-be-fixed-New-University-of-15125694.php
  5. Intersectionality and Transgender: Black transgender women are too often the victims of violence based on their intersecting identities of gender and race (https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/13/us/black-transgender-women-attacks-trnd/index.html). With a history of erasure and victimization, Black trans women have played an important role in fighting for women’s equal rights. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a35746428/black-trans-women-fight-for-womens-rights/
July 13, 2021

Fueled by the work of a multidisciplinary team, Texas Children’s has officially passed the exciting milestone of 1 million online patient appointments scheduled through MyChart.

Since launching Direct Scheduling in 2018, Texas Children’s has continued to make strides towards ensuring that patients and their families have convenient, easy access to our high-quality services.

Over the past year, under the scope of the Ambulatory Redesign Project, a team including dedicated members from operations and Information Services has worked to enable enhanced online scheduling functionality for our patients and their families.

“Online scheduling is an important part of our ‘customer obsession’ journey,” said Carrie Rys, assistant vice president for the Department of Pediatrics. “This is just one of the exciting ways that we are offering patients greater self-service options through MyChart that they have come to expect.”

The Online Scheduling Redesign Team has implemented all-inclusive online scheduling in 31 specialties across the hospital system, which includes scheduling functionality for new patients, return patients, telemedicine appointments, panel appointments and ticket scheduling.

“It’s so easy now, for instance, for a family to finish up a telehealth visit, then immediately schedule their follow-up visit from their MyChart app on their phone that allows them to see different day and time options that work for them,” said Curtis Yee, practice administrator for Diabetes & Endocrinology and Dermatology. “Without stopping at a check-out desk, we may have missed an opportunity to get that follow up scheduled.”

Texas Children’s section leaders are hearing firsthand about how these optimized functionalities have enhanced the patient experience.

“Online scheduling has helped Neurology improve our engagement with families with establishing new and follow-up care,” said Michael LaRose, practice administrator for Neurology. “We noticed that when patients have more autonomy to select their appointments we see fewer late cancellations and no shows to clinic, improving access for all patients as a result.”

Texas Children’s is in the top 10 percent of pediatric Epic clients for online scheduling utilization, which speaks to the success of countless team members working to educate and support our patients and their families in its use.

The online scheduling journey has been a true success for the organization thus far, and team members expect even greater gains in future months.

“Kudos to our teams activating MyChart, and (for) sharing these tools with families over the years that has put these tools in the hands of so many,” said Sara Montenegro, assistant vice president for Texas Children’s Pediatrics. “I love that this journey has been incremental, and has taught us so much directly from our patients and families.”

 

Come on, One Amazing Team! Together, let’s embody the bold spirit of the Olympics and push each other to achieve greater heights of physical well-being.

As the official pediatric center of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, Texas Children’s is excited to cheer on the world’s most amazing athletes during this year’s Summer Olympics, beginning Friday, July 23.

In the spirit of sportsmanship, determination and teamwork, Texas Children’s is inviting all of its team members to participate in its Go for the Gold health and wellness initiative, which challenges participants to work out for 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week, while the summer games are being played.

Program details

Go for the Gold will run from Monday, July 19, to Sunday, August 8.

To win Gold, participants must complete 30 minutes of physical activity at least 5 days a week (a minimum of 15 active days). To register, click here.

Once registered, you will receive a welcome email with a tracking sheet to follow your progress, as well as additional tips on nutrition, hydration and strength training. Participants will also receive weekly motivational tips.

To complete your workouts using Active and Fit Direct, learn more by visiting our Well-Being page on Connect.

All participants who win Gold receive a free Texas Children’s workout band.

Now, let’s Go for the Gold!

Michael Sparks shares the important role of preceptors and their impact on education and professional growth for new hires. Read more