February 8, 2023

Throughout the pandemic, our teams have adjusted and adapted quickly to the changing landscape of patient care. Rapidly standing up telemedicine operations provided an opportunity for us to offer our world-class care in a safe manner to our patients. Even as we return to more regular operations and in-person patient care, telemedicine remains a valuable option for many.

In our last fiscal year, 12% of our outpatient specialty appointments were completed via telemedicine and over 225,000 appointments across the hospital, TCP/UC and the Centers were completed via video. And many other areas of the organization have adopted video workflows as a vital component of their care.

In mid-April, we will retire the current system, VidyoConnect, and migrate to the native Epic video client. Providers and patients can expect a similar experience with Epic and the familiar workflow of clicking on the green camera icon within an encounter will remain unchanged. Some workflows, such as adding a video interpreter to the visit, will change slightly.

“Moving this service to a trusted partner in Epic provides benefits we can pass along to our providers and patients,” said Dr. Robert Ball, medical director of eHealth. “They will deliver a level of customer service we expect to help us react quickly to questions and challenges, as well as provide more opportunities to develop new functionality and enhancements.”

In the coming weeks, updates and training materials will be available to help users get familiar with the system before launch. Similar education will be extended to patients and their families.

If you have any questions about this migration, please contact Dr. Robert Ball, Grace Karon or Paul Zuniga. You can also call 832-822-0220 or email ehealthsupport@texaschildrens.org, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Please refer to the eHealth SharePoint site for the latest in news about the migration.

February 7, 2023

Being prepared for a crisis – either sudden or forecasted – is the key to staying calm and staying safe. Texas Children’s is refining our best practice when it comes to emergency preparedness, and we all have a role to play.

Everbridge Event Management Platform

When emergencies happen, Texas Children’s will rely on the Everbridge platform to keep you informed. Whether through text, phone and/or email, team members can be reached in seconds when a critical event takes place.

We know messages received on your personal device can be a distraction, and that’s why we are committed to using this channel only when necessary to protect people and property.

Be sure you’re on the list:

  • If your contact information is correct in Voyager, you’re on the list. If you’re not getting messages, please review your information, paying particular attention that your mobile number is in the correct field.
  • If you have previously opted out, we strongly encourage you to opt back in by texting the word “RESUME” to 89361.
Employee Disaster Roster (EDR) Enrollment is Open

Another important element of preparedness is understanding the role you play in keeping our system running when disaster strikes.

All team members must re-register annually for the Employee Disaster Roster – electing to be part of the Prep Team, Ride-Out Team and/or Relief Team. Details for each team are listed in the form, and you should work with your leader to agree on the appropriate role for you. Note, if you’re on the ride-out team, you can use this easy checklist to pack your at-work disaster bag with 5-7 days of essential supplies.

Deadlines

  • Friday, March 24 – all EDR registrations must be complete.
  • Friday, March 31 – Leader validation must be complete.

Visit the Department of Organizational Resilience SharePoint site for contact information and links to websites to help you create an emergency preparedness plan of your own.

After a 3-year hiatus due to the pandemic, Texas Children’s is excited to return to the saddle for Rodeo 2023! The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR) will take over NRG Park Tuesday, February 28, through Sunday, March 19. As has been done in the past, we will provide Texas Children’s employees an opportunity to purchase tickets for the different rodeo events, including must-see musical performances.

Click here for details on entering the Rodeo Concert Ticket Drawing and participating in HLSR’s first-ever Community Day – featuring free admission and purchase options for other Rodeo festivities.

Break out your boots, hats and belt buckles! Let’s Rodeo!

The more we know, the more we understand, the more we connect. Click to read this month’s DEI update and stay in the know! Read More

February 6, 2023

Opportunities are now available in Austin and will continue to become available each month until the North Austin Campus opens in February 2024! Nearly 100 positions, including Advanced Practice Providers, Assistant Directors and Managers, need to be filled as soon as possible. To apply:

  1. Go to Voyager Single Sign-On and click the Current Jobs app to search for internal job openings
  2. Enter “Austin” in search to filter Austin jobs
Know talented people who might be interested in applying?

Our best recruiters are you – our One Amazing Team. Spread the word among your friends, family and colleagues – tell them to check out our open positions at texaschildrenspeople.org/Austin. You have the opportunity to get paid for referring candidates who join our team through our E.A.R.N. (Everyone is A Recruiter Now) Program, which pays up to $5,000 for referring qualified candidates who fill high-demand roles.

New positions continue to roll out so stay updated through Texas Children’s social media on all things Austin expansion.

LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter

February 3, 2023

We’ve come a long way since opening our doors in February 1954. It all started with a single three-story building and 106 beds, the first hospital of its kind in Houston dedicated solely to caring for children.

When Karol Musher joined Texas Children’s in 1971, she was one of three employees in the Speech, Language & Learning department. “I used to park right outside the window of my office,” said Musher. Back then there were no computers – only paper records, handwritten notes and plenty of face-to-face conversations, which Musher remembers fondly as a speech-language pathologist.

“Several of my friends have retired, but I still look forward to coming to work every day and am inspired by the energy of my younger colleagues who often rescue me from my frequent computer issues,” she jokes. “Despite the many changes over time, Texas Children’s has remained committed to providing the best possible patient care and supports me in doing so; I’m very proud to be part of this incredible institution and team.”

Today, we’re the largest and one of the most comprehensive specialty pediatric hospital systems in the United States with over 4.3 million annual patient encounters. As we gear up to celebrate our 70-year milestone next year, we continue to grow our presence in Texas and look forward to opening our new state-of-the-art-hospital in Austin in Q1 2024.

By continuing to do things differently, we deliver the impossible for the benefit of children and women around the world – and we couldn’t do it without the hard work and dedication of our One Amazing Team. The best is yet to come!

Take a moment to celebrate and say “Happy Birthday, Texas Children’s!”

Click here to read about our extraordinary history and timeline. To learn more about Karol Musher and her 52-year tenure at Texas Children’s, click here.

For the sixth consecutive year, Texas Children’s Hospital leads the nation in pediatric transplants, as reported by the Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network (OPTN), the country’s unique public-private registry for organ matching.

The newly released OPTN data places the nation’s largest children’s hospital at No. 1 for pediatric heart, liver and lung transplants, and No. 2 for pediatric kidney transplants in the United States.

In 2022, Texas Children’s Transplant Services successfully performed 99 transplants, outpacing all other children’s hospitals by more than 20 complex surgeries.

“The Transplant Services team has consistently exceeded benchmarks, advanced research and established Texas Children’s as the top hospital for life-saving pediatric organ transplants,” said President and CEO Mark A. Wallace. “I am so proud of everything this team has accomplished and, most importantly, how many children’s lives they have saved. The passion and dedication of each member of this team is an inspiration to everyone at Texas Children’s.”

A track record that speaks for itself

In 2022, the Texas Children’s Hospital Transplant Services team celebrated another milestone: the 20th anniversary of its lung transplant program, through which our experts have performed 240 life-saving surgeries since 2002. The team is well-equipped to care for patients with the most complex and complicated conditions, including infants and children on life support. Over the last decade, Texas Children’s has performed more infant lung transplants than any other hospital in the nation.

Additionally, Texas Children’s Hospital received approval in 2022 from the OPTN to launch the nation’s first uterine transplant program housed within a pediatric transplant hospital. This innovative program, which aims to utilize uterus transplantation as a treatment option to help women with absolute uterine factor infertility (AUFI) achieve healthy pregnancies, will be a close partnership between the Transplant Services team and the Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women.

“While we are proud to have the highest volume of pediatric transplants, we are even more encouraged by our success rate,” said Dr. Larry H. Hollier, Surgeon-in-Chief and Department of Surgery Chair. “Our patients need and deserve the very best. Their outcomes are our top priority, and our pediatric transplant success rate is a testament to our commitment to them. Texas Children’s experts possess a depth of skill and service, both within the transplant program and throughout the hospital, that enables patients – from infants to young adults – to receive life-saving lung, heart, liver and kidney transplants and best-in-class care.”

Providing complex, multifaceted medical and surgical care

The Transplant Services team employs a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach through each aspect of the transplant process, ranging from initial referrals, which are accepted from around the world, to hospitalization and post-transplant outpatient care. The multidisciplinary team of pediatric transplant experts works closely with patients, families and referring physicians to make the evaluation process as convenient and efficient as possible.

Continuing its record of innovation and excellence, Texas Children’s Transplant Services team often achieves success with cases that other programs may consider untreatable. Its impressive list of firsts includes:

  • The first successful infant heart transplant in the United States.
  • The first pediatric lung-kidney transplant in the United States.
  • The hospital’s first – and one of only three in the nation – triple transplant of heart, lungs and liver in one procedure.

“We are only able to provide our patients with these life-saving transplants because of selfless organ donors and their families,” said Dr. John A. Goss, Medical Director of Transplant Services. “These heroes make each transplant success story possible, and the doctors, surgeons, care teams and pediatric transplant patients and families are so thankful for the gift of life from each donor.”

For more information on Transplant Services, click here.