Recognize LGBTQ Pride Month this June by reading more about the national celebration of LGBT communities and their ongoing fight for equal rights. Read more
June 15, 2021
June 14, 2021
As you have likely heard and seen on Connect, Texas Children’s is growing in Austin! We broke ground last month on our new freestanding hospital for children and women, and we are excited to build on that momentum and continue the celebration with our One Amazing Team.
In the weeks that have followed the groundbreaking event, we have received many questions from our team members around several common themes and areas, including our construction timeline for the new hospital, the services that will be offered, and when career opportunities will become available.
To provide you with our best answers and current details, Texas Children’s is organizing three, 30-minute live information sessions on Wednesday, June 16, for participants to hear the latest updates. Attendees will also be able to submit questions during the sessions and have them addressed in real time.
Session 1: June 16 | 7 a.m. Join Live Event
Outlook calendar invite, click here.
Session 2: June 16 | Noon Join Live Event
Outlook calendar invite, click here.
Session 3: June 16 | 6 p.m. Join Live Event
Outlook calendar invite, click here.
On the day of the live session, join the session by clicking the MS Teams participant link. It is recommended that you test your connection in advance of the meeting. If you are unable to join, replays of the streams will be available on Connect.
Austin continues to be one of the fastest-growing cities in the nation, and our goal has always been to expand our expert pediatric and maternal care to more conveniently serve the families of Central Texas. Our new hospital is yet another example of how Texas Children’s is living up to this commitment while adding value to the health care options already available in the area.
You are invited to join the Austin project team next week to learn more about all the great things Texas Children’s has in store for children and women in our capital city.
June 8, 2021
It’s been 20 years since Tropical Storm Allison swirled into Houston – deluging the area with more than 35 inches of rain; submerging more than 50,000 homes and 70,000 vehicles under water; and racking up $5 billion in damages as the costliest urban flood on record in the United States.
Yet even as the Texas Medical Center sustained roughly $2 billion of that damage and Memorial Hermann, Houston Methodist and St. Luke’s were forced to evacuate hundreds of patients, the doors of Texas Children’s remained open to our patients and families without any interruptions to care.
That same resolve and resiliency have defined and sustained our organization through seasons of challenge and joy alike. And the lessons we learned from the storm – to prepare for every possibility, expect the unexpected and always rally together as a team – have continued to keep us sturdy and strong.
Proactive planning makes a difference
Mere months before Allison hit, Texas Children’s Board of Trustees had approved a plan to install five submarine-style doors in tunnels leading to and from our facilities. The doors were installed just 30 days prior to the storm’s landfall, thanks in large part to the foresight of Trustee George Peterkin who evaluated the potential for flooding and predicted, “It’s not if, it’s when.”
Texas Children’s had also implemented disaster and perimeter protection plans in the previous weeks, and team members received training on flood protection systems.
When the worst of Allison’s rain began pounding the Houston area and flash flooding loomed, Texas Children’s quickly activated the Command Center to closely monitor the developing situation and continually chart the best course of action.
Quick-thinking team members in Engineering and Environmental Services also ensured a successful conversion to auxiliary power, making Texas Children’s one of just two Medical Center hospitals where the lights stayed on despite widespread power outages.
Helping our community and each other
Despite taking on 6.5 million gallons of water in total during Allison that affected systems from Mechanical and Communication to Transportation and Food Services, Texas Children’s was still able to accept patient transfer requests from other Medical Center institutions.
Every pediatric renal dialysis patient from Memorial Hermann was moved here for care, as well as 22 critically ill adult patients from St. Luke’s and two bone marrow transplants from Methodist. Two operating rooms were made available, and an entire 12-bed unit was dedicated to Methodist patients for post-operative intensive care and recovery.
In the wake of the storm, Texas Children’s also launched the Employee Assistance Network to help team members who suffered storm-related loss or damage. Today, its successor – the Employee Assistance Financial Fund (EFAF) – is a valuable resource for those experiencing unexpected, unforeseen or unavoidable emergencies.
Editor’s note: This article was prepared by Dr. Jeffrey Wilkinson, director of the Global Women’s Health Program at Texas Children’s. Based full-time in Malawi, he is also vice-chairman for Global Women’s Health and professor, Obstetrics & Gynecology, at Baylor College of Medicine.
With generous philanthropic support, Texas Children’s has partnered with the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) to help provide life-altering surgery to the millions of women worldwide who suffer with obstetric fistula.
Obstetric fistula occurs when obstructed labor is not relieved by a timely cesarean delivery. The woman is left with a hole between the vagina and bladder or rectum, and leaks urine and/or stool constantly. Most often, the baby also dies during the delivery. Surgery is the only cure, and is often complex and requires extensive training.
The condition rarely occurs in high-income settings, but is commonly encountered as a result of delays and lack of health systems capacity in very low-income settings. One such country is Malawi, where Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine have a vibrant program in child, maternal and neonatal health that includes obstetric fistula.
Texas Children’s Global Women’s Health doctors and FIGO have been working together for many years, but in the last two years Texas Children’s has been providing support for the ground-breaking FIGO Fistula Surgery Training Initiative or “Fistula Fellowship.” The initiative has trained 66 fistula surgeons in 22 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 13,000 fistula repairs have been performed by FIGO-trained fellows, and Texas Children’s doctors are amongst the trainers in this initiative.
It is a great privilege to be involved with such a productive global program that fights for women and girls with obstetric fistula to get the care they need.
“The FIGO Fistula Surgery Training Initiative is just one part of the many ways that Texas Children’s contributes to the lives of women and their babies in low-resource settings,” said Dr. Michael Belfort, Texas Children’s OB/GYN-in-Chief. “We are thrilled to be part of this program.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic has waned somewhat, our partners in Malawi at the Freedom from Fistula Foundation program have renewed efforts to repair the backlog of women who are suffering with this condition. The team there uses guidelines and training materials from FIGO to teach physicians and mid-level providers how to properly evaluate and surgically repair women with obstetric fistula and work towards better outcomes.
Texas Children’s is committed to helping end this terrible condition by working with partners globally to prevent it in the first place, and treat it once it occurs. Our prevention efforts are concentrated on teaching and providing safe delivery to women in Malawi and other settings. By partnering with FIGO, we have expanded our efforts to reach multiple countries and countless women with obstetric fistula. One day, obstetric fistula will be relegated to the history books and Texas Children’s will have played a significant role.
To learn more about Texas Children’s Global Women’s Health Program and our efforts to end obstetric fistula, click here.
We also recently co-hosted a Twitter Chat with FIGO in recognition of the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula. Read what our partners and leading fistula experts had to say here.
When children and families throughout the Houston area need expert care to evaluate, treat and manage a variety of wounds, there is only one place in the local community for them to go: Texas Children’s Wound Care Clinic.
And now – after our most recent expansion to accommodate that ever-increasing need – our patients can find service close to home at the newly opened Wound Care Clinic at West Campus.
“There is no other service like this being offered anywhere in Houston,” said Dr. Larry Hollier, who serves as Surgeon-in-Chief and holds the S. Baron Hardy Chair in Plastic Surgery. “This is a genuine value to these patients and will elevate the level of care they receive. The ease of access will clearly set this clinic apart.”
Wound, Ostomy and Continence (WOC) nurses have provided wound care at Texas Children’s campuses for several years, treating conditions as varied as animal bites, chronic wounds, soft tissue infections, thermal skin injuries and trauma. These nurses have highly specialized skills that require intensive training, certification and experience that very few achieve, according to Anita Harris-Brown, director of Nursing Clinical Support Operations.
But just as the Texas Children’s system has grown, so has the demand for wound care services in inpatient and outpatient areas. This prompted leaders to set their sights on a new dedicated clinic inclusive of wound care nurses, physician assistants, physicians and other clinicians from a variety of disciplines. The ultimate plan is to offer wound care service on a daily basis at every campus.
Successfully opening the West Campus clinic required collaboration between teams and a constant, collective focus on meeting patient needs – even amid the challenges of the pandemic. Patients and families will find a dedicated staff focused on offering a holistic approach to wound management that allows for the best possible care, as well as the latest in wound care products and an embrace of targeted research around new wound care ideas.
Offering assistance with wound treatment and navigating the system for home care and supplies is also a priority, said Shannon McCord, director of Advanced Practice Providers and Nursing Support Services at The Woodlands and West Campus. Having clinics at all three Texas Children’s hospital campuses gives patients access to care across the continuum.
“The goal is to have a standardized, multidisciplinary approach to care to optimize patient outcomes, increase patient access and facilitate care coordination,” McCord said.
Additionally, establishing the West Campus clinic brings Texas Children’s another step closer to earning national distinction as a Pediatric Wound Care Center of Excellence. The certification is awarded to facilities that have demonstrably improved the quality of life for patients with wounds.
“It is a recognition of staff members’ compassion, dedication to optimizing patient outcomes and ongoing efforts to educate not only themselves, but their patients,” said Ryan Krasnosky, director, Surgery Advanced Practice Providers. “The goal is to highlight facilities that have developed a superior wound management program.”
Texas Children’s also stands out for its commitment to evidence-based care, an essential component of our wound care delivery model that remains part of our long-term vision – along with the Center of Excellence designation and becoming an international and national wound care leader.
To that end, McCord partnered with Global HOPE (Hematology-Oncology Pediatric Excellence) last year to provide wound care education to nurses and providers in Africa. She developed an evidence-based practice policy and procedure for pediatric wound care, and recommended wound care products that they had or could access inexpensively. She presented the information to four countries in the sub-Saharan region.
This May, a multidisciplinary wound care team from Texas Children’s delivered a skills session on wound assessment and care at a virtual workshop hosted by Global HOPE in partnership with health ministries and universities in Botswana, Malawi and Uganda. The workshop was attended by more than 320 nurses and pharmacists from 22 different countries.
Mary Gordon shares an exciting opportunity for clinical staff nurses thanks to a generous gift from Mary Jo Andre and her husband, David, that will support nursing research now and in the future. Read more
June 4, 2021
To put our tremendous gratitude for our employees into meaningful action, Texas Children’s is taking two bold steps: increasing the salary of each team member by 2 percent and providing an additional week of highly-deserved paid time off.
President and CEO Mark A. Wallace announced this incredible investment in our people in a special video message sent to all employees across the system. To watch the video, click here.
“I’ve been through a multitude of seasons with all of you. Seasons of growth and prosperity, but also seasons of difficulty and hardships,” Wallace said in his message. “But through it all, we continued to lead with compassion and strength.”
As part of the Tomorrow, Together initiative, the pay increase will become effective June 13 for all part-time, full-time and per-diem employees up to and including directors. The added week of PTO will be available for use beginning June 13.
For more specific information about these actions and how they may apply to your unique situation, review these Frequently Asked Questions, which include the following topics:
- Impacts on benefits and merit increases
- Maximum salary ranges
- Changes in employment status or role
- PTO maximum accrual rates, carry-over and sell
Wallace has also asked his senior leadership team to continue developing and refining several initiatives to support Texas Children’s team members, including recruiting and retaining the best talent; focusing on the mental and physical health of our employees; and enhancing our robust diversity, equity and inclusion programs, as examples.
“Our health care heroes’ resiliency and determination over the last year was unmatched, and I am so thankful for their dedication to our patients, health plan members and each other,” he said. “This commitment is both a recognition and celebration of our One Amazing Team.”