October 15, 2019

The Pavilion for Women recently held a two-day conference focused on obstetric critical care. With increasing focus on maternal morbidity and mortality the need to expand and elevate the care provided by physicians and nurses is paramount. This unique conference affords the opportunity to participate in skill simulation and expert presentations. Additionally, CMEs and CNEs were awarded upon receiving a successful pass rate of the post-test administered.

Attended by more than 100 people across Texas, and 12 midwives visiting the Pavilion for Women from Hong Kong, the conference covered physiologic changes during pregnancy, specific obstetric medical conditions and appropriate treatment; maternal cardiovascular resuscitation and airway management of critically ill pregnant patients; as well as appropriate steps in fetal assessment, delivery, and neonatal management.

The conference was held October 4 and 5, and was formatted as a series of presentations and skill stations to provide knowledge and guidance for decision-making, and limited practice in some clinical procedures and scenarios. Positively received by attendees, the conference enables the Pavilion for Women as a Level IV Maternal Care Designated facility to determine what educational needs exist across the state and provide additional education to help improve quality outcomes for women.

October 8, 2019

Your name, title and department. How long have you worked here?
My name is Patricia Foster, and I am a Senior Business Intelligence Analyst in the Business Intelligence Analytics department. I have worked here for almost three and a half years.

Tell us how you found out you won a super star award.
I found out that I won a super star award during the BI morning stand-up meeting. My manager, Kim Battenfield, said that someone on our team won the Super Star Employee award. I was so surprised because I don’t think of myself as a super star. I think of myself as a part of an amazing team in which all team members work together to strive to go the extra step to help our customers. I consider it a huge privilege to be a part of this team. We have the opportunity to meet with our customers to understand the goals of the work that they are doing. They allow us to provide feedback regarding how we think we can help. Often they have a pretty good idea of what they need, but they don’t always know about the scope of tools that we have and analysis that we can provide to help them make decisions.

What does it mean to be recognized for the hard work you do? How has the organization helped you achieve your personal and professional goals?
It’s humbling. I have a great manager, and I work with the best team ever. I feel like the entire team deserves an award. Each member of our team has unique talents and strengths, so we are all able to reach out to each other for help, and I feel like we all play an important role. We all rely on each other, and we all know that we can trust each other to provide high quality results.

What do you think makes someone at Texas Children’s a super star?
I think what makes someone a super star is to seek out opportunities to contribute to the overall well-being of our members and patients. Something that I am very proud of on our team is that we don’t just do what is asked of us. Once we understand what someone is trying to accomplish, we brainstorm ways to go a step further. We try to anticipate the next step and offer solutions.

What is your motivation for going above and beyond every day at work?
I truly love my job and my team. I have so much respect for my manager and my teammates, and I don’t want to let them down. I know the work that we do is very important to our members. As an Information Services employee, it can often be difficult “to see the forest for the trees,” but in BI, we have a unique opportunity to see what many others in our organization are doing and to see how the reports and maps we provide ultimately help us all to provide the best care for our members.

What is the best thing about working at Texas Children’s?
It’s hard for me to narrow it down to one thing that is the best thing about working at Texas Children’s, but if I had to, it would be its people. My manager, Kim, is wonderful. My Analytics teammates – Charles, Rudy, Jaennie, Henry, and Loan; the Data team – Anoop, Mike, Kavita, Sadhana, Roby, Fahd, Mani, and Avinash; John Turner, our IS director; Sarah and the FAST team; Mital, Veronica, and the Care Coordination team; RosCet and Deb and the Contracting team; the Finance team; the Member Services team; the Marketing team; my aunt Debbie, the leadership here … I love that I have the honor of working with all of these amazing people – striving to help sick children become healthy. I love that I feel like, even as an analyst, I have a voice, and that we can all make a difference.

What does it mean to you that everyone at Texas Children’s is considered a leader? What is your leadership definition?
To me, a leader is one who motivates you to do your best. I really do feel like Texas Children’s is full of leaders because we are all trying to accomplish the important goal of helping our members and patients, which, in the grand scheme of things, is great for all of us at Texas Children’s.

Anything else you want to share?
I am truly blessed and honored to work with the amazing people at Texas Children’s Health Plan and Texas Children’s Hospital.

On September 28, nearly 500 guests gathered at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott for the Spirit of the Woods gala benefiting Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands. The spectacular evening was filled with stunning performances by Antigravity, a high-energy aerial and acrobatics group which showcased the power of the human body and spirit. Thanks to the entertainment sponsored by Woodforest National Bank, guests were treated to highflying acts and daredevil drops all in support of the outreach and care Texas Children’s provides to underserved families in the community.

President of Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, Michelle Riley-Brown, welcomed guests and provided updates on the hospital’s successes since opening in 2017, including the remarkable milestones of completing 351,000 patient visits, more than 86,100 emergency center visits, and 18,787 surgeries. She also commended the astounding generosity of The Woodlands community, which – through this gala – helped raise more than $800,000 to care for the area’s most vulnerable children.

Chief surgical officer at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, Dr. Jeffrey Shilt, introduced the event’s honorees, Missy and Wayne Herndon. At the tender age of six, The Herndon’s son was diagnosed with batten disease, a rare, inherited pediatric neurological disorder that strikes young, otherwise healthy children. Following this prognosis, the Herndon’s partnered with Beyond Batten Disease Foundation to raise funds from generous donors in The Woodlands, the Houston area and Texas. Since then they have been an integral part of the community and continue to make a lasting impact on Texas Children’s.

The gala was made possible by Stacey and Steve Bourque, as well as the dedicated gala committee. The hospital’s chief medical officer, Dr. Paul Sirbaugh, helped close out the evening by sharing the transformational impact the gracious support of these individuals, and those in attendance, has on Texas Children’s mission. Through their generosity, and that of the community at large, the most vulnerable children in The Woodlands are able to receive the best care possible regardless of their ability to pay.

October 7, 2019

As One Amazing Team, we share a responsibility to our patients, their families and each other to prevent the transmission of vaccine-preventable diseases like the flu. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends a yearly flu vaccination as the first and most important step in protecting against the flu and its potentially serious and even life-threatening complications.

As we enter the official 2019-20 flu season, we ask you to take action against the spread of the flu and start planning now to attend an Employee Health flu event to receive your flu vaccine. To view the event schedule, click here.

During our first week of flu vaccination, the Employee Health team vaccinated close to 5,000 employees. Although we are excited to see so much participation across the organization, we want to keep the momentum going! That is why employees who receive their flu vaccine by November 1, 2019, will be entered into a drawing to win one of 25 Nutri Ninja Pro Blenders. Employee Health will notify the winners via email on Friday, November 8.

Flu program overview

Employee Health will administer flu vaccines at no cost to Texas Children’s employees; Baylor College of Medicine employees working at Texas Children’s facilities; Morrison, Crothall, or Compass contract employees; and volunteers at Texas Children’s. Upon vaccination at Texas Children’s, staff will receive a 2019-20 flu season sticker to affix to their badges.

To reduce wait times at the flu vaccination events, employees are recommended to complete their Flu Vaccine Consent Form online via the Employee Health & Wellness Portal prior to attending the event.* Click here to view a quick video tutorial on how to access the Flu Vaccine Consent Form online. Click here for instructions on how to log in to the portal or click here to view step-by-step instructions.

Employees at Texas Children’s Pediatrics, Texas Children’s Urgent Care, and Texas Children’s Specialty Care Centers may be vaccinated at their respective practices, please speak to your leader for more information. Employees who work remotely may be referred to a designated occupational health clinic by Employee Health, or can receive their vaccine covered at 100 percent through Texas Children’s medical plan when administered by an in-network pharmacy under medical coverage.

Employees who receive their flu vaccine outside of Texas Children’s must submit their attestation and proof of vaccination via this online form.

Employees who decline the flu vaccine for approved exemptions may be required to use protective medical equipment, such as gloves and masks, when providing direct patient care services for the duration of the flu season. For more details, see Required Influenza Vaccination Policy #317 and Procedure #4218.

If you have questions about the Flu Program, contact Employee Health at 832-824-2150, option 2.

 

Texas Children’s Orthopedics Department jumped five spots from No. 15 to No. 10 in this year’s U.S. News and World Report survey.

The team worked quickly, relentlessly and collaboratively to achieve this ranking, a first for the Orthopedics department at Texas Children’s.

Service chief Dr. Brian Smith expressed his sentiments with the ranking, “The Orthopedics Division is thrilled and honored to be recognized as one of the top 10 Orthopaedic programs in the country. This is a tribute to our entire team of physicians, physician’s assistants, nurses and staff whose primary goal every day is to provide the best musculoskeletal care possible to our patients and families.”

But seriously, how did they move so far so fast?

Specifically, the Orthopedics Department accomplished four big wins for patients:

  • Gait Lab accreditation: Dr. Jeffery Shilt, chief surgical officer in The Woodlands, led efforts to ensure that our Gait Lab was accredited as a clinical motion laboratory. The Texas Children’s Hospital Gait Lab received this accreditation in record time after opening, providing exceptional care to patients with movement disorders.
  • Continuing education: 100 percent of nurse practitioners and physician assistants received pediatric orthopedic surgery related continuing education units. Janai’ Buxton, manager of Advanced Practice Providers in Orthopedics is proud of this dedication to education, saying, “Such education ensures our APPs are providing the very best current, evidence-based care for patients.”
  • Scoliosis outcomes: The spine surgery team implemented several changes, including a multi-disciplinary meeting, to reduce unplanned readmissions and reoperations for complex scoliosis surgery patients.
  • Gap closures: The team worked together to close out 90 percent of gaps related to the department structure.
Deserved recognition

The dedication and leadership of Dr. Larry Hollier, surgeon-in-chief, Dr. David Wesson, interim chief of Orthopedics, and Rachel Warfield, Director of Surgical Ambulatory Services, helped the team accomplish this ranking. Additional recognition goes to the many physician champions who led efforts to improve quality as well as the data team led by Ken Kocab and Debasis Dash.

The Orthopedics department sees this accomplishment as a testament to all the hard work that has been done to improve patient quality and access to care over the past several years.

More than 300 golfers wore their baddest pants, played their best golf and raised more than $440,000 for Texas Children’s Newborn Center at the Clubs of Kingwood on October 2.

The RBC Wealth Management Bad Pants Open, an annual golf tournament now in its 22nd year, has raised more than $7 million over the past two decades to support continued innovation and excellence in the research, treatment and care of critically-ill and premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Texas Children’s Hospital. Tournament proceeds fund nurse training and education and hands-on bereavement care programs and ensure that each family’s most urgent needs are met – from covering parking costs to providing meals, transportation, car seats and more.

Recently renamed to acknowledge RBC Wealth Management’s longtime financial and employee volunteer support, the RBC Wealth Management Bad Pants Open was chaired by Brian Brantley, senior vice president and general counsel of SeaOne Holdings, LLC.

RBC Wealth Management brought in Dan Boever for a long drive exhibition and golfers enjoyed lunch on the course provided by Beck’s Prime. Players were also treated to complimentary pre-golf stretching provided by Reach Stretch Studios and live on-site broadcasting by ESPN 97.5 Houston, the tournament’s media partner. Among the tournament’s major sponsors were RBC Wealth Management, Jacob White Construction, CenterPoint Energy and Pam and Gary Whitlock.

The event featured a post-play awards ceremony and dinner catered by A Fare Extraordinaire, where players were awarded plates painted by Texas Children’s patients for both the best golf scores and baddest pants.

Kelly Jett, a NICU nurse at Texas Children’s Hospital, was presented with the NICU Nurse of the Year award, a special recognition awarded at each tournament. Pearland residents Eva and Philip Quartey, parents of Blessing Quartey, who was born at 24 weeks gestation weighing just over a pound and received care in the NICU at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, were honored at the event as well. Eva gave an emotional speech about the doctors, nurses and other support staff that helped her family through their long NICU journey.

More than 2,500 critically-ill and premature infants receive essential care in Texas Children’s NICU each year, many of whom are born at nearby Houston-area hospitals. Texas Children’s is the nation’s largest NICU and one of only two Level IV NICUs in the greater Houston area. More information, including next year’s tournament date, will be available at www.badpantsopen.com.

Greetings everyone! My name is Erika Hayes and I am a new employee at Texas Children’s.
Well – newish.

I’m actually what Human Resources would call a boomerang. I worked at Texas Children’s Hospital from 2011 to 2014, left for five years to chase big dreams, and when the time was right I came back home.

It feels so good to be back – and this time with a new opportunity to contribute to our mission.
On June 3, 2019 I joined Texas Children’s Health Plan!

The Health Plan? What’s that?

I’m so glad you asked. Unbelievably, it’s an area of the organization that I knew very little about during my first time here. So you can imagine how excited I am to come to work every day. I get to explore, ask questions and share all of the great things going on in our world.

My title is senior communications specialist. But that’s really just a fancy way of saying that I find out what’s happening and make sure everyone knows. I report information that is positive, strategic and helpful in our efforts to meet important business goals.

The best part of my job? I learn something new every day and this series is one of the ways I’ll share what I learn.

“But why now?”

Great question. Well, in recent months Texas Children’s has undergone a reorganization that has tied Texas Children’s Health Plan and Texas Children’s Hospital closer together. Executive leadership wants both organizations to support each other and communicate better so that our business is stronger and even more successful. My job is part of those efforts.

So welcome to day one of “Hayes on The Health Plan.” As often as I can, I’m going to take you with me on this journey of learning what this very special part of our mission is all about.

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First up is the top 10 things you need to know about Texas Children’s Health Plan.

10. Texas Children’s Health Plan is an insurance plan much like Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, United Healthcare, Cigna or many others. The difference is that it manages the health care of low-income families who receive government-funded insurance, such as Medicaid.

9. The purpose of Texas Children’s Health Plan is to deliver the best health care possible for its members.

8. Families who have insurance through Texas Children’s Health Plan are called members. Texas Children’s Hospital has patients and Texas Children’s Health Plan has members.

7. Texas Children’s Health Plan currently employees a little more than 800 employees.

6. These employees are located in six areas – at our office building in Bellaire, in Beaumont, in Tyler, at The Center for Children and Women (two clinics) and remotely.

5. The Center for Children and Women is owned by Texas Children’s Health Plan. The two Center locations are full-service clinics for Health Plan members only, with a few exceptions for members of other government-sponsored programs.

4. The Centers are so nice that employees often ask if they can go. (I did!) However, this is not allowed. Members only.

3. Texas Children’s Health Plan is funded by the state of Texas. We receive state funding for each member who is part of our plan.

2. Mark Mullarkey is the president of Texas Children’s Health Plan and an executive vice president for the Texas Children’s system. I’ve had the opportunity to speak with him on several occasions and he is such a nice guy!

1. Texas Children’s Health Plan is Texas Children’s. It is part of the same organization that operates Texas Children’s Hospital. We are all part of the same family.

I have so many things I want to tell you through this series, but I’d love to hear from you too! Feel free to drop me a note at eehayes1@texaschildrens.org

Hayes on The Health Plan is a series written by Erika Hayes, senior communications specialist. She is a Health Plan employee, but also part of the Corporate Communications Team. Erika can be reached at eehayes1@texaschildrens.org or 832-828-1310.