June 10, 2019

The Mark A. Wallace New Employee Pep Rally allows new employees to learn more about the organization and meet executives and other leaders within a festive atmosphere complete with foam fingers, pompoms and lively music. Participants included new and recent hires based at the Medical Center. The pep rally was held on June 3 at the Pavilion for Women Conference Center.

“We are flourishing and we’re blessed to have all of you here,” President and CEO Mark Wallace told the new employees, recalling Texas Children’s early days in a single, seven-floor building – well before the opening of Legacy Tower at the Medical Center campus; the suburban hospitals at West and The Woodlands; and the urgent care centers and specialty care clinics that stretch across Harris County and now reach into Austin and Central Texas.

“In 1989, I knew this was our destiny,” Wallace said. “I knew Texas Children’s was going to grow and flourish because that was part of the plan: taking care of more patients and more families. The key to our success has always been the people and the leadership.”

Wallace also introduced himself and shook hands with every new employee at the pep rally, pausing often to pose for photos and snap selfies.

Many people hope to be able to work in their preferred career upon graduation, while others may just want to work at their desired workplace with the goal of moving towards that career. Juan Flores, Radiology Generalist at The Woodlands Campus, as successfully done both very early in his career and can add a system-wide award to that list.

“This is amazing! I just graduated a little over a year ago, so working here is kind of like a dream come true,” Flores said. “I never thought I’d work at Texas Children’s until maybe later on, until I have more experience, but I took a chance so I’m happy about that.”

Flores is known to be very quick to volunteer outside of his role as a radiographer. He is on the Radiology Events and Activities Committee, he has played a role in several simulations inside and outside of Radiology, he is a part of the Customer Obsession Task Force, and helps with The Teddy Bear Clinic.

When his youthful presence is removed, Flores can be mistaken for a Texas Children’s veteran even though his has only been here a year, as his work constantly exemplifies our mission.

“In such a short time, Juan has been a fantastic addition to our team! He takes his role as a radiographer seriously and puts forth 110 percent every day,” Assistant Director of Radiology Traci Foster said. “Regardless of the day he’s having, Juan is always positive and has a great sense of humor.”

Foster recalled a time when a 4-year-old in the orthopedic clinic had a fractured arm and needed an x-ray. She says that the child was extremely anxious due to a recent, difficult, experience at an outside urgent care.

“Juan worked with the mother of the patient to identify a comfort position for the child. He was extremely patient and allowed them time to warm up to the environment by showing them the big camera and allowing the patient to touch and explore the room and equipment prior to positioning him for the x-ray,” Foster said. “The child was very receptive to his gentle approach and was able to complete the x-ray while smiling and saying ‘cheese.’ The mother was so appreciative of Juan and so are we. The entire department thanks Juan for going above and beyond to create a great patient experience for all of our patient families.”

At times after a hard day of work, when an emergency occurs there aren’t many people who will volunteer for additional duties. Flores’ hard work, determination, and persistence are all of the reasons why he is one of this year’s Caught You Caring Award recipients.

“I was so surprised when I found out that I won this award. “The fact that I’ve only been here a short while, and I work with so many other amazing people, this was really unexpected,” Flores said. “I love it here. It’s a tough job, but it’s extremely rewarding, and I hope to continue here for years to come.”

June 3, 2019

Denine Moody shares her experience using Cigna Telehealth, a new benefit that allows employees who are enrolled in a Texas Children’s medical plan, to connect with a doctor for consultation right from their smartphone. More

Texas Children’s marked the beginning of an exciting chapter in its history last year by opening the first Austin location, Texas Children’s Urgent Care Westgate. Since then, Texas Children’s Pediatrics primary care and Texas Children’s Specialty Care Austin have been introduced to the Austin community with a pediatric population of half a million. Learn more by visiting our 2018 virtual Annual Report.

Being a clinician in today’s fast-paced health care environment can be stressful. The expectation to see more patients and produce better, quicker results stretches the limits of even the best care givers in the field. As a result, a level of compassion and empathy can be lost, which in turn can impact the quality of care given to patients and their loved ones.

Texas Children’s nurtures compassionate, empathetic, humanistic relationships between clinicians and patients. To better support care givers in creating and sustaining these types of relationships, Dr. Daniel Mahoney, a palliative care physician, and Dr. Gwen Erkonen with the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit have created a Medical Humanities Program at Texas Children’s for Texas Children’s faculty and staff.

In affect for less than a year, the program works to incorporate humanities such as literature, philosophy, ethics, sociology, visual and performing arts into medical education and practice. What this has looked like thus far, has been opportunities for care givers to participate in music therapy sessions and book clubs geared toward clinicians. The program also is working to teach and implement narrative medicine and parallel charting.

“Our hope is the tools provided through this program will help clinicians better process the myriad of experiences they deal with on a daily basis,” Mahoney said. “As a result, we hope it will enhance the way we practice medicine.”

Dr. Amanda Ruth, a PICU physician, attended one of the program’s recent book clubs and said she got a lot out of it. The book, When Breath Becomes Air by Dr. Paul Kalanithi, was about a physician diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer.

Ruth, who deals with terminally ill patients often, said the book was interesting because it illustrated how a physician dealt with his own mortality and what it taught him about his patients and his role in caring for them.

“If you don’t connect with a family, you can’t really create an effective treatment plan,” Ruth said. “The more you understand their situation, the better able you are to care for them.”

Ruth added that she also enjoyed meeting care givers across the organization and simply unplugging from her daily medical duties, even if it’s just for a short time.

“It’s nice to not think about medicine for five minutes, to just get away and be human,” she said.

Another tool clinicians are learning through the Medical Humanities Program, is parallel charting. Some Texas Children’s residents are using parallel charting to help them implement narrative medicine into their everyday practice. When using parallel charting, residents keep two charts for each patient. One chart is to log the patient’s medical record. The other chart is to log how the patient and their experience is affecting the resident.

“Every patient and clinician has a story,” Dr. Daniel Mahoney said. “Narrative medicine teaches clinicians to pay attention to those stories and how they intersect to help cultivate a more impactful relationship.”

Dr. Daniella Saydi, a pediatric resident, said she used parallel charting during a four-week trip to Malawi and that it allowed her to think about her experience on a deeper level.

“It’s very easy to go abroad and live in the moment without actually meditating on what is going on around you,” she said. “Parallel charting allowed me to capture moments that I had forgotten about in the hustle of the work day. I can still vividly remember certain patients and details because I was able to write them down.”

Pediatric Resident Victoria Mitre is learning about narrative medicine from Mahoney and Erkonen as a member of the Primary Care Leaders Evaluating and Addressing Disparities program. Mitre said the quarterly class has helped her create a more purposeful framework for her writing and that it has driven home her longstanding belief that effective communication is perhaps the most important part of a pediatrician’s job.

“Whether it is walking into a patient’s room or starting the process of writing an Op-Ed, Dr. Efkonen and Dr. Mahoney have taught me the importance of first identifying and understanding my audience,” she said. “In clinical situations, this has helped me tailor my counseling to meet the specific needs of my patients and their families. When the work I can accomplish in clinic is simply not enough to meet their needs, narrative medicine has given me the space and tools to reflect on my experience and advocate for change. Ultimately, it has helped me take better care of myself as a physician.”

Erkonen, who studied professional burnout in the healthcare industry, said staying in touch with your emotions and connected to your patients and colleagues helps clinicians maintain meaning in their work and thus prevents burnout.

“Clinicians view a lot of tragic things, and as a result, it’s easy to let cynicism in,” Erkonen said. “That’s why staying connected is so important. It’s key to avoiding burnout.”

Burnout, Erkonen said, is something many care givers experience at some point in their career. If it’s not remedied, burnout can lead to an increase in clinician errors among other things that impede patient care and physician growth.

A robust medical humanities program that offers training throughout all levels of a clinician’s career can help prevent burnout and promote the development of a more engaged, fulfilled and empathetic clinical workforce, Erkonen said.

“If you don’t teach empathy, it won’t be cultivated,” Erkonen said. “It’s just as valuable as anything else you learn in medical school.”

For more information about the Medical Humanities Program at Texas Children’s, click here to view their page on Connect, and click here to see their page on texaschildrens.org. You also can follow the program on Twitter @TCHMedHum.

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.