November 19, 2018

The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women celebrated babies this past week in recognition of Prematurity Awareness Month. Infants on the unit received superhero capes, created by FirstMemories Texas, an all-volunteer organization dedicated to teaching families whose infants are in the NICU and CVICU at Texas Children’s Hospital how to celebrate, honor and tell their children’s stories through photography and album making.

One family got three capes – one for each of their triplet sons, Barrett, Calvin and Jacob. The brothers were born on November 1 at 34 weeks gestation and have been in the NICU ever since. All three babies are healthy but need some extra attention and care before going home.

Dara Miller, the boys’ mother, said the care she and her boys have received at the Pavilion for Women has been incredible and that everyone they have encountered has been professional, compassionate and kind.

“We have had complete confidence in everyone who has taken care of us,” Miller said. “Everyone has always kept us informed and made us feel like we are in the best possible hands.”

The day her boys received their black and yellow batman capes was icing on the cake and ended up sparking a milestone moment. Until that day, she had never held her boys together, only separately. Joined by her husband, Mason, and 2-year-old daughter, June, Miller held her babies donned in capes big enough to cover almost their entire body and grinned widely.

“In that moment, we all came together as a family,” she said. “Until then, something felt incomplete.”

Kellie Kainer, assistant clinical director of nursing for the NICU, said comments like Miller’s and special events like the one with the capes bring smiles to her and her staff as well. Knowing that patients and their families are comfortable with the care they receive is huge.

“Everyone in the NICU has a passion for what they do,” she said. “We truly love caring for some of Texas Children’s most fragile patients.”

Texas Children’s Hospital, together with Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, house the nation’s largest level IV NICU, the highest level of care available for premature and critically-ill newborns. Babies born prematurely require round-the-clock care and often need access to highly specialized services to have the most optimal outcomes. Complications from premature birth (before 37 weeks gestation) are the #1 cause of death of babies in the United States and 1 in 10 babies in the U.S. are born too soon.

The Annual Medical Staff meeting and Awards ceremony was held on November 6. The event concluded with the announcement of the 2019 Medical Staff officers. The following persons were elected:

  • Dr. Ryan Himes – President Elect
  • Dr. Jennifer Dietrich – Secretary
  • Dr. Chris Glover, MEC rep
  • Dr. Timothy Lee, MEC rep

Be sure to congratulate the new officers and welcome them to their new roles.

November 16, 2018

Your name, title and department. How long have you worked here?
Jackie Pacheco, Health Coach in the Employee Health and Well-Being Department. I have worked at Texas Children’s for almost three years.

Tell us how you found out you won a super star award.
We were in our monthly HR Staff Meeting and during the thank you and congratulations section, my assistant director announced to the team that I had won the Super Star Award for the month of September. It was a complete surprise and I was overwhelmed with the warmth and amazing response from my colleagues.

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 means a lot to be recognized for all of the hard work that you put in. I work with an amazing team, and our work always impacts the people who work here at Texas Children’s with all of our health and well-being initiatives. I work with incredible people who support and encourage me every day and care for me both professionally and personally.

I recently became a certified wellness and health coach and have grown in my department because of this. I received encouragement from my leaders, and just knowing they are behind me and want to see me succeed, pushes me to do my best every day.

What do you think makes someone at Texas Children’s a super star?
A super star is someone who embraces the core values and finds a way to incorporate them into everything they do. They show up every day with a positive attitude and are enthusiastic about their work. We must always remember that we never know who we are going to make an impression on, so might as well always strive to make it positive.

What is your motivation for going above and beyond every day at work?
Knowing that I can make an impact on any single employee within the organization, keeps me going. Working on the Well-Being team, my job is to take care of the health and well-being of employees throughout our organization. If I can help our workforce develop healthy habits and empower them to achieve their well-being goals, I will not only help that individual but also develop a culture of health for the organization.

What is the best thing about working at Texas Children’s?
The best thing about working at Texas Children’s is the people. You will always see smiling faces in the hallways, and people are always willing to help. Our workforce’s enthusiasm and pride to work here is always eminent.

What does it mean to you that everyone at Texas Children’s is considered a leader? What is your leadership definition?
It is great to know that everyone who works at Texas Children’s is considered a leader. My definition of leadership is: A leader must enjoy what they are doing and maintain an enthusiastic, positive and optimistic attitude. Listen if they want to be heard and always remember that the most powerful tool that you possess is your own personal example.

Anything else you want to share?
I would like to say a special thank you to Julia Gaffney for taking the time to nominate me. I would also like to thank all of the Wellness Ambassadors who help promote wellness throughout the organization; without them my job wouldn’t be possible.

November 13, 2018

From our three hospital campuses to our health centers, urgent care and pediatric practices, Texas Children’s continues to make great strides in improving access to our patients and their families.

As part of Patient Access 2.0, Texas Children’s launched online scheduling in both English and Spanish on November 12 that allows current patients, new patients and referred patients to schedule appointments via DocASAP, Texas Children’s online scheduling partner. Texas Children’s is the only hospital of the top five on the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll to offer online scheduling to patients.

“Since most families prefer online scheduling, it is important for us to pay attention to their needs and do more to help them out,” said Texas Children’s Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Larry Hollier and co-chair of the Access Executive Steering Committee. “Because we really care about our families, we have to keep the doors open to our patients to ensure they get the right care, at the right time and at the right place.”

Led by Project Manager Sarah Ringold, Co-chairs Ryan Breaux, Diesa Samp, Jodi Harris and Executive Sponsor Michele Birsinger, online scheduling will be implemented in waves:

  • Wave 1 (November 2018): Allergy/Immunology, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Endocrine, Neurology, Ophthalmology, Plastic Surgery, Pulmonology and Urology
  • Wave 2 (January 2019): Adolescent Sports Medicine, Centers for Women and Children Women’s Services, Genetics, Infectious diseases, Nephrology, Neurosurgery, Otolaryngology, Pediatric Surgery, Retrovirology, Rheumatology and Orthopedics
  • Wave 3 (March 2019): Centers for Women and Children Pediatrics, Gynecologic Oncology, Physical Medicine and Rehab, Psychiatry, Psychology, Reproductive Endo/Infertility, Urologic Gynecology and Women’s Psychiatry

Texas Children’s patients can access the online scheduling button on Texas Children’s homepage. Once the button is clicked from the homepage, patients land on the new texaschildrens.org/appointment page and can view all scheduling options available: online scheduling, MyChart or calling the Customer Contact Care Center. Patients can also access online scheduling directly from provider profiles and department pages. From there, a scheduling widget will appear where patients and their families can schedule appointments online with a provider.

“Our patient families expect to be able to do so much online today, and it only makes sense that we offer them this capability as well,” said Ringold, who is also a practice administrator in Urology. “This new scheduling tool will also be beneficial to our providers as online scheduling typically results in better template utilization and reduced no show and cancellation rates.”

This project would not have been possible without the collaboration from multiple departments including Information Services, Marketing, Patient Experience, Central Scheduling, Revenue Cycle and HIM. Practice administrators, ambulatory directors and community leaders also devoted time, energy and expertise in this project.

“We have accomplished so much in a relatively short period of time through these collaborative efforts,” said Senior Vice President and Patient Access Leader Richelle Fleischer. “It has been exciting to see this project go from an initial request for proposal to actual implementation. It truly was a team effort.”

In addition to the online scheduling option via DocASAP, patients who sign up for MyChart can schedule their appointments through the MyChart online patient portal. Since implementing direct scheduling via MyChart in March of this year, over 2,000 appointments have been made across the hospital system.

Click here to access the FAQ for online scheduling via DocASAP.

Patient Access Initiative

Since the March 2018 launch of the Patient Access initiative, Texas Children’s has implemented several solutions to improve patient access across the organization. Click here to watch this video.

Below is an archive of recent Connect stories highlighting our patient access initiatives:

Texas Children’s implements first wave of solutions to enhance patient access
MyChart Madness: Scoring points for patient access system wide
MyChart Madness results in, enhancements continue to improve patient access
Patient access initiative continues to generate positive results for patient families
MyChart Shoot for the Stars Challenge: Scoring points for patient access

Early on the morning of November 7, an excited group including Texas Children’s Hospital clinical leadership, executives and members of the Kangaroo Crew and Mission Control teams gathered on the roof of Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower for a special ribbon cutting ceremony marking the opening of our new helistop.

Watch the video or view the photo gallery below.

“The Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower has always been about improving care for the sickest children we see,” said Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Larry Hollier. “The helistop is important because it improves access for those children. Whether they’re being transported as part of a scene response for an auto accident or transferred from another hospital, we can now get children and women here in very rapid fashion within a 150-mile radius.”

The helistop is the final element of Smith Legacy Tower to go live and represents the culmination of a major expansion at our Texas Medical Center campus. Months of planning and multidisciplinary cooperation between medical staff, Transport Services and engineering and facilities teams went into preparations for the helistop opening.

“A tremendous amount of work has gone into making sure that the helistop is very safe – safe for the helicopters coming in, safe for those crew that are delivering the patients to us, and safe for our own staff,” said Executive Vice President Mark Mullarkey. “Bert Gumeringer, Gail Parazynski and Deb D’Ambrosio and their teams have been instrumental both in making sure we’re prepared to open the helistop and really in bringing Smith Legacy Tower to full completion.”

Extensive simulation exercises were also held to prepare care and transport teams for potential eventualities they may face, as well as to analyze and improve processes. This included helicopter landings, transferring patients from the helicopter crew to Texas Children’s transport teams, and moving patients from the helistop at Smith Legacy Tower to Trauma and the Emergency Center.

“The helicopter simulation was fantastic,” said Dr. Jeanine Graf, chief medical officer at West Campus and pediatric medical director of the Kangaroo Crew. “We brought together members from our trauma, surgery, ICU and NICU teams, as well as our experts in maternal-fetal medicine, for training and simulations, which were coordinated by our Texas Children’s Simulations Center. Dr. Cara Doughty really did an excellent job demonstrating how more than a hundred folks would be involved in the communication and execution of a helicopter landing at Texas Children’s.”

The helistop at Smith Legacy Tower is the third helistop in the Texas Children’s system, with others in operation at West Campus and Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands. The addition of the new helistop will facilitate the rapid transport of patients across all populations, including neonatal and maternal patients. Before the helistop opening, Texas Children’s received roughly 150 helicopter transports a year, which landed at nearby partner institutions. Now with our own helistop, we’ll be able to offer our care to even more patients who need us.

“The helistop really changes things for us,” said Deb D’Ambrosio, RN, director of Transport Services and Mission Control. “We’re certainly expecting high volume, but with the processes we’ve developed with our helicopter vendors and the high level of coordination between Transport Services and Mission Control, this is going to be so much better for our patients.”

On November 9, a memorial service was held to celebrate the legacy of Dr. William T. Shearer, an internationally respected leader, clinician, investigator and mentor in pediatric immunology and HIV/AIDS.

More than 100 attendees – including members of Shearer’s family and several of his trainees and colleagues who worked with him for many years – shared memories of Shearer, who was the founder and former chief of the Allergy and Immunology Service at Texas Children’s Hospital for 34 years and a professor of Pediatrics and Immunology at Baylor College of Medicine for 40 years.

For many who knew him, Shearer was described by his colleagues as an incredibly compassionate mentor. Throughout his career, he mentored 117 trainees as the Program Director of the Allergy and Immunology Fellowship Training Program at Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine.

One of his trainees was Dr. Carla Davis, chief of Immunology, Allergy and Rheumatology Service at Texas Children’s, who met Shearer as a pediatric resident. After attending a program he founded – Texas Allergy Asthma and Immunology Society’s Primary Care Residence Conference – her interest in the field began.

“As a resident, I was captivated by his unique blue coat, his enthusiasm for patients, and the field of immunology,” said Davis, who delivered the opening remarks at the ceremony. “I was fascinated by his teaching ability and the fact that he thought I would be a great allergist immunologist. I am honored to carry on the legacy.”

Texas Children’s Physician-in-Chief Dr. Mark W. Kline also shared memorable and humorous anecdotes of Shearer. On one rare occasion, he recalled dropping by the office on a Sunday morning, and saw Shearer dressed up in his suit and tie, either working on a grant or writing textbook chapters for the world’s premier textbook of clinical immunology for which he was co-editor for over 20 years. It wasn’t long after they met that Shearer told him, “I’m here in the office 364 days each year. I usually take Christmas day off.”

“No one worked harder or was more dedicated to his patients and trainees than Dr. Shearer,” Kline said. “His passion was always around making life better for the patients and the families that he served. I learned an enormous amount from him during the formative stages of my career development. He was a mentor and friend for nearly 30 years, and I will miss him tremendously.”

Shearer’s illustrious career became widely known when he assumed the role as the primary physician for Texas Children’s most famous patient, David “The Bubble Boy” Vetter, which led to revolutionary immunologic discoveries. His mother, Carol Ann Demaret, delivered a heartfelt tribute to Shearer.

“Many families such as mine who have been so intensely affected by the science he dedicated his life’s work to will never forget Dr. Shearer,” Demaret said. “Lives exist because of him, and a whole world of happiness. I know, because I have embraced many of the children and young adults myself. Dr. Shearer, we will keep and protect your memories forever in our hearts and in our souls.”

Guest speakers who delivered touching tributes to Shearer included Drs. Tom Fleisher, Morey Haymond, Celine Hanson, Jennifer Pate and Kristy Murray.

After the memorial service, guests attended a reception where pictures, awards and memorabilia with Shearer were displayed including a booklet that contained many tributes his colleagues and trainees had written to him over the years. Following the reception, a ribbon cutting and tour officially opened the William T. Shearer Center for Human Immunobiology located on the third floor of Feigin Tower.

Click here to watch a video tribute of Shearer in his own words.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will highlight some of this year’s Caught You Caring Award winners and how they go above and beyond for their patients and colleagues.

Caught You Caring is a recognition program offered to patients and families, as well as staff, to recognize employees who have gone above and beyond their role to provide compassion and kindness to another person. This could be in the care of a patient, service to a family, or in support of a coworker. Launched in 2015 in ambulatory surgery, the now system-wide program has recognized many employees, including the eight listed below who were honored by the program this year.

To thank this year’s winners for their compassion and dedication to the Texas Children’s mission, they will head to NRG Stadium on December 9 to watch the Houston Texans play the Indianapolis Colts. The Texans-Colts game is sponsored by Texas Children’s Hospital and celebrates the National Football League’s Play 60 campaign, which encourages children to be active 60 minutes a day to help decrease childhood obesity.

The tickets to the game are one of the benefits of Texas Children’s Hospital being the official children’s hospital of the Houston Texans football team. The goal of Texas Children’s and the Texans partnership is to inspire children to lead healthier, more active lives.

Experience Consultant with Family and Patient Services Lorianne Classen said being able to reward our Caught You Caring recipients in this way is truly amazing.

“Recognizing people for their hard work goes a long way when it comes to creating a positive work environment,” she said. “So many members of our Texas Children’s family go above and beyond each and every day for our patients, families and colleagues, and we appreciate that very much.”

Texas Children’s wants to continue to recognize those who take great pride in the work they do and encourages patients, families and employees to catch someone who is making a difference. Caught You Caring boxes and cards can be found throughout the Texas Children’s system for patients and families to fill out and recognize staff. Employees can fill out a Caught You Caring form on Connect. Cards and online submissions will be distributed to leaders for staff recognition.

Click here to learn more about the Caught You Caring Program.

Click the links below to read more about this year’s Play 60 ticket recipients and how they were caught caring.

Rosie Alvarado
Hilda Andrade
Yaneth Arrue
Lisa Carr
Melanie Johnson
Krista Miller
Melissa Starner
Erick Talamantes