November 12, 2018

Eighteen-year-old Angeles Vasquez was anxious and scared. For months, a painful wound had lingered on her right ankle. No matter what remedy she and her family tried, it just wouldn’t heal. Unable to find answers or relief elsewhere, they turned to Texas Children’s Hospital and our new pediatric Wound Care Clinic, a new initiative spearheaded by Chief of Plastic Surgery Dr. Edward Buchanan and Director of Surgical Advanced Practice Providers Ryan Krasnosky.

“Dr. Buchanan and Ryan were awesome,” Vasquez said “They gave me the medications I needed and taught me how to properly clean and care for the wound. It’s finally healing and they’re still checking in with me all the time to make sure I’m okay.”

The new Texas Children’s Wound Care Clinic – one of only a few in the country, and the first and only one of its kind in Texas – is a comprehensive center where patients can have a variety of wounds evaluated and treated by an experienced, multidisciplinary team of dedicated medical, surgical, nursing and advanced practice providers.

The team uses evidence-based, standardized treatment protocols – which are under constant scientific scrutiny – to develop individualized treatment plans for each patient. These care plans take into account factors such as wound origin and location, as well as patient and family lifestyle, to determine the best approach to maintenance and to prevent future wounds. Additionally, data from each case is carefully analyzed with the dual goals of improving clinical processes and ensuring care protocols provide the best possible outcomes.

“There is a huge need for this kind of care in Houston and across the United States,” said Buchanan. “We want to lead the way in pediatric wound care on the national level, developing scientifically supported protocols that become the standard of pediatric wound care. With our clinical volume and our dedication to treating these patients, we’re strategically positioned to accomplish this goal.”

Experts in the Wound Care Clinic currently see patients from across the Texas Children’s system at our Texas Medical Center campus, providing high-quality care for a wide range of conditions, including:

  • Animal bites
  • Chronic wounds
  • Deep pressure wounds and ulcers
  • Fragile skin and other skin issues
  • Gastrostomy or other tube issues
  • Soft tissue infections
  • Thermal skin injuries (that do not meet criteria for burn transfer)
  • Trauma
  • Wounds in babies with congenital anomalies

“These wounds are often complex and can take quite some time to heal,” said Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Larry Hollier. “It’s wonderful for a patient to be able to see a team that has all the expertise and products available to heal these wounds in a timely fashion. Additionally, we have the ability to perform minor procedures to speed along the healing and are also able to directly schedule surgeries from the clinic if necessary.”

Still in its beginning phase, the clinic is currently held one day a week. However, in the months since the clinic’s opening, there has been a rapid increase in patient volume, and preliminary plans are already being made for expansion to West Campus and The Woodlands.

“The growth in volume is a testament to the high-quality care our patients are receiving,” Krasnosky said. “Families have been extremely pleased with the care we’re providing and they’ve voiced their appreciation for having a consistent ‘home’ for wound care.”

As the clinic grows, teams will continue to analyze data and lessons learned in order to further standardize clinical processes and care protocols. Long-term goals include the introduction of same-day surgical interventions, for wounds that require more invasive treatment. There are also plans for the integration of a comprehensive research component, with a basic science emphasis on wound healing and clinical research efforts focused on developing evidence-based wound care guidelines, as well as the creation of novel wound treatments and care assessment tools.

In the meantime, clinic care teams are laser-focused on providing the best possible wound care and improving outcomes for every patient who comes to us.

“The Wound Care Clinic is open to any and all wounds that practitioners need assistance with,” Buchanan said. “We hope to get involved early in the care of pediatric wounds within the Texas Children’s system, so as to decrease the time to healing and improve the quality of life of our patients. As our clinic expands, our capacity will expand, and we will be able to provide services to all patient populations. No wound is too trivial or small for an evaluation.”

The Houston Business Journal celebrated its 2018 CFO of the Year awards at an event November 8 and profiled all of the finalists – including Texas Children’s Chief Financial Officer Weldon Gage – in the November 9 weekly edition. Click here to read the Houston Business Journal interview with Gage.

On November 2, Nicole Sheets, a staff nurse from the inpatient pulmonary floor at Texas Children’s Hospital Medical Center campus, was one of three featured nurse panelists on the Houston Matters radio program that airs weekdays at noon on Houston Public Media news station 88.7.

The topic of the panel discussion was “Are Nurses Underestimated or Overlooked by the Public.” A recent study published in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship which found that nurses are only used as sources in 2 percent of health care news stories prompted the discussion.

“I am so proud of the way Nicole represented Texas Children’s and her nurse colleagues on the panel,” said Texas Children’s Chief Nursing Officer Mary Jo Andre. ”She did a great job describing the image of nursing at Texas Children’s and how integral our role is perceived by other members of the health care team.”

Click here to access the archived version of the segment.

November 7, 2018

Over the past several weeks, the Corporate Communications team has had Houston Texans-related giveaways to promote leadership challenges on Mark Wallace’s blog and to highlight the Caught You Caring patient experience program. If you’ve missed out on previous chances to win Texans football game tickets, here’s one more shot.

We want to connect with you on our employee Instagram channel. Our @oneamazingteam Instagram feed is where we share news for and about Texas Children’s employees. This week, we’re giving away our last three pairs of Texans football game tickets to our @oneamazingteam Instagram followers and commenters. Here’s how you could win:

1. Follow our Instagram page @oneamazingteam.
2. Like the “question of the day” post.
3. Comment with your best response.

There will be a different question every day this week, and you are welcome to comment on every single post! Next week, the Corporate Communications team will randomly select three of our @oneamazingteam Instagram followers from the comments to receive a pair of Texans tickets to the December 9 football game against the Indianapolis Colts. Winners also will receive two tickets to the Houston Texans Churrascos Club located inside the Houston Methodist Training Center. Make sure you check your inbox for a direct message from us letting you know if you are a winner.

To qualify, you must be a Texas Children’s employee at the time of the event. So make sure you follow us, and comment. Every comment is another entry into the drawing.

Click here to view our Instagram page.

November 6, 2018

On Friday, November 9, Texas Children’s will celebrate the legacy of Dr. William T. Shearer, an internationally respected leader, clinician, investigator and mentor in pediatric immunology and HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Shearer was the founder and former chief of the Allergy and Immunology Service at Texas Children’s Hospital and served as a leader of this section for 34 years. Shearer also served as a faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine for 40 years.

Shearer is recognized as a legend in the field of allergy and immunology. One of the things he is best known for was providing innovative care to Texas Children’s most famous patient – David “The Bubble Boy” Vetter – which led to numerous revolutionary immunologic discoveries.

In memory of Shearer’s life and notable accomplishments, employees and staff are invited to attend a memorial service this Friday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the first-floor conference room at Feigin Tower.

The ceremony will include several tributes from Shearer’s colleagues at Texas Children’s and Baylor, including remarks from Carol Ann Demaret, the mother of David Vetter. A special video tribute also will be presented to honor the late Shearer who passed away last month at the age of 81. After the memorial service, there will be a reception and tour of the William T. Shearer Center for Human Immunobiology at Feigin Tower.

Click here for more details on the memorial service.

Please note: The Feigin driveway will be closed to traffic during the memorial service. Employees are encouraged to use the second-floor bridge to access Feigin Tower.

A team of Texas Children’s surgeons, anesthesiologists and perioperative staff recently traveled to Malawi and Uganda to provide surgical care for children with cancer and congenital anomalies as part of Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers’ Global HOPE program. This was one of the first coordinated trips under the new Division of Global Surgery.

Dr. Jed Nuchtern, chief of Global Surgery, Dr. Bindi Naik-Mathuria, pediatric surgeon and Trauma medical director, Dr. Titi Aina, pediatric anesthesiologist, and operating room nurse Anita Hadley worked alongside local surgical teams to provide much-needed surgical care for area children, many of whom had been waiting months for experienced doctors and nurses who could treat their conditions. The team helped complete more than 30 operations, including 10 nephrectomies for Wilm’s tumor, the most common form of pediatric kidney cancer, effectively providing a cure for these children.

“I am so proud to be able to share the talents of our surgical teams by going abroad,” said Nuchtern. “Not only are we able to treat these children who are in great need of surgery, but we are also able to educate the doctors and surgical teams from these countries. The collaborative efforts of Surgery, Anesthesia and the Cancer Center continue, as future trips have already been planned, and we will add to our traveling surgical teams as the Division of Global Surgery grows.”

The Division of Global Surgery, created this past August, expands Texas Children’s ability to help children and women across the globe in low-resource countries and offers pediatric surgery education by providing hands-on instruction and necessary supplies. To build capacity, preliminary Global Surgery efforts are focused on surgical care for pediatric cancer patients and leverage resources, infrastructure and successful global medical programs already in place in sub-Saharan. These include Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) Network, Global HOPE and existing efforts by Texas Children’s Department of Ob/Gyn. Long-term goals for the division include a surgical facility for women and children in Lilongwe, Malawi; expansion of care capacity in Central America; and, ultimately, recognition for Texas Children’s as a leader in global surgical outreach.

This year, fall festivals and Halloween events across the Texas Children’s system were bigger, better and spookier than ever.

The festivities began on October 24 with West Campus’ annual Fall Festival. In the first floor lobby, patients and their families were welcomed by enthusiastic Child Life specialists, along with volunteers who led various games and arts and craft activities.

Watch the video and view the photo gallery below to get a glimpse of the fun everyone had at these unforgettable events.


“We really loved seeing how much all of the patients enjoyed the event,” Child Life Specialist Jessica Felder said. “It was very evident that the volunteers enjoyed seeing the excitement on the children’s faces. It was really a rewarding feeling knowing that we planned an event that touched the hearts of so many individuals.”

Several businesses and community groups including Chick-fil-A, Wood Group, Gymboree, Gym Station, and the Katy Police and Fire Department, participated by setting up games such as bowling, bean bag throwing and guess the fall spice, as well as a museum-style display of Making a Mark artwork.

On October 31, hundreds of tiny witches, ghouls, fairies, super heroes, princesses and more turned out for a fiendishly good time along the Auxiliary and Miracle Bridges for the 2018 Halloween Celebration at Texas Children’s main campus.

The haunted hullabaloo was a party of monstrous proportions, as dozens of amazing Texas Children’s employees from across all departments, service lines and divisions lined the walkways to make Halloween special for our patients and their families. They went all out with unbelievable costumes, decorations and booths with fun activities, such as pumpkin painting and dinosaur dancing, and plenty of games, prizes and candy.

Attendance at the second Fall Festival at our campus in The Woodlands surpassed the previous two years. Texas Children’s newest campus brought together over 400 patients, family members and people from the community, as well as representatives from several corporate sponsors, including Clariant Oil Services, Microsoft The Woodlands, Junior League The Woodlands, The Woodlands Fire Department, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Insurance, PurePoint Financial, Soccer Shots, and Aon, as well as characters from “Performing with a Purpose.”

Kids and their families had plenty of activities to keep them entertained, like bowling, beanbag tosses, arts and crafts, music, and various foods and candy. Spirit of Halloween costume store was also present to provide costumes to kids who didn’t have one. The Fall Festival committee presented a plaque to the vendors, thanking them for being a part of the festival. The event ended with employees from Language Services and Guest Services winning a very competitive employee costume contest.

Other entities across the system also had their own celebrations. In conjunction with the One Step Closer Foundation and Texas Children’s Social Work Department, Texas Children’s Complex Care Clinic hosted the first annual Complex Care Costume Party. This event was created to provide the clinic’s medically complex patients an opportunity to celebrate the fall season in a festive and familiar environment. Patients and their siblings played games, participated in art projects and danced to a DJ!

Also, the babies in the level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at The Woodlands campus got a surprise Halloween visit from “Batman”, while dressed up in costumes, some of which were made by Texas Children’s Child Life team for its tiniest patients. Families had the opportunity to have their photos taken with their child and Batman (a longtime Texas Children’s Hospital volunteer) at the bedside by FirstMemories Texas, who made the special visit possible. FirstMemories Texas is 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.

“We really love giving patients and their families a fun event to participate in every year. Having these special fall events provides the medical staff an opportunity to interact with children strictly for joy and entertainment,” Child Life Specialist Hannah Early said. “This is just as enjoyable for the staff as it is for the families that participate. Getting the chance to watch our patients just be kids is so wonderful.”