October 17, 2017

“One thing I enjoy most about Texas Children’s is meeting the families, and having a positive interaction with the patients and the families as a whole,” said Keith Thomas, an ambulatory services representative at Texas Children’s Autism Center and a 2017 Caught You Caring Award recipient.

When Jennifer Evans interviewed Keith nearly two years ago, she knew right away that she wanted him to be part of her team at the Autism Center. From the moment Keith walked into the office, he has improved the whole dynamic of everything at the front desk.

“Keith is the first person that patients and families see when they come into our office,” said Evans who nominated Keith for the Caught You Caring award. “He is a very genuine person, and makes everyone feel comfortable and welcome whether they are a patient, staff member or provider.”

“Keith gives every family the individual attention that they deserve, and that’s what makes such a big difference,” said Ambulatory Service Representative Yvette Gonzales. “He is always going above and beyond for the patients and parents. He is wonderful and definitely deserving of the Caught You Caring award.”

Launched in 2015, Texas Children’s Caught You Caring program is a systemwide program that recognizes employees for going above and beyond to provide compassion and kindness in the care of a patient, family or co-worker. Recently, Keith was among more than a dozen employees who received a pair of tickets to watch the Houston Texans Play 60 game on October 1, after being recognized for his acts of kindness through this program.

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.

To nominate a colleague, Caught You Caring boxes and cards can be found across the Texas Children’s hospital system for patients and families to fill out. Employees can fill out a Caught You Caring form on Connect. Cards and online submissions will be distributed to leaders for staff recognition.

For the next four weeks, Connect will feature a series of Caught You Caring videos spotlighting several of our employees who have gone above and beyond their role in the care of our patients and their families.

As Dr. Ricardo Flores, clinical director of the Cancer and Hematology Centers at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, listened to the news about the devastation in Puerto Rico after the island was slammed with two hurricanes in less than a month, he knew he had to do something to help his homeland.

So, he and some of his friends in the area who are also from Puerto Rico did some research and joined the group, Texas United for Puerto Rico. Within a few days, they had gathered thousands of pound of supplies, including medications, and were sending them to the many people in need on their island.

Word of Flores’ efforts soon reached the City of Houston prompting Mayor Sylvester Turner to call him and ask if he could join forces with the physician. Flores agreed and before long he and a small group of city officials were on a plane to Puerto Rico with 50,000 pounds of supplies in tow.

“It was a titanic effort,” Flores said of the delivery of the supplies, which included medications and food. “Thanks to the community and to the help of so many people, we were able to distribute the entire load.”

Flores said he will continue to work to help his home recover from what he said is an awful situation that has left people without adequate food, water and medication.

“It’s definitely much worse than what people are thinking,” he said. “It’s literally like we went back 100 years in our history in the blink of an eye.”

Click here and here to watch area news coverage of Flores’ efforts in Puerto Rico.

Texas Children’s Cancer Center’s Making A Mark art exhibition is showing on The Auxiliary Bridge until Friday, October 27. Sponsored by the Periwinkle Foundation, this exhibit showcases more than 300 pieces of art created by young patients as well as larger-than-life pieces made in collaboration with local artist Jon Clark. The exhibit is in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month in September.

Patients worked with Jon Clark over the spring and summer while receiving treatment to create this year’s collaborative piece “Flourish” using repurposed medical supplies. Each year, Periwinkle invites a guest artist guides and curates a final piece of art for display. Clark joins a distinguished group of past guest artists, including Elaine Bradford, John Palmer, Kelly Gale Amen, Anat Ronen and Reginald Adams.

As a special feature of this year’s Making A Mark exhibit, select artwork has been paired with songs from Periwinkle Arts In Medicine partner, Purple Songs Can Fly. The songs were written by patients and siblings from Texas Children’s Cancer Center and Hematology Centers and can be found throughout the exhibit. Just look for a purple musical note!

Kristen Marie Hersey, RN, Women’s Services, passed away on July 30, 2017 at the age of 33.

Kristen was a member of the inpatient Women’s Services Labor & Delivery Team. Kristen dedicated her life to helping others and was always willing to help even when exhausted. Kristen loved her job! She considered being a nurse more of a calling than a job. Kristen cherished being able to help others bring life into the world and had a pure joy for every baby born. Kristen cared for so many people and made friends wherever she went. Kristen loved her children more than anything, and taught them to pray and thank God for all of our gifts and made sure they knew how much they are loved. Kristen was a friend to all, her loving personality, giving spirit, listening ear, and that smile that could light up the unit will be greatly missed by her team and fellow employees.

Kristen is survived by her loving husband, Shawn; children, Isla and Rowan; mother, Lisa; father, James; stepfather, Mark; Mother- and Father-in-law, Tammie and Gary; sisters, Trina Ouztz (husband, Matt) and Alli Combs (husband Drew); Sister-in-law, Kati; nieces and nephews, Emma, Liam, Eli, Lily Anne, William, Grady, Layton, Allison, Austin, Abigail; and many other loving family and friends.

October 10, 2017

More than a dozen employees recognized by the Texas Children’s Caught You Caring program got to watch the Houston Texans defeat the Tennessee Titans on October 1. The Texans-Titans game was sponsored by Texas Children’s Hospital and celebrated the National Football League’s Play 60 campaign, which encourages children to be active 60 minutes a day to help decrease childhood obesity.

In honor of the Kids Day game, Drs. Charles D. Fraser Jr. and Daniel J. Penny, along with their patient Jack Guyre, served as Coin Toss Captains. The tickets to the game were 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.

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 13 listed below who were honored by the program this year and were chosen to receive the additional benefit of attending the Play 60 Texans game.

Experience Consultant with Family and Patient Services Maggie Weimer 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.

Grace Collins
William Davidson
Joyce Enochs
Heather Eppleheimer
Dr. Yong Han
Roderic Johnson
Amanda Riddle
Sandy Rodriguez
Linda Santana
Keith Thomas
Debra Udombat
Donald Wilkins
Kevin Young

From Wednesday, October 11 to Friday, October 13, Texas Children’s will co-host the largest annual nursing conference in the country, along with other local Magnet® hospitals. More than 10,000 nurses and nursing executives representing more than 20 countries will gather at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston for the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) National Magnet Conference®.

“This is such an incredible honor for Texas Children’s to co-sponsor this year’s Nursing Magnet Conference® right here in the Greater Houston area,” said Texas Children’s CNO Mary Jo Andre. “For many months, our Magnet team led by Emily Weber and Sarah Marcion has been engaged with the ANCC in planning for the conference, which I know will be an amazing success.”

The entire Magnet team handled various parts of the coordination including registering and preparing our staff volunteers to serve in a variety of roles at the conference. The team also organized a pediatric Magnet® hospital networking dinner, hospital tours including a tour for nurses from Lebanon, and a Daisy Awards luncheon where the co-founders of the Daisy Foundation will be present to greet attendees.

The Magnet Conference® is the official annual conference of the prestigious Magnet Recognition Program®, that not only recognizes the accomplishments of newly designated Magnet organizations, but provides a showcase of best nursing practices for the Magnet community that can be incorporated into their own organization’s nursing program.

When the Magnet Conference® begins this Wednesday, CNO Mary Jo Andre and Executive Vice President Dan DiPrisco will be on stage with other Magnet hospital executives as more than 10,000 attendees are welcomed at the opening session. Additionally, several of Texas Children’s nurses and staff will deliver podium presentations during the three-day Magnet Conference®. Their entries were among hundreds of entries that were submitted to the ANCC for review before being selected.

Below are the podium presentations that will be delivered by Texas Children’s staff:

  • Making Magic! Mixing Staff Nurse Expertise with Leader Support

Tarra Christopher, Maria Happe, Shannon Holland and Janet Winebar

  • Utilization of Simulation-based Design Tests in Facility Design

Maria Happe, Kerry Sembera and Gemma Elegores

  • Partnership Yields Successful Communication Strategy for Nursing

Jody Childs and Rosanne Moore

The conference also will include poster presentations, informative sessions and other activities. Stay tuned to Connect for event highlights and photos from the Magnet Conference® in an upcoming article.

Three years ago, Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus opened an eight-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit thanks to a generous $1 million donation by the Lauren and Lara Camillo family. On October 9, the last chunk of a $50 million capital improvement effort expanded the unit to 22 beds, providing Texas Children’s West Campus and the entire Texas Children’s system with an opportunity to serve more patients and families that need our care.

“This is a huge milestone for West Campus,” said Executive Vice President Michelle Riley-Brown at a ribbon cutting event and celebration. “Our staff has worked tirelessly on this project and the reward of being able to offer more to our patients and families is well worth it.”

Initially, 16 of the beds will be used for intensive care and six will be for acute care. Two of the intensive care beds have negative pressure capability and can be used for isolation. All of the beds provide more privacy for our patients and families, as well as better visibility and workflow for our nurses and other medical staff.

Located on the fourth floor of the hospital and painted in calming pastels, the unit expansion includes two large nursing stations, an advanced practice provider workspace, a simulation room, nutrition room, lactation room, call room and conference space.

The patient rooms are spacious and have a private bathroom and seating/sleep area for family. The rooms are lined with windows that face outside, letting in sunlight and allowing for great views of the hospital grounds and surrounding community. And, sliding doors permit visibility and quickly allow the care team access to the patient to address any emergency.

Equipment in the rooms and on the floor is robust and includes two blood gas machines for respiratory therapy and additional nurse station monitors. In the future, some of the rooms will be able to offer patients who need dialysis the capability of doing so from the comfort of their beds.

“When West Campus first opened, we thought we would be a stopover for patients waiting to be transferred to Main Campus, but that’s not the case, especially now with our expanded capacity,” said PICU Medical Director Dr. Matthew Pesek. “We have the ability to treat just about any patient who comes our way, no matter how complex.”

Karen Sripan, assistant clinical director of the PICU, agreed and said the planning and design of the PICU expansion began in March 2016 and was comprehensive with the goal of having an environment that allows the PICU staff to do more for their patients.

“We were very thoughtful in our design and engaged staff throughout the entire process,” Sripan said. “We also were mindful of ensuring room design consistency with the Woodlands PICU so that the layout of the rooms are familiar to staff and providers working at both campuses.”