February 16, 2016

21716Jeopardy640Texas Children’s Hospital – specifically the Pediatric Simulation Center – was recently featured on the famous television quiz show Jeopardy! This is the first time in almost a decade the show highlighted something in the Houston area. Read a first-person account from Jeopardy! Producer Brett Schneider to find out how the show made its way back to Houston.

There’s always a story behind how we choose locations to record Jeopardy! video clues and the Texas Children’s Hospital category, which originally aired on January 22, with clues presented by Texas Children’s Pediatric Simulation Center Director Dr. Jennifer Arnold, is no exception.

It was July of 2015 and, as Jeopardy! had a new affiliate in Houston (ABC-13), our Promotions Department felt that a visit was long overdue. The Jeopardy! Clue Crew had last recorded clues in and around Houston (including Johnson Space Center and Space Center Houston) back in September of 2002. We would love to have returned sooner, but having shot clues in every state, more than 300 cities and in 48 countries, our dance card had been rather full.

While looking into local events and attractions, our interest was piqued by Texas Children’s Hospital Pediatric Simulation Center. One of the largest in the nation, the center provides hands-on pediatric and obstetric simulation training in a realistic environment with the aim of improving patient safety and care.

In researching the Simulation Center – which offers the latest in cutting-edge research and training and features the use of high-tech mannequins as patients – we were impressed by the online videos of Dr. Jennifer Arnold, Neonatologist and the Center’s Medical Director.

Further investigation revealed that this same Dr. Arnold was the star of TLC’s “The Little Couple.” Given her expertise, the complexity of our clues and Dr. Arnold’s familiarity with being on camera, we invited her to present these “simulation clues” herself – a responsibility that would usually be assigned to Alex Trebek and/or the Clue Crew.

Dr. Arnold was not only agreeable to this, but the production behind “The Little Couple” asked if they might record footage for their own program. This was an unusual request, but the producers of “The Little Couple” assured us that they wouldn’t record, let alone broadcast, any of our actual “game material” prior to our own airdate.

Our clues were penned, approved by Dr. Arnold, and in September of 2015, a Jeopardy! crew descended upon Houston where we met at Texas Children’s Hospital with Dr. Arnold, her simulation team and the producers and crew behind “The Little Couple.”

It was a surreal experience for the Jeopardy! crew; being shot shooting clues, but everything went smoothly and Dr. Arnold proved as capable on camera as she is accomplished at her job.

The folks at “The Little Couple” also seemed pleased with what footage they walked away with and featured it on their February 2 show, giving viewers a double dose of Jeopardy! and Dr. Arnold.

21716KidsTriathlon640Want to help build a generation of healthy, active responsible children? Sign them up for the 2016 Houston Texans Kids Triathlon. Presented by Texas Children’s Hospital, the event will be April 23 and 24 at NRG Stadium.

Drawing more than 3,000 participants ages 6 to 15, the event is expected to be the largest USATriathlon sanctioned kids triathlon in the world.

Click here to register and here for more information.

21716WCtwitter640Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus is on Twitter @TexasChildrensWest. Follow them today to connect with the West Campus community and to receive the latest news and updates about greater Houston’s first suburban hospital designed exclusively for children.

For more information about West Campus, go to http://www.texaschildrens.org/departments/texas-childrens-hospital-west-campus.

111914NEC640A recent Baylor College of Medicine study led by Texas Children’s neonatologist Dr. Amy Hair, and published in the journal Breastfeeding Medicine, found that premature infants weighing less than 1,250 grams at birth showed improved outcomes after being fed a human milk-based diet.

Texas Children’s and Baylor researchers compared outcomes data of more than 1,500 premature infants in four large centers in the U.S. two years before and two years after implementing an exclusive human milk-based diet in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). They found that babies who were exclusively fed human breast milk had a lower incidence of mortality, late-onset sepsis, retinopathy of prematurity (which can lead to blindness) and bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a form of chronic lung disease in infants.

Hair, who is also an assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor and director of the Neonatal Nutrition Program at Texas Children’s, says feeding premature infants an exclusive human milk-based diet has also been shown to decrease the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a life-threatening neonatal condition that causes inflammation and death of intestinal tissue.

“Since implementing an exclusive human milk feeding protocol for newborns weighing less than 1,500 grams at birth, not only have we reduced the rate of NEC by 77 percent in our NICU, but we have seen additional benefits with this diet,” Hair said.

An exclusive human milk-based diet consists of a mother’s own milk supplemented with donor human milk and fortifier derived from donor human milk. Babies do not receive any bovine protein as formula or fortifiers. Prior to implementing a human milk feeding protocol, infants were fed mother’s own milk with bovine fortifier or formula.

“We know that human milk has immune factors, antibodies, high levels of important fat and vitamins, so it makes sense that it would work with different processes in the body to improve the overall health in babies,” Hair said.

Click here to read the journal article highlighting their study, which was funded by Texas Children’s Hospital’s Bad Pants Day golf tournament.

February 9, 2016

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Remember reading the official announcement of our CareFirst plans in November 2014? Well, as you can imagine, a lot has happened since then. After receiving the green light to proceed, Texas Children’s has made remarkable progress on the Pediatric Tower E vertical expansion project.

The first visible sign that construction has begun is the large crane that towers over the south end of Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. Concrete slabs were removed to make room for the tower crane installation which was completed last December.

“We’re excited to see everything gradually come together,” said Jill Pearsall, Texas Children’s assistant vice president of Facilities Planning and Development. “The progress over the last two months is a direct result of the collaboration among our CareFirst executive leadership and project management teams, our design and construction contractors, and most importantly, our patients and their families.”

Perhaps one of the most significant milestones to date is the completion of the pre-construction simulation-based design tests on the proposed patient room layouts for the cardiovascular intensive care unit, pediatric intensive care unit and the progressive care unit.

In collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Arnold and her simulation team, the CareFirst Quality, Service and Safety Project Team led by Dr. Angelo Giardino, Trudy Leidich and Maria Happe, participated in 32 hours of simulated patient scenarios over a period of four days inside a large warehouse mock-up that resembled a critical care environment. A multidisciplinary team of intensivists, nurses, surgeons, anesthesiologists, respiratory therapists, patient families and other support staff, participated in the simulation and provided feedback to drive design of the space. During these simulations, 115 latent safety threats (LSTs) were identified. The LSTs were categorized based on Safe Hospital Design Principles outlined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and recommendations will be incorporated into the design.

“We have an opportunity to provide a new space that accommodates the needs of patients, families and clinicians,” said Happe, clinical senior project manager for CareFirst. “All patient rooms are configured to provide dedicated space for the patient, clinicians, all associated clinical equipment, as well as for the families, which helps to promote and enhance family engagement and patient and family-centered care. Simulation has allowed us to test these spaces prior to construction and has guided our design decisions.”

Other recent progress updates include:

  • The interior design concepts for the pediatric tower’s public spaces were fine-tuned with the Board of Trustees Building and Grounds Design Subcommittee on January 13. Once the design theme and colors have been finalized, this will provide architectural guidance to ensure a consistent look and feel throughout the building.
  • A pilot study to test the use of touch-screen activated information stations was launched on the first and third floors of the Clinical Care Center (CCC) for a 60-day assessment and feedback period. Survey input from patient families will be used to refine the hospital navigation tool before it is adapted to other Texas Children’s campuses, including Pediatric Tower E.
  • The technology team installed wireless access points for Voalte phones outside of the operating rooms (ORs). Tests are still ongoing to determine if wireless access points can be added in the OR suite to fully operationalize the Voalte phone roll-out in a manner that does not interfere with the communication of medical equipment in the OR. Additionally, the team will begin testing and reviewing a variety of other devices for CareFirst implementation.
  • The Pavilion Express Gift Shop closed to prepare for the installation of the tower’s elevator shafts. The gift shop will relocate to the first floor of the Pavilion for Women as a separate renovation project. The Pediatric Radiology department’s 3D lab moved from Building E 5 to the fourth floor of the CCC to make way for the upcoming construction activities.
  • Concrete pours to build the floors in the 25-story Pediatric Tower E will continue this month. From north to south, it will take roughly three concrete pours to create one floor.

“We’ve made incredible progress since the initial planning phase began for Pediatric Tower E,” said Texas Children’s Executive Vice President Mark Mullarkey. “This expansion will help us deliver on our promise to make Texas Children’s the best possible place to give and receive care.”

Click here to learn more about how the Pediatric Tower E project will help meet the growing needs of our critically ill patients.

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Texas Children’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is making its services easier to access using video technology. Instead of driving to one of the organization’s main locations to meet with a counselor, Texas Children’s employees and dependents can get services anywhere via a device with a camera and Internet connection.

“We are casting a wide net so that we can easily reach everyone who needs us,” said EAP Program Manager Brent LoCaste Wilken. “Technology is helping us accomplish that goal.”

Unlike Skype and popular video chat technology, the system EAP uses is secure and HIPPA compliant. The video sessions are not recorded and no one else, outside of the client and the counselor, can participate in the session.

Video counseling sessions also are being offered at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus via a 47-inch monitor mounted on a wall in a private room of the hospital’s Human Resources suite. Similar video technology will be available at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands when it opens in 2017.

To make an appointment with an EAP counselor, call Ext. 4-3327. If the session will be via video, you will receive instructions on how to access the new video technology.

The EAP helps with:

  • Stress management
  • Work/life resilience
  • Financial assistance
  • Parenting and family guidance
  • Crisis & trauma resolution
  • Grief recovery
  • Work performance improvement
  • Community referrals
  • Relationship counseling
  • Emotional well-being

21016nursesinging640

Texas Children’s nurse Brandon Waterhouse and 4-year-old patient Sophia Torres became the latest internet sensation after a very sweet moment was caught on camera. Click here to watch the video and KHOU’s story about Waterhouse and Sophia.