February 4, 2014

“For this hospital shall live and abide within the resolution that any child in the State of Texas in need of medical care and attention – regardless of race, color, creed, or capacity to pay – shall find in Texas Children’s Hospital a refuge from the ravages of disease and illness and the hope for health and happiness.”

Leopold L. Meyer, Founder
Texas Children’s Hospital groundbreaking ceremony
May 23, 1951

Many things have changed at Texas Children’s since the unveiling of the hospital’s cornerstone, but these words still capture the essence of our vision. That vision has guided Texas Children’s through 60 amazing years and hundreds of breakthrough discoveries in pediatric medicine.

“At 60, we’re the youngest of the nation’s top 10 children’s hospitals, yet we are leading advancements in medicine for children and women all over the world,” said Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark A. Wallace. “Our expertise is respected and renowned, and the care we provide is unparalleled. We’ve done more in 60 years than most can imagine in twice the time.”

This is an exciting time at Texas Children’s Hospital as we celebrate several major milestones in our history. Last week, we introduced a brand new mission statement that defines who we are and what we want to achieve. Today, we are breaking ground on our newest community hospital, Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, which helps us fulfill our promise to deliver the right care at the right time in the right place. And tomorrow, Texas Children’s Hospital will celebrate its 60th birthday.

Click here for a video about Texas Children’s first 60 years.

On February 1, 1954, Texas Children’s opened with one building and 106 beds. We treated 4,558 patients that first year. Today, with 592 beds and nearly 6 million square feet of space, we see about 8,500 patients per day and have more than 3 million patient encounters per year.

Today, Texas Children’s Hospital is known in Houston, across the nation and around the world. Families know they can rely on us for pioneering discoveries in childhood diseases. They know our staff and employees are some of the best in the world.

“We are intensely devoted to providing the best possible care, and still we strive to be more, give more and do more for our patients,” Wallace said. “It’s that unrelenting passion that’s driven us to dream and innovate and achieve seemingly impossible things. What we have done together has changed lives, inspired hope and made birthdays happier for families all over the world.”

Celebrate with us on Facebook!

During the entire month of February, we will be celebrating our 60th birthday on Facebook. Every week, we will feature a new #TBT (Throwback Thursday) photograph from Texas Children’s archives, and we will ask our thousands of supporters, employees and past/present patients and families to share their memories and favorite things about the hospital.

Check back on Tuesday for a Connect feature story with all the highlights from today’s groundbreaking of Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands.

Patients and families are the lifeblood of our organization. We want to hear your thoughts on how well we provide family centeredness in our patient care areas across the system.

To better understand best practices related to family centered care we have partnered with Institute for Patient and Family Centered Care (IPFCC), an organization dedicated to “advancing the understanding and practice of patient- and family-centered care in all settings where individuals and families receive health care.”

Below is a survey developed by the IPFCC, designed to help us better understand where we excel and still have growth related to family centered care system-wide. Please take five minutes to fill out this survey, providing your personal thoughts about family centered care in your patient care area. Families are an important piece of the nursing strategic plan, and your feedback will help ensure that any improvement effort we commence aligns with our needs.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TRQVJ2L

Our goal is to have everyone and anyone that works or provides care on any patient care unit to fill out this survey (inpatient, outpatient, EC, Pediatrics, Health Centers, etc.). This is an anonymous survey and is asking for your personal opinion! Please complete by Tuesday, February 18.

Celebrate the 10th anniversary of Go Red for Women by wearing red this Friday, February 7, to raise awareness for heart disease. Texas Children’s Hospital badge-holders that wear red will receive a free heart healthy sweet treat with purchase* during lunchtime at the following Texas Children’s dining locations:

  • Clinical Care Center Food Court
  • Pavilion for Women Fresh Bistro
  • West Campus Luby’s DOTS Kitchen
  • Meyer Building The French Corner

For heart health education, blood pressure checks and tips to live a long and healthy life, please stop by the Employee Health and Wellness Go Red for Women booths on Friday, February 7:

  • Pavilion for Women Fresh Bistro: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
  • West Campus DOTS Kitchen: noon to 1 p.m.

*While supplies last.

Go Red heart health tips:

G: Get your numbers: Ask your doctor to check your blood pressure and cholesterol and monitor them regularly.

O: Own your lifestyle: Stop smoking, exercise, eat healthy, and manage stress.

R: Realize your risk: Heart disease kills one in three women. Learn about the risk factors, your family history, and the keys to prevention.

E: Educate your family: Make healthy food choices for you and your family and teach your kids the importance of staying active.

D: Don’t be silent: Tell every woman you know that heart disease is our number one killer.

The Employee Medical Clinic supports your personal health needs and offers convenient access to exceptional primary and urgent care services on the main campus. The clinic delivers many services including urgent care for personal illness and injury, preventive care, care management for chronic conditions, and counseling to help employees adopt the healthiest possible lifestyle. For more information or to make an appointment, please call Ext. 4-2150.

For more information visit goredforwomen.org.

LATCH vs. seatbelt, which one is safer?

 This is probably the most common question that my fellow Child Passenger Safety Technicians and I get. The answer is they are equally safe, but the installation method that gives your child the best protection should be used.

The caveat to this answer, however, is that the Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren (LATCH) system does have a weight limit and seatbelt does not. As many parents who have struggled with car seat and car manuals have discovered, the weight limit max for the LATCH system can sometimes be ambiguous.

Since the early 2000s, all cars produced for sale in the United States are required to have the LATCH system. The purpose of the LATCH system was to create a uniform system to install car seats and reduce installation misuse. Based on National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data, about 4 in 5 of car seats are still used incorrectly, and the LATCH system can sometimes be a source of confusion.

Beginning this month, NHTSA is proposing new LATCH regulations to reduce the ambiguity between what car manufacturers and car seat manufacturers say are the LATCH limits. Towards the end of the month, lower anchor limits in cars will be a uniform combined weight limit (car seat + child) of 65 lbs. What this means is, if you have a car seat that weighs 20lbs, you can use the car’s LATCH system until the child weighs 45lbs (20lb car seat + 45 lbs child = 65lbs).

As of now this change is a proposal and not guaranteed. However, as of now, 25 car manufacturers already utilize these guidelines and more may begin to adopt it.

If you have any questions about the proposed changes to LATCH or wish to have your car seat inspected by a certified technician, please call Texas ChildrenÕs Center for Childhood InjuryÕs Car Seat Line 832-822-2277.

This blog post was contributed by Center for Childhood Injury Prevention Health Educator John Ansiaux for Bump Watch – the blog that follows the journeys of Texas Children’s families from pregnancy through baby’s first year.

Surprise your coworkers, friends or special someone and place your Valentine Delivery orders by Monday, February 10, at the Abercrombie and Pavilion Express Shops. Purchase your items, complete the form, and they will deliver the items on Valentine’s Day, Friday, February 14. Minimum order is $20.00, and delivery is free of charge.

Contact Stephanie Martinez, Volunteer Services, with questions.

January 31, 2014

Amid all the theories of what makes a successful leader, one thing I’ve learned over the course of my career is that leadership always influences and determines outcomes – not some of the time, but all of the time.

This is one of the lessons I’ve devised to help grow myself as a leader and develop future leaders as well. I began exploring the idea in earnest in my mid-20s when a colleague asked what I believed defined a great leader. I drew a blank.

That moment compelled me to develop a formal definition of leadership for myself. It took more than a year of reading, writing and contemplation before I crafted a satisfactory definition.

Leadership, to me, is Vision + Structure + People.

Vision

First, a successful leader must be a true innovator. Having vision and being motivated by an instinctual drive is not a learned skill but is honed over time.

Structure

The second component – structure – keeps a leader grounded while also providing the space and time needed to remain a creative visionary.

People

Last, people are unequivocally the most important ingredient in the definition of a successful leader. The team you’ve built to achieve your common vision will define your tenure as a leader. The colleagues you have committed to leading will ultimately be the most important factor in the entire equation.

While these three components have laid the foundation for my work at Texas Children’s Hospital, there is not a universal definition of leadership. In fact, to become successful, you must create your own definition based on who you aspire to be, how you want to lead, your personality and your core values.

At Texas Children’s, I ask every leader, from managers to executives, to submit their own definition of leadership, and we keep these on file. This helps new leaders hone in on what is important by providing a guide that ensures everything they do comes back to that definition. What’s more, in a large organization like Texas Children’s, it also helps me and my executive team learn more about each leader on our team.

Ultimately, harnessing your own definition of what makes a leader is the way to become a great leader yourself. When I meet someone who aspires to be a great leader, my first question to them is, “What is your definition of leadership?” It is a question I encourage everyone to thoughtfully consider.

Create your own definition, then start living it.

This editorial was authored by Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark A. Wallace and was originally published in the Houston Business Journal on January 17, 2014.

January 30, 2014

In just a few short months, the codes that health care organizations use to describe patient care will become standard across the globe. It’s the first time in more than 30 years that all health care organizations will use the same system for reporting patients’ diagnoses and procedures. The change that will make this sweeping impact is the mandated transition to the ICD-10 coding system on October 1.

Last year, Texas Children’s launched its efforts to be ready for the mandatory implementation of ICD-10. On October 1, the current ICD-9 code sets that have been used to report medical diagnoses for the last 30 years, as well as inpatient procedures, will be replaced by ICD-10 code sets.

“We believe that communicating this change clearly and consistently will help all of us make the transition,” said Texas Children’s Chief Safety Officer Dr. Joan Shook. “Some of the tools we’ve developed – like a fact sheet that answers frequently asked questions – are specific to this change, while other times we use existing hospital and provider publications to keep everyone informed.”

The transition to ICD-10 is required for organizations covered by the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA). This includes hospitals, clinics, laboratories and other providers of ancillary services (i.e., radiology, rehabilitation, psychiatry, home health, etc.).

What is ICD-10?

ICD-10 is the abbreviated term for the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases. It’s a coding system used to report and code diagnoses, injuries, impairments and other health problems and their manifestations. ICD-10 was implemented by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1993 to replace ICD-9, the current coding system used at Texas Children’s. ICD-10 is the standard coding system used in almost every country in the world, except the United States.

So why the change to a system that seemingly worked in the U.S. for 30 years? The current ICD-9 system has simply run out of space to accommodate new diseases and procedures. The data fields are limited, are not sufficient for accurate medical research, and the system doesn’t support the exchange of health data with other countries. Because the system is 30 years old, it has many outdated or even obsolete terms and is not consistent with current medical practices.

Finally, it lacks sufficient detail to be able to understand exactly what care was given. Many discoveries have been made in the past few decades, and the structure of the current coding system is not designed to expand for the inclusion of specific details and new advances in medicine.

Why it matters

The specificity that the ICD-10 codes will allow is perhaps the most important change that will be realized with the conversion. The ICD-10 codes allow greater specificity and exactness in describing a patient’s diagnosis and in classifying inpatient procedures. For example, after the conversion to ICD-10, an accidental fall can be classified as a fall from a specific type of playground equipment (i.e., fall from playground slide), or asthma can be coded by degree of severity.

“This information will provide a better record for everyone, from providers to billing staff, on what care a patient receives,” said Texas Children’s Chief Nursing Officer Lori Armstrong. “And we all know that the more specific and comprehensive that data is, the more useful it becomes.”

The increased level of detail within ICD-10 more accurately reflects the care provided. Better quality data can reveal patterns of care and other insights that help caregivers make better decisions and achieve better outcomes.

From a financial perspective, conversion to ICD-10 allows performance-based payment systems, more accurate data and more accurate billing. The billing process is more streamlined, efficient and more robust, which helps prevent fraud and abuse.

“ICD-10 provides an opportunity for Texas Children’s to elevate the specificity and scope of our collective clinical documentation efforts,” said Robert Mattix, vice president of Revenue Cycle Administration. “Our organization-wide ICD-10 preparedness is critical to capturing information for quality measurements, such as AHRQ Pediatric Quality Indicators, CHCA complications and mortality, and appropriate third-party reimbursements.“

Getting ICD-10 ready

Texas Children’s ICD-10 preparedness teams already have been working diligently for months to ensure we are ready for the mandatory October 1 conversion. The most important action everyone else can take is to get educated and be ready for the transition, as it will impact physicians, coders, billing staff, nurses, lab, front desk and many other areas.

The two roles most affected by the ICD-10 conversion are physicians and coders. For the medical staff, Texas Children’s is partnering with Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) to provide e-learning videos. Physicians’ education will be specific to their respective specialties and will fulfill the education requirements for both Texas Children’s and BCM. The coder staff will attend an on-site ICD-10 coding boot-camp for training and education.

For the other impacted roles, the ICD-10 education team has prepared a role-specific curriculum offered online.

“If we all focus on educating ourselves over the coming months, the result will be a smooth transition come October 1,” said Myra Davis, senior vice president of Information Services. “In the end, the goal is worth it: to improve the quality of our operations and ensure even better outcomes for our patients.”

For more information

ICD-10 Fact Sheet

ICD-10 Industry Updates

ICD-10 Myths and Facts