May 13, 2014

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Today marks the opening of the first Texas Children’s Urgent Care clinic, which will offer high-quality, efficient and affordable pediatric care after hours, closer to home.

“Texas Children’s Urgent Care was created to respond to the growing need for expert pediatric urgent care after hours,” says Randall Wright, executive vice president of Texas Children’s Hospital. “Our clinics are conveniently located in your neighborhood, and available evenings and weekends, to continue our commitment to providing care to all patients and families in the Houston community.”

Texas Children’s Urgent Care is open Monday through Friday, 4:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 8 p.m. Clinics are staffed by board certified pediatricians who have privileges at Texas Children’s Hospital. Pediatricians diagnose and treat a wide variety of ailments, illnesses and conditions, including: asthma, strep throat, fever, minor burns, influenza, ear infections, allergic reactions and more. Procedures provided include: antibiotic injections, breathing treatments, fracture care and splinting, IV (intravenous) fluids, lab services, laceration repair and x-rays on-site.

“We are excited to bring this expert urgent care model to the Houston community,” says Dr. Gary Gerlacher, Texas Children’s Urgent Care lead physician. “In my experience, I’ve seen firsthand how the urgent care setting has truly helped fill a void in treatment for children and their families.”

The first Texas Children’s Urgent Care clinic is located at Cinco Ranch, and the second, scheduled to open this summer, will be in the Town & Country area.

Oftentimes, families turn to an emergency center after hours, on weekends or perhaps even during the day, when a significant event occurs with their child. Though the emergency center is the right place for some incidents or ailments, the majority of the time, minor illnesses can and should be treated at a pediatric urgent care facility.

Texas Children’s Urgent Care accepts major insurance plans and has self-pay rates, which are less than emergency center charges, and there are no hospital fees. A complete list of insurance plans is available on the website. Texas Children’s Urgent Care specializes in after hours care, but does not replace the need for children to have a general pediatrician. Routine physical exams and vaccinations are services that should be obtained from a general pediatrician, and these services are not available at Texas Children’s Urgent Care.

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National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week was celebrated the fourth week in April. Leaders, staff members, pathologists and laboratory staff members commemorated this time with many notable events.

Every year, the Department of Pathology honors and remembers Virginia Deeken, a respected educator for the Texas Children’s Hospital Laboratory from 1972 to 1993, with the Virginia Deeken Memorial Lecture. This year, Dr. Adekunle Adesina, medical director, Texas Children’s Molecular and Neuropathology Laboratories and Global Pathology, presented “Global Pathology Outreach – All the Sides of the Coin.”

The department recognized both a team and individual who made extraordinary contributions to patient care through their laboratory service.

The presentation of the GJ Buffone Pathology Improvement Award was made to Betty Sapinsky, Maureen Quinn, Christina Moreno, Tyler Giess, Mindy Dement and Shari Lim who worked together to create the protocol for management of massive transfusion cases with the Pavilion for Women patients. They collaborated with physicians and caregivers to create a standardized and streamlined process to support the fastest service. The system has reduced nursing staff’s efforts in providing the required information and samples needed for laboratory testing. This revised protocol reduced turnaround times for results and seamlessly tracked transfused blood products.

For the Individual Excellence award, we honor a pair of individual leaders involved in information mining and presentations/graphics services, respectively. Michael Dowlin, Pathology’s senior programmer analyst, quietly creates and advances the data mining and analytical tools we demand for quality assurance, dashboard metrics and information archiving and retrieval. Karen Prince, Pathology’s graphics and image specialist, has incredible talents in design and presentation that illustrate the department’s staff, faculty, accomplishments and communications both professionally and artistically.

Medical laboratory testing plays a crucial role in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of disease in patients. An estimated 60 percent to 70 percent of all decisions regarding a patient’s diagnosis and treatment, hospital admission and discharge are based on laboratory test results.

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Drs. Greg Buffone (left), Rocky Hui, and Jun Teruya (right), present the GJ Buffone Pathology Improvement Award to the Pavilion for Women Massive Transfusion Protocol team: Betty Sapinsky, Mindy Dement, Maureen Quinn, Shari Lim, Christina Moreno (not pictured) and Tyler Giess (not pictured).

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Individual Excellence Award recipients are Michael Dowlin (left) and Karen Prince.

May 6, 2014

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Nearly 2,500 make up the nursing team at Texas Children’s. Representing the largest segment of our workforce, nurses play a significant role in almost every aspect of the patient and family-centered care we provide across the system. Each year, National Nurses Week is dedicated to these men and women who work tirelessly every day to ensure every patient and their family receives Texas Children’s quality care. This year, the theme of national Nurses Week is “Nurses Leading the Way.”

“This year’s theme is a perfect one for nursing at Texas Children’s,” said Chief Nursing Officer and Senior Vice President Lori Armstrong. “It is reflective of the role that nurses play across the organization in every clinical setting. Every nurse is a leader in the eyes of our patients and their families.”

As a tribute to the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale, Nurses Week is celebrated from May 6 through May 12, Florence’s birthday. For the Texas Children’s nursing team, it’s a week of celebrations and a chance to all to say thank you to the nursing staff for their vast contributions across the organization.

Say thank you to the hard working men and women on our nursing team – send them a card today.

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Texas Children’s first urgent care clinic will soon open to continue our commitment to providing high-quality, efficient and affordable care to all patients and families in the Houston community. Created to respond to the growing need for expert pediatric urgent care after hours, the clinics are conveniently located and open evenings and weekends.

The first location, Texas Children’s Urgent Care Cinco Ranch, will begin seeing patients on Tuesday, May 13, at 9727 Spring Green Blvd., Suite 900 in Katy. A second urgent care clinic is slated to open later this summer.

The clinics will be staffed by pediatricians who have privileges at Texas Children’s. They will diagnose and treat a variety of illnesses and conditions including: asthma, strep throat, fever, minor burns, flu, ear infections and allergic reactions. Patients needing fracture care and splinting, IV fluids, lab services, laceration repair and x-rays may also receive treatment at Texas Children’s Urgent Care.

The urgent care clinics will not perform routine physical exams for patients or administer vaccinations as those services should be obtained from a general pediatrician. Texas Children’s Urgent Care will accept major insurance plans and has self-pay rates, which are less than emergency center charges.

For more information, visit Texas Children’s Urgent Care’s website.

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The level of integrity of corporations has gained worldwide attention – often for the wrong reasons. But increasingly, organizations are recognizing that a strong compliance and ethics program is not just a smart idea, it’s good for business. To acknowledge the positive impact of corporate compliance and ethics on organizations, the Health Care Compliance Association and the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics have designated May 4-10 Corporate Compliance and Ethics Week. This week reminds us the importance that integrity, privacy and compliance have to our mission.

“In today’s environment, where our patients, health plan members and the government all expect us to do the right thing and protect them from harm, Compliance Week offers Texas Children’s an opportunity to focus on all of our practices to make sure we are meeting those expectations,” said Lance Lightfoot, General Counsel, Compliance Officer and Privacy Officer.

Employees work diligently to keep patients’ information secure, and it’s just as important to keep personal information secure as well. As a part of Corporate Compliance and Ethics Week, the Compliance Services Office and Records Management Department are providing employees a free, safe and secure opportunity to destroy their personal documents. Come to the Meyer Building visitor’s lot from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 7, or from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, May 9.

What should be shredded? Anything with confidential or identifying information – including old paycheck stubs, bank statements and items that list social security numbers.

Take advantage of this great opportunity as part of Corporate Compliance and Ethics Week!

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At Texas Children’s, we see firsthand all the good that Physician-in-Chief Dr. Mark W. Kline does for our hospital every day. Now, the extraordinary work that he does all around the world is being recognized, as he was presented with the 2014 Programme for Global Paediatric Research (PGPR) Award for Outstanding Contributions to Global Child Health. Dr. Kline accepted the award in Vancouver, CA on May 3, as part of the 2014 PGPR Symposium session Global Child Health in Rich and Poor Countries: Lessons Learned from Indigenous Health Research and Practise.

The PGPR, a component of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health in Toronto, works with researchers, societies, NGOs and governments throughout the world to address global health issues affecting infants and children. Its mission is to inform, educate, and facilitate international research cooperation and collaboration, and to advocate for research to improve the health of all children.

“Dr. Kline’s work is a wonderful example of effectively implementing health care solutions to help some of the most vulnerable children in the world, while building local capacity and ensuring sustainability,” said Dr. Alvin Zipursky, chair and scientific director of PGPR, SickKids Centre for Global Child Health.

The PGPR has presented this award annually since 2009 to a global researcher and thought leader in the pediatric field. The award is designed to honor and profile outstanding research achievements in global child health; especially work that has been conducted in developing regions.

“Dr. Kline is a globally respected leader in pediatric HIV/AIDS and deserving of this recognition for his outstanding research achievements in the field, especially in reaching populations in greatest need in the developing world,” said Dr. Zulfiqar Bhutta, the inaugural award recipient and co-director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health.

Kline was chosen as this year’s recipient based on his hugely important contribution to changing the global child health landscape through capacity-building, leadership training and program implementation focused on revolutionizing the care of children in developing countries with HIV/AIDS.

“To be chosen by my peers, many of whom I admire greatly, is a great honor,” said Kline. “The work is far from done, but I find it both gratifying and comforting that so many outstanding health care providers are united together in this mission to improve global health and am grateful to the PGPR for this award.”

Kline’s career achievements and global efforts speak for themselves. Specifically, a long-time researcher in pediatric HIV/AIDS, Kline has been the recipient and principal investigator for more than $50 million in research grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has authored more than 250 scientific articles and textbook chapters and has presented over 350 national and international lectures on subjects related to infectious diseases of children and global child health. He directs international research for the NIH-funded BCM Center for AIDS Research and is principal investigator for BCM’s NIH-funded Child Health Research Center and AIDS International Training and Research Program. Kline is also the founder and President of the BCM International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) at Texas Children’s Hospital, an ambitious program that encompasses HIV/AIDS care and treatment and health professional education and training programs across sub-Saharan Africa, Libya and Romania. BIPAI provides HIV/AIDS treatment to more children than any other organization worldwide.

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Sandi Sands received the award from Carol Santalucia and Jason Wolf of the Beryle Institute.

Sandi Sands, senior family advocate, Family Advocacy and Spiritual Care, received the Ruth Ravich award for her leadership and mentoring capabilities locally, regionally and nationally regarding advocacy. Sandi’s philosophy regarding advocacy has always been about placing an attitude of teamwork into the fabric of everything she does for the patient. She has never been about boasting about what she does simply because her area of strength is in taking care of others, especially individuals desiring to embark upon a career in advocacy and become caregivers that ultimately impact care teams! Sandi is a behind the scenes whirlwind who gets it done!

Ruth Ravich was the founder and first president of the former Society for Healthcare Consumer Advocacy (SCHA). Ms. Ravich organized the Patient Representative Department at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, was the author of numerous healthcare consumer articles, and lectured on patient advocacy both in the United States and abroad.

In 1991, the SHCA Board of Directors established the Ruth Ravich Founders’ Award, sponsored by rL Solutions, to recognize an individual whose work supported the vision of the Society – to bring the patients’ needs to the center of healthcare. The first award was presented in 1991 to Ruth Ravich, the Society’s first president, and for whom the award is named.

Sands received this award while at the Beryle Institute Patient Experience Conference (as SCHA no longer exists) for her willingness to step in and serve in the patient advocacy community of the Beryl Institute.