May 23, 2017

On May 16, Michael Phelps visited with patients at Texas Children’s Cancer Center and was honored at the 12th annual An Evening with a Legend event.

Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, started his day at Texas Children’s by making a special visit to the Cancer Center to spend time with patients and their families. During the one-on-one room visits, Phelps offered words of encouragement and let the families know they are not alone in the fight. As someone who accomplished a seemingly unattainable feat in his career, Phelps emphasized the importance of pushing forward with continued endurance.

Later that evening, nearly 650 guests enjoyed an unforgettable evening at the Hilton Americas – Houston’s Ballroom of the Americas for the 12th annual An Evening with a Legend event honoring Phelps.

Benefiting Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, the evening included a beautiful seated dinner, exciting paddle raise and an intimate conversation with Phelps, moderated by Emmy® award-winning journalist Andrea Kremer. Guests had the opportunity to learn about Phelps’ journey to become a gold medal legend and what is in store for the next phase of his life.

“Michael Phelps was a wonderful legend,” said Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers Director Dr. David Poplack. “He is a sincere, empathetic person who cares deeply about the issues faced by children with cancer. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to host him and appreciate his support for all that we do.”

Co-chaired by Shelley Barineau, Julie Bergen, Ned Torian and Kathy Zay, the event raised more than $1.2 million for the Cancer Center. Carmen and Butch Mach and Kelli and John Weinzierl served as honorary chairs for the event.

Click here to hear from the co-chairs and to learn more about the Evening with a Legend event. To hear from past legends honored at the event, click here.

May 9, 2017

It’s appointment day. You park your car, arrive at the hospital and make a beeline to the elevators at the Wallace Tower hoping to shuttle your child to his or her doctor’s appointment on time. After dealing with traffic on your way in, you’re faced with another challenge – waiting patiently for an available elevator cab.

Based on recent Press Ganey patient satisfaction survey results, Texas Children’s Patient Experience Team has focused on several priority initiatives in FY17, one of which is to improve the elevator experience for patients and families who depend on the Wallace Tower elevators to take them to and from their clinic appointments.

“This has been a significant, on-going concern for our patient families,” said Katie Kalenda Daggett, director of Patient and Family Services. “We have partnered with Ambulatory Leadership, Facilities, Marketing, HR, Security Services and other teams from across the hospital to develop creative solutions to improve the patient and family elevator experience.”

Texas Children’s recently launched the Step Up for Patients First initiative, which encourages employees and staff to put patients and families first, from the time they arrive at work to the time they leave. This includes providing patients and families priority access to the elevators to reduce unnecessary wait times.

In the next few weeks, employees and staff will notice new, colorful wayfinding signage near the Wallace Tower elevators and stairwells, which have now been opened to patient and visitors who opt to take the stairs from Monday to Friday between 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Employees may take the stairs any time, but are encouraged to take the stairs as often as possible.

“We want our patients to arrive at their appointments easily, and we encourage all Texas Children’s employees to be part of this collaborative process to reduce extended wait times at the elevators,” Kalenda Daggett said. “Step Up for Patients First is part of a broader initiative to enhance patient experience across the hospital system.”

Texas Children’s continually receives feedback from patient families about small changes that can be made across the system to promote a positive experience. Our broader initiative will include future improvement efforts, such as encouraging employees to step up for patients who are lost and need help with wayfinding.

If you have any suggestions for improvements or any additional feedback, contact the Patient Experience team at patientexperience@texaschildrens.org.

Step Up stairwell challenge begins June 1

In conjunction with Step Up for Patients First, Texas Children’s Health and Wellness will launch an organization wide Step Up stairwell challenge from June 1 to June 30 that will challenge employees and staff to Step Up for Patients First and make physical activity a priority. The Well-Being Team will be in the stairwells periodically to encourage employees on this new culture habit while handing out swag and fun incentives to celebrate stepping into good health.

Stay tuned to Connect for more details.

The Department of Emergency Management is presenting its 11th Annual Emergency Management Bridge Event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, May 17, on The Auxiliary Bridge.

Representatives from various Texas Children’s departments as well as external partners such as the City of Houston Office of Emergency Management will be onsite to help you prepare for hurricane season by assisting you with registering in the Employee Disaster Roster (EDR), getting your emergency supplies ready, and making sure you know where to go and what to do during a disaster.

Plan to stop by The Auxiliary Bridge to learn safety tips to help you prepare yourself, your family and your patients for the 2017 hurricane season.

May 3, 2017

Texas Children’s employees and Houston-area residents came out in full force to participate in the grand opening celebration and inaugural Texas Children’s Hospital and Houston Marathon Foundation Family Fun Run at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands.

On April 29, about 1,500 people of all abilities participated in the non-competitive 1-mile course in celebration of the April 11 grand opening of the new hospital. Following the race, participants enjoyed the H-E-B sponsored Family Fun Zone, which was packed with snacks, entertainment and 20 plus attractions.

Sarah Pepper from The Morning Mix and professional race announcer Mark Purnell kept everyone energized in their role as master of ceremonies cheering on the crowd and announcing any and all special guests, including
Dr. Kristen Ernest and Susan Niles with Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands Sports Medicine, who led runners and walkers in some warm-up stretches and exercises, and members of the College Park High School Herald Trumpets, who played the National Anthem.

Prior to the race in a large tent next to the course’s start line, hospital and community leaders gathered for a light breakfast and short presentation about Texas Children’s new full-service community hospital. They then moved to the front of the hospital to cut a celebratory grand opening ribbon.

“Thirty-nine months ago, we had a tent and a shovel, now we have our campus ready to service the needs of children and families in this area,” said Dr. Charles Hankins, chief medical officer at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands. “It’s very exciting.”

Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands President Michelle Riley-Brown agreed and said the opening of the hospital is a huge milestone for Texas Children’s and reflects the health system’s overall strategy of giving patients and families more access to quality pediatric care.

To get a first-hand look at the fun and to learn more about Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands:

  • View a photo gallery of the event below.
  • Order your race-day photos from Spring Action. You can search by your bib number or last name to find your photos (if any exist). There also are hundreds of unidentified photos to sort through in the Lost & Found section. You can also browse the entire event, if desired.
  • Click here to read more about the opening of Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands.

On May 1, 2017, surveyors from The Joint Commission arrived at Texas Children’s Hospital to conduct an unannounced 5-day survey to ensure that we are meeting the expectations of delivering the safest, high quality care to our patients and their families.

Every three years, Texas Children’s undergoes an accreditation process by the Joint Commission survey team to access the organization’s compliance in patient care areas that contribute to positive outcomes, and to measure and improve performance.

This week, surveyors will visit Texas Children’s Medical Center Campus, Pavilion for Women, West Campus, The Woodlands, ambulatory clinics, dialysis, and health centers to evaluate our patient care processes through a variety of measurement tools including on-site observations, staff interviews, and tracer methodology. Just this year, the Joint Commission implemented a new survey methodology called Survey Analysis for Evaluating Risk (SAFER), a matrix that uses a color-coded grid to evaluate the likelihood of harm to patients, staff and visitors based on the number of occurrences.

“Our first day of the survey went very well, with surveyors citing positive feedback in several of our patient care and safety protocols,” said Texas Children’s Quality and Safety Director Elaine Whaley. “Since these accreditation surveys are unannounced, preparing for the Joint Commission survey has been a crucial, on-going and continuous process for our employees and staff.”

Next week, Connect will have an article with an overview of this week’s survey.

The Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 20,500 health care organizations and programs in the United States. Approximately 77 percent of the nation’s hospitals are accredited by The Joint Commission.

For the second year in a row we are bring spring directly to our patients through our May Flowers fundraising drive.

Here’s the plan: We’re going to hang spring flowers, personalized by our donors, on the doors of our patients’ rooms to brighten their days. Donors that give to Texas Children’s as part of the campaign can personalize one of those flowers with their name and location.

It’s a great way for our community to show our patients they are thinking of them and at the same time help Texas Children’s continue to provide the very best care.

Here are two things that you can do to help today:

Let your friends and family know they can join you and help bring some spring fun to our patients.

  • Send a flower by making a donation.

Send a flower to one of our patients, and we’ll decorate their door with a personalized flower from you. texaschildrens.org/flowers.

These flowers won’t just help bring some spring cheer inside our walls. More important, they will help us ensure that children in need of advanced critical, surgical and emergency care can always find it here when they need it most.

We are well on our way to being able to decorate all our patients’ doors with colorful spring flowers that show them just how much people care. Soon our hallways will be in full bloom.

The last day of the campaign is Friday, May 12. Flowers will be hung in late May and stay up through the spring season.

To personalize one with your name, give today: texaschildrens.org/flowers.

On April 23, more than 30,000 people from across the Greater Houston community laced up to participate in the 2017 March for Babies walk at the University of Houston, including more than 850 Texas Children’s employees, patients and their families who all share the same passion for improving the health of babies.

This year, Texas Children’s contributed $125,000 as the Premier sponsor of the 4.5-mile walk and our employees have personally raised more than $93,000 to date to support the March of Dimes. Baylor College of Medicine, Greater Houston Anesthesiology and Morrison partnered with Texas Children’s and sponsored snacks and dessert, water, t-shirts, a tent and disc jockey.

Several months prior to the March for Babies walk, departments and units from across the organization formed their own teams to help raise money and rally support around this worthy cause. Creative teams across the organization hosted barbecues, designed and sold t-shirts, held bake sales, arranged bike tours and even paid to give their leaders a pie in the face to raise money and awareness. Each of the 60 teams raised an average of $1,900 all of which helped Texas Children’s exceed this year’s fundraising goal of $120,000.

“It was great to see everyone come together and support one another to give every baby a fighting chance,” said Cris Daskevich, senior vice president at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. “Since 1984, Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine have received more than $16 million from the March of Dimes to support research to prevent birth defects and prematurity. Our long-term partnership has helped significantly improve outcomes and quality of life for some of our most fragile babies – giving hope to patients and families when there once was none.”

Texas Children’s employee Leanne O’Brien and her husband, Kiran, were Houston’s 2017 Ambassador Family for the March of Dimes. Their twins, Remy and Ronan, were cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit at Texas Children’s for four and a half months.