March 13, 2018

Texas Children’s marked the beginning of an exciting chapter in its history Thursday when President and CEO Mark A. Wallace joined other organization leaders in celebrating the opening of Texas Children’s Urgent Care Westgate – the first Texas Children’s location in Austin.

“It’s great to be in Austin,” Wallace said during a private ribbon cutting ceremony for clinical staff and Texas Children’s leaders. “We can’t wait to serve the children, women and families of the greater Austin area.”

View event photos below.

Texas Children’s leaders announced in June their plan to open a pediatric-focused urgent care in Austin, with the goal of supplementing the great health care options already available to the community and improve access to care, at nights and on weekends, in a convenient location. Texas Children’s Urgent Care Westgate at 4477 South Lamar Blvd. is modeled after other Texas Children’s urgent care facilities, all of which are located in the Greater Houston area and offer high-quality, efficient and affordable pediatric care at a convenient location.

Open Monday through Friday, 4:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 8 p.m., Texas Children’s Urgent Care Westgate is staffed by board certified pediatricians who 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 to be provided include: antibiotic injections, breathing treatments, fracture care and splinting, IV (intravenous) fluids, lab services, laceration repair and X-rays onsite.

“As we all know, children are not simply tiny adults; their medical care, as well as the tools and equipment used, should be designed specifically to meet their needs,” said Dr. Lisa Gaw, lead physician at Westgate. “This is why it is important children are seen and treated by the experts trained to care for them. We are proud to have created a place local pediatricians and caregivers can feel confident sending their children knowing they will be well cared for by experts specially trained in treating kids.”

Texas Children’s opened its first urgent care facility in 2014 and has since seen tremendous success in getting pediatric patients where they need to be to receive the proper treatment for their illness or injury, decreasing the number of low-acuity cases at Texas Children’s emergency rooms.

In addition to opening Texas Children’s Urgent Care Westgate, Texas Children’s plans to open additional pediatric urgent care clinics, primary care pediatric practices, pediatric specialty care locations and maternal-fetal medicine practices across Austin over the next five years.

“This opening is the first step in a thoughtful plan Texas Children’s has in place to bring pediatric-focused care to Austin in a way that will help us serve the state of Texas even more successfully,” said Executive Vice President Michelle Riley-Brown, who leads Texas Children’s community and outpatient strategy. “We aspire to collaborate with the many established pediatric providers in the region to help support the growing Austin market, and see our growth in the area as an extension of our mission to ensure women and children have access to exceptional health care close to home.”

To learn more about Texas Children’s efforts in Austin, click here, and to find out more about Texas Children’s Urgent Care, click here.

Less than two months after being separated from her sister Hope in a seven-hour surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital, Anna Grace Richards got to go home.

Anna was discharged from Texas Children’s on March 2 after spending 428 days in the hospital. Hope is expected to be able to go home in the near future. The formerly conjoined identical twin girls were successfully separated at Texas Children’s Hospital on January 13. A multidisciplinary team of nearly 75 surgeons, anesthesiologists, cardiologists and nurses from eight specialties performed the seven-hour procedure.

The girls were born on December 29, 2016, at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, weighing a combined 9 lbs. 12 oz. Delivered via Cesarean-section at 35 weeks and five days gestation, Anna and Hope were conjoined at their chest and abdomen, through the length of their torso and shared the chest wall, pericardial sac (the lining of the heart), diaphragm and liver. In addition, they had a large blood vessel connecting their hearts. They were welcomed by their parents, Jill and Michael, and older brothers Collin and Seth.

The Richards family, from North Texas, learned Jill was carrying conjoined twins during a routine ultrasound. The family was then referred to Texas Children’s Fetal Center, where they underwent extensive prenatal imaging, multidisciplinary consultation and development of plans to achieve a safe delivery and postnatal care. They temporarily relocated to Houston in order to deliver at Texas Children’s and be close to the girls during their hospital stay. For the past year, Anna and Hope have been cared for by a team of specialists in the level IV and level II neonatal intensive care units (NICU).

The Richards family will remain in Houston until Hope is able to go home.

Click here to read a more detailed story, to watch a video and view a photo gallery below about the separation of Anna and Hope.

Recently, Texas Children’s executives and employees welcomed Judy Faulkner, CEO and founder of Epic Systems. Faulkner walked the group through a timeline of successes and innovations that have resulted from Texas Children’s 10-year partnership with Epic.

“We meet with our Epic partners on a very frequent basis,” said Julie McGuire, Director of Texas Children’s Enterprise Systems. “However, this is the first meeting with Judy onsite since the vendor demos more than 10 years ago, and it was an honor.”

Epic is essentially applications that support Texas Children’s comprehensive electronic health record system. Epic provides Texas Children’s with an integrated suite of clinical and financial applications, including billing, admissions, scheduling, patient charts and information, and order entry. It touches virtually every employee and, more importantly, every patient that passes through our system. Epic software is used in hospitals, homes and even hand-held devices.

Faulkner’s visit began with a brief overview of Texas Children’s history, presented by Executive Vice President Michelle Riley-Brown, who detailed the expansion of our global footprint and technology development over the years.

“Our goal is not to chase the quantity,” Riley-Brown said. “We chase the quality.”

Faulkner shared Epic’s vision, a current snapshot and plans for the future. Although personal development is always key, she emphasized that “it takes a village” when it’s comes to expanding technology as a whole.

“Keep in touch with other Epic users,” Faulkner said. “Share with others how you have expanded.”

Faulkner said she was impressed with how Texas Children’s has continued to evolve and respond to changing health care methods to meet the needs of patients.

“Texas Children’s Pediatrics was the first to use Epic strategies within the hospital, and we have been extremely successful thus far,” said Texas Children’s Pediatrics President Kay Tittle. “With the opening of multiple urgent cares and expanding to Austin, we are well on our way.”

During Faulkner’s visit, the Information Services team took her to the hospital’s nucleus – Mission Control.

Mission Control is equipped with state-of-the-art technology in a large, high-tech space on the third floor of Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. The suite houses representatives from Security, Facilities, Room Management, Transport Services and Critical Care.

When a patient is transferred to or from Texas Children’s Hospital, several wheels are set into motion at Mission Control to make the process run smoothly for our patients and their families. During the first month Mission Control was launched last year, the Transport Team reduced their time from dispatch to pick up by 20 minutes. When Faulkner asked about technology to improve remote patient monitoring in Mission Control, the team assured her it is on the horizon.

“We’re definitely on the path to advancing the way we monitor patients,” said Myra Davis, Senior Vice President of Information Services. “Ultimately, our plan is that Mission Control will have remote monitoring so we always have that extra set of trained eyes on our most critical patients”

Also on the horizon is an Epic upgrade, currently scheduled for summer 2019. Both Texas Children’s and Epic Systems continue to be focused on elevating how we use Epic technology, implementing new modules, maintaining a concise alignment with Epic guidelines, and ensuring we meet the system’s strategic priorities of access and care coordination.

“It’s been an incredible 10 years with Epic, and I know as we continue to grow as an organization, the need to become even better as we get bigger will be even more critical,” Davis said. “I’m excited about seeing how our efforts will flourish as a result of this partnership.”

March 6, 2018

It’s not every day that physicians at Texas Children’s get the opportunity to treat a child and their parent, but that’s exactly what happened when Caitlin King became a patient of Texas Children’s Pectus Program.

The program is part of Texas Children’s Division of Pediatric Surgery and is run by a specialized team that assesses and treats an assortment of chest wall abnormalities such as pectus excavatum, where the chest has a sunken or caved-in appearance, and pectus carinatum, where the chest bows outward.

Caitlin King, 15, came to Texas Children’s in 2017 seeking help for pectus excavatum, a condition her father, Niky King, had suffered from since he was an early teen. Niky said he got his chest looked at when he was about 12 or 13, but doctors told him there was nothing wrong and that the issue was just cosmetic. When Caitlin was born, Niky said he hoped she would not inherit the same condition, but that if she did, doctors would be able and willing to do something about it.

“My chest affected my life dramatically,” said Niky, who used to have heart palpitations and difficulty taking deep breaths. “I was very self-conscience of it, and am convinced it hindered my ability to do physical activity for a sustained period of time.”

After assessing Catlin, Dr. Mark Mazziotti, a pediatric surgeon with the Pectus Program, assured the teenager and her father that he could correct her pectus excavatum via a minimally invasive surgery called the Nuss procedure. During this procedure, a curved stainless steel bar is inserted in the chest through small incisions on either side, and is guided between the sternum and the heart under direct visualization with a camera through a small incision in the right chest. The bar is left in place for about three years. Recurrence of the pectus excavatum after the bar is removed is very rare.

“This is a very rewarding procedure for the patient,” said Mazziotti, who surgically corrects about 50 pectus excavatum surgeries a year. “We have excellent outcomes, and Caitlin’s case has been no different.”

Since her surgery, Caitlin said “she’s been able to wear whatever she wants” because her chest already looks so much better. She also said she can exercise and maintain a normal, active lifestyle without any hesitation.

“I can’t tell the bar is there at all,” she said. “I’m very happy I decided to move forward with the procedure.”

Caitlin’s procedure went so well, Niky underwent the same procedure three months later. Mazziotti performed the procedure, and because of the severity of Niky’s pectus excavatum, inserted two bars instead of one. The results, Niky said, have been fantastic, just like his daughter’s.

Mazziotti attributes the great outcomes the Caitlin and Niky, and other pectus patients have had to the skill of the surgeons in the program and the fact that they have the ability to offer the most cutting edge technology and procedures. He also said the program’s partnership with anesthesiology and pain management is key as patients typically have to stay in the hospital for several days to recover.

“Texas Children’s Pectus Program is highly specialized and prides itself on offering individualized care,” he said. “We are privileged to be able to treat patients across Texas, the region and the country.”

For more information and to watch a video about our Pectus Program, click here.

February 27, 2018

The U.S. Department of State announced that Dr. Peter Hotez has been appointed as a representative to the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation Board of Governors. Hotez is a world renowned expert in neglected tropical diseases, the most common diseases affecting the poor. He is also the Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair in Tropical Pediatrics.

The foundation promotes scientific cooperation between the United States and Israel by supporting collaborative research projects in a wide area of basic and applied scientific fields for peaceful and non-profit purposes.

“I’m excited to be re-engaged in science diplomacy in the Middle East,” Hotez said. “From my time as U.S. Science Envoy and now with the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation, I have found that our nation has extraordinary capacity to reach out and promote science and technology across the globe.”

The Foundation also supports workshops and travel grants for young scientists. Since it was established, they have awarded over $600 million to more than 4,500 research projects that have resulted in significant advances in many scientific fields.

Hotez previously served as U.S. Science Envoy for the U.S. Department of State, focusing his work on Saudi Arabia and Morocco. This is just one of the many honors that Hotez has received, and he plans to continue innovating and inspiring through his work within Texas Children’s and internationally.

February 13, 2018

The countdown has begun! February 11, marked 100 days until the first phase of Legacy Tower officially opens at Texas Children’s Hospital Texas Medical Center campus.

Through this 408-foot vertical expansion, Texas Children’s is adding 657,000 square feet. When Legacy Tower opens its doors to patients and families on Tuesday, May 22, the tower will house new operating rooms with one intraoperative MRI, as well as a new pediatric intensive care unit (ICU), which will span four floors and open with six ORs and 84 ICU beds, including dedicated surgical, neuro and transitional ICU beds.

When the second phase of the Legacy Tower opens in fall 2018, the tower will be the new home of Texas Children’s Heart Center® – ranked No. 1 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in cardiology and heart surgery. The Heart Center will have an outpatient clinic, four catheterization labs with one intraprocedural MRI, cardiovascular intensive care unit, four cardiovascular operating rooms and cardiology acute care beds. The tower will also have a helistop, allowing for even greater access to Texas Children’s most critically ill patients.

Texas Children’s Legacy Tower team and its external partners have made significant progress to date, including some of our most recent construction, staffing and activation milestones listed below:

  • Completion of mid-construction simulation-based clinical systems test for the OR/MRI. Detailed simulation and training planning to support the opening of Phase One.
  • Garage 21 enhancements and reconfiguration to serve both the Pavilion for Women and Legacy Tower to improve traffic flow and wayfinding, increase public parking capacity and create clear access to the Pavilion and Legacy Tower elevators.
  • Recruitment efforts have been progressing well. Nearly half of the 871 positions for Legacy Tower have been filled. The remaining positions are being actively recruited.
  • Furniture as well as medical and technology equipment deployment is underway in Legacy Tower.

Texas Children’s also launched a new Legacy Tower website (www.legacytower.org) that features a countdown clock to opening day. The newly designed site provides highlights of all of the services housed in the new tower including a timeline of the phase one and phase two openings of Legacy Tower.

Other exciting milestones on the horizon include the delivery of our intraoperative MRI for Legacy Tower on February 18 and the anticipated arrival of our new Legacy Tower therapy dog, thanks to a generous gift from Texas Children’s CEO Mark Wallace and his wife Shannon in memory of their beloved dog, Cadence.

On January 13, Texas Children’s successfully performed its fourth conjoined twins separation, giving identical twin girls Anna Grace and Hope Elizabeth Richards a chance at a normal life.

The 7-hour procedure was performed by a multidisciplinary team of nearly 75 surgeons, anesthesiologists, cardiologists and nurses from eight specialties. Click here to see a list of surgeons, clinicians and nurses in the operating room during the milestone procedure, and here to view a photo gallery documenting the twins’ journey the day of their separation.

“The success of this incredibly complex surgery was the result of our dedicated team members’ hard work throughout the last year,” said Surgeon-in-Chief and Chief of Plastic Surgery Dr. Larry Hollier. “Through simulations and countless planning meetings, we were able to prepare for situations that could arise during the separation. We are thrilled with the outcome and look forward to continuing to care for Anna and Hope as they recover.”

The girls were born on December 29, 2016, at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women to their parents Jill and Michael, and two older brothers Collin and Seth. Weighing a combined 9 lbs. 12 oz. and delivered via Caesarean-section at 35 weeks and five days gestation, Anna and Hope were conjoined at their chest and abdomen, through the length of their torso and shared the chest wall, pericardial sac (the lining of the heart), diaphragm and liver. In addition, they had a large blood vessel connecting their hearts.

The Richards family, from north Texas, learned Jill was carrying conjoined twins during a routine ultrasound. The family was then referred to Texas Children’s Fetal Center, where they underwent extensive prenatal imaging, multidisciplinary consultation and development of plans to achieve a safe delivery and postnatal care. They temporarily relocated to Houston in order to deliver at Texas Children’s and be close to the girls during their hospital stay. For the past year, Anna and Hope have been cared for by a team of specialists in the level IV and level II neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Planning and preparation

During much of that time, medical staff prepared for the separation, using extensive imaging with ultrasound, echocardiography, CAT scans, magnetic resonance (MRI) and even a virtual 3-D model of the girls’ anatomy. Closer to the surgery date, almost 50 medical personnel involved in the procedure participated in a lengthy simulation of the separation.

“These are the kind of procedures you plan for the worst and hope for the best,” said Pediatric Surgeon and Co-Director of Texas Children’s Fetal Center Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye. “We were blessed that this was the best case scenario. Everything went very well. The procedure was as well as we could have hoped.”

The Richards family is grateful to Texas Children’s for the care provided to their daughters since they found out they were expecting conjoined twins.

“We’ve thought about and prayed for this day for almost two years,” said the girls’ mom, Jill Richards. “It’s an indescribable feeling to look at our girls in two separate beds. We couldn’t be more thankful to the entire team at Texas Children’s for making this dream come true.”

Anna and Hope are recovering in the CVICU and expect to be released to a regular room soon. Both girls will face additional surgeries in the future to ensure their chest walls are stabilized. Otherwise, doctors expect them to lead normal lives.

“What we try to do here at Texas Children Hospital is essentially provide our patients with as normal of a life as we can,” said Pediatric Plastic Surgeon Dr. Edward Buchanan. “I think in this case with these two little girls we were able to achieve that.”

A history of success

The Richards separation is the fourth conjoined twins separation performed at Texas Children’s. The first pioneering procedure occurred February 16, 1965, when a team of surgeons separated 9-week-old conjoined twins Kimberly and Karen Webber. The Webber twins were connected at the liver and pericardium. The second separation happened on June 9, 1992, when Texas Children’s surgeons successfully separated Tiesha and Iesha Turner, who were 1 year old and shared a sternum, liver, entwined intestines and fused organs.

The third conjoined twins separation happened nearly three years ago on Feb. 17, 2015, when a team of more than 40 clinicians from seven specialties separated 10-month old Knatalye Hope and Adeline Faith Mata during a marathon 26-hour surgery. The twins were connected from the chest to the pelvis and shared a chest wall, pericardial sac, diaphragm, liver, intestinal tract, urinary system and reproductive organs. Today, Knatalye and Adeline are almost 4 years old and are doing very well, walking, talking, even learning how to ride a bike.

Since Texas Children’s opened its doors in 1954, multiple sets of conjoined twins have been referred to the hospital for consideration. However, in many of these cases, separation was not medically possible. Olutoye, who has participated in five conjoined twins’ separation surgeries, two at Texas Children’s Hospital and three at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said he and a team of experts from various specialties look at every case very closely and consider many factors before deciding how to move forward.

“Separating conjoined twins takes a tremendous commitment,” Olutoye said. “We all are privileged and honored to be part of each and every case, especially the ones where we can help.”