May 16, 2017

Texas Children’s joined forces with community leaders on May 5 to celebrate the opening of Specialty Care at Eagle Springs.

The clinic at 5514 Atascocita Road, Suite 190, in Humble is Texas Children’s newest pediatric specialty care clinic, offering convenient services to children and families in Humble and surrounding areas.

Services offered at the Eagle Springs location include:

  • Audiology
  • Otolaryngology (ENT)

Both services are available five days a week.

To make an appointment for Specialty Care at Eagle Springs, please call 281-666-5006.

Texas Children’s will continue to offer world-class care in the areas north of Houston at the health system’s Kingwood Glen location at 19298 West Lake Houston Parkway in the Kroger shopping center.

Services offered there are:

  • Cardiology
  • Full-Service Orthopedics
  • Sports Medicine
  • Pulmonology
  • Plastic Surgery
  • Pediatric Surgery
  • Allergy and Immunology
  • Urology
  • X-rays, EKG, ECHO, Ultrasound

To make an appointment for Kingwood Glen, please call 281-812-0280.

May 9, 2017

Texas Children’s recently received an impressive report card from The Joint Commission with surveyors commending the hospital for demonstrating several best practices.

“Our survey results are a great indication that we are meeting the expectation of quality care for our patients,” said Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark A. Wallace. “This should only propel us to continue our focus on providing safe, quality care every single day for every one of our patients.”

Every three years, Texas Children’s undergoes an accreditation process to ensure our delivery of high-quality patient care. On May 1, the Joint Commission survey team arrived at Texas Children’s for a 5-day unannounced survey. The surveyors consisted of an administrator, a pediatrician and ambulatory specialist, four pediatric and OB/GYN nurses, and a life safety engineer.

What Joint Commission noted

The survey is intended to assess the organization’s compliance in patient care areas that contribute to positive outcomes and to measure and improve performance. The Joint Commission team was very impressed with our improved outcomes in asthma, diabetes, radiology efficiency and flow, patient flow and surgical complications.

The team also identified several best practices observed during the survey including:

  • Time out processes across the system
  • NICU infection control practices
  • Error prevention technology in the anesthesia and pharmacy areas
  • Critical lab documentation
  • Simulation of new buildings and processes for latent safety threats

“The Joint Commission survey team visited several Texas Children’s facilities to evaluate patient care processes through on-site observations, staff interviews and tracer methodology,” said Texas Children’s Quality and Safety Director Elaine Whaley. “This year, 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 our patients, staff and visitors based on the number of occurrences.”

The surveyors were impressed with the knowledge and confidence exhibited by staff and faculty who participated in the tracer interviews. They complimented them on their ability to navigate Epic and explain the continuum of care, and they were impressed by our staff’s ability to talk about quality projects and outcomes.

How we prepared for the survey

Preparing for regulatory surveys is an ongoing process underscored by Texas Children’s daily focus on patient safety and high quality programs. Texas Children’s uses a consultant on an ongoing basis to review our processes and evaluate our survey readiness. The information provided by the consultant helps the organization fine tune.

“The results we get from area tracers during the preparation process provide information we need to develop and implement an organization-wide readiness education program,” said Danyalle Evans, Texas Children’s assistant director, System Accreditation and Readiness. “We regularly evaluate our internal processes against regulatory guidelines to identify opportunities for improvement. Regulatory surveys are valuable evaluation tools, but we have a deliberate focus on the quality and safety of our patients’ care every day.”

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.

Each year, Texas Children’s produces an annual report spotlighting the breadth, depth and growth of our organization. The report typically is in the form of a book that is mailed out to tens of thousands of our health care peers, government and community leaders, donors and other internal and external constituents.

This year we have a new way to share our experiences that will reach you and anyone with whom you wish to share it – the Texas Children’s Hospital online Annual Report. The report went live this week and is a dynamic representation of our growth and success in 2016.

Throughout the site, you will find articles, pictures, videos and graphics that highlight our patients, staff and growth. You also can hear directly from our President and CEO Mark Wallace in a video address about our year and what’s to come.

Each section of the site – news, notes and numbers – gives you an opportunity to experience how and why Texas Children’s health care system continues to get bigger and even better.

“At Texas Children’s, we are so passionate about our work and our mission that it is easy to get swept up in the incredible pace at which we move, build and expand,” Wallace said. “We get a lot done in the span of one short year, and 2016 was no different.”

Read all about it at texaschildrensannualreport.org. Share the link to the online report with friends and colleagues, and encourage them to do the same.

Dr. Jordan Orange has been selected to receive a 2017 Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., Excellence in Research Award, a prestigious honor given annually to Baylor College of Medicine faculty who have made the most significant published scientific contribution to clinical or basic biomedical research during the past three years.

Orange’s peers – Drs. Emily Mace, Lisa Forbes and Tiphanie Vogel – nominated him for the award in honor of his work as a distinguished pediatrician-scientist who has made seminal contributions to the fields of clinical immunology, basic immunology and cell biology.

Specifically, they highlighted three papers that represent the breadth, caliber and recent impact of Orange’s work as chief of the Section of Immunology, Allergy and Rheumatology and director of the Center for Human Immunobiology. These papers were published in Nature Genetics, the Journal of Clinical Investigation and the Journal of Cell Biology and are described in greater detail below.

“Dr. Orange orchestrates a vibrant and successful clinical and basic research program applying cutting-edge cell biology to questions of important clinical relevance,” Mace said. “In addition to being a pioneer in the field of NK cell deficiency and an international authority in the study and treatment of primary immunodeficiency, he is also a world’s expert in the field of highly quantitative imaging, including super-resolution and total internal reflection microscopy.”

Mace added that Orange’s scientific accomplishments are paralleled only by his success as a leader and mentor.

“His scientific vision and innovation are combined with tireless dedication to both teaching and learning,” she said. “We all are honored to count him as a colleague.”

Orange will be presented with the DeBakey, M.D., Excellence in Research Award on May 15. To learn more about the award, click here. To learn more about the scientific research that garnered Orange the DeBakey award, see below.

Nature Genetics – Through collaboration with the Baylor Hopkins Center for Mendelian Genomics, Orange has become a leader in the discovery of novel monogenic causes of primary immunodeficiency. The discovery of COPA syndrome (Watkin et al., Nature Genetics 2015) was the result of a multi-institute collaboration led by Orange. This rare, autosomal dominant autoimmune syndrome leads to arthritis and interstitial lung disease and was identified through whole exome sequencing of affected patients and their unaffected family members. This genetic discovery was validated in Orange’s laboratory by identifying the mechanism of disease through modeling of the impacted pathway. This work was also recognized with the Lee C. Howley Sr. prize for the most outstanding paper of the year by the Arthritis Foundation in 2015.

Journal of Clinical Investigation – NK cells are innate lymphocytes that eliminate infected or diseased cells. The field of primary NK cell deficiency (NKD) is one in which Orange has been a pioneer; he penned one of the first descriptions of NKD in 2003. While rare, NKD is severe and frequently fatal. To date, four monogenic causes of isolated NKD have been published, two of these from Orange’s group. Most recently, Orange led an international team that discovered biallelic mutations in the transcription factor IRF8 are a novel cause of NKD. This paper, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in 2017 (Mace et al.), ended a decade-long quest to solve the original published case of NKD. Again, modeling of patient mutations in the Orange laboratory using cutting-edge cell biology revealed the mechanism of impaired NK cell development in a cohort of patients from unrelated families.

Cell Biology – As NK cells lie at the heart of Orange’s research, it is not surprising that understanding NK cell function has been a cornerstone of his basic science program. He has led the field of NK cell biology by using highly quantitative microscopy and image analysis to deeply probe their function. In the January 2017 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology, Hsu et al. describe the purpose of NK cell lytic granule convergence, a mechanism by which NK cells direct their potent cytolytic machinery to prevent damage to bystander cells. This finding, which has important clinical implications for the field of immunotherapy, featured the application of novel technology to mimic an NK cell microenvironment. This work was showcased on the cover of the journal and merited an editorial from the well-known cell biologist Dr. Ira Mellman, as well as a feature on the journal’s weekly podcast.

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 4, 2017

On April 28, the popular Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Jewel toured Texas Children’s newest full-service community hospital – Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands.

The hospital’s chief medical officer Dr. Charles Hankins showed Jewel around the new, state-of-the-art facility and shared early successes of the inpatient hospital, which opened its doors less than a month ago on April 11.

The first stop on the tour was the audiology suite in the Outpatient Building on The Woodlands campus, where the group was treated to a look at the audiology booth which was generously given by Jewel.

Jewel then went room to room on the acute care floor of the inpatient facility talking with patients and families about their experiences, and played board games in the hospital’s playroom. The visit to the hospital brought a refreshing smile to many of the children’s faces.

Later that evening, nearly 600 guests gathered in a lavish tent on the grounds of Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands for the hospital’s Grand Opening Gala.

Featuring a big board and live auction, the event co-chaired by Tracey & Sean O’Neal and Johnna & Ryan Edone raised $900,000 for the hospital and was capped off with a performance by Jewel.

The artist shared the inspiration behind her music and her gratitude for the work being done at Texas Children’s.

View a photo gallery below from the tour and from Jewel’s performance at the grand opening gala.

With the help of physicians in interventional radiology, anesthesiology and pathology at Texas Children’s Hospital, children in Vietnam suffering from severe and debilitating vascular anomalies are getting the help they desperately need.

At the beginning of the year, a medical team from Texas Children’s traveled to the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to examine and treat patients with vascular anomalies as well as to train medical staff at the University Hospital to perform certain life-altering procedures on their own.

The effort is an extension of the active collaboration between the Vietnam Vascular Anomalies Center (VAC) based in Ho Chi Minh City and the Global Pathology program at Texas Children’s Hospital, launched in 2013 by Dr. Thuy Phung, a pathologist and associate director of Texas Children’s Global Pathology. Global Pathology is based in the Department of Pathology, under the leadership of Texas Children’s Pathologist-in-Chief Dr. James Versalovic.

The Vietnam VAC was established in 2009 by Phung and a team of physicians at Harvard Medical School and Ho Chi Minh City. Its mission is to provide safe and effective humanitarian medical care for underserved Vietnamese children with vascular and pigmented birthmarks, and to promote active collaboration between Vietnamese and U.S. physicians to improve the health of these children.

“We have been thinking about and working on the formation of an interventional radiology team that can work with the Vietnam VAC for some time and feel that our initial efforts have been extremely successful,” Phung said. “The techniques that we are teaching physicians in Vietnam can make a huge difference in the lives of children with vascular anomalies.”

During the team’s week-long visit to Ho Chi Minh City in January, members worked with and trained a local clinical team led by Dr. Tran Quoc Tuan, an interventional neuroradiologist at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital. Together, they evaluated and consulted on 38 adult and pediatric patients, providing recommendations on how to best manage their vascular anomalies. Of those patients, the clinical team selected 13 to treat using techniques such as embolization, which involves the injection of special medications into abnormal blood vessels under ultrasound and X-ray.

These treatments are common across the globe but can only be appropriately performed by highly trained medical professionals and require an experienced support team, such as a pediatric anesthesiologist, interventional radiologist, interventional radiology nurse practitioner and interventional radiology technologist proficient in the procedures. Texas Children’s brought all of the above to the Vietnam VAC, enabling several children, including a young boy whose vascular lesion was impeding his ability to breathe, to get the appropriate treatment and go home with a chance at a drastically improved life.

“This partnership has enabled us to train our clinical colleagues in Ho Chi Minh City to independently handle vascular anomaly patients and act as a referral center for the country,” said Texas Children’s interventional radiologist Dr. Sheena Pimpalwar. “Due to a large population of children in Vietnam who are affected by vascular anomalies and our ability to treat them in a multi-disciplinary fashion, this program has huge potential for growth.”

Texas Children’s pediatric anesthesiologist Dr. Helena Karlberg emphasized the importance of having a multi-disciplinary approach available to patients at the Vietnam VAC and described the role of the anesthesiologist as one that includes early planning of airway management in patients undergoing procedures of the head and neck regions, and monitoring for, and treatment of any adverse effects by agents used during vascular anomaly care.

“These rather specialized procedures require a great deal of expertise,” Karlberg said. “I am grateful for the opportunity to share my knowledge and experience assisting and instructing others to develop their own skills in caring for this group of patients.”

To ensure that patients receive the highest quality treatment, the Texas Children’s Hospital medical team plans on traveling to Vietnam each year to treat patients and to continue training the medical staff at the Vietnam VAC. In the meantime, the Texas Children’s team will consult with physicians in Vietnam on patient management via email, telephone and video conference.

Members of the Texas Children’s Hospital medical team that recently traveled to Vietnam include:

  • Dr. Alex Chau, interventional radiologist
  • Heather Cleveland, advanced clinical specialist and interventional radiology technologist
  • Dr. Helena Karlberg, pediatric anesthesiologist
  • Dr. Thuy Phung, associate director of Texas Children’s Global Pathology
  • Dr. Sheena Pimpalwar, interventional radiologist
  • Holly Phan Tran, vascular anomalies nurse practitioner