February 28, 2017

Texas Children’s Hospital was recently re-verified as a Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons and the Texas Department of State and Health Services.

During the re-verification process, the American College of Surgeons evaluated whether Texas Children’s Hospital met criteria put forth in its Committee on Trauma’s manual, Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient. The evaluation included a lengthy and through questionnaire as well as a site visit.

The evaluation found no deficiencies and listed multiple strengths highlighting the excellent multidisciplinary efforts, leadership, quality improvement, and commitment to research by the hospital and its staff.

The trauma center is led by Dr. Bindi Naik-Mathuria, medical director, and Christi Reeves, the director of trauma services.

There are only 49 Level 1 pediatric trauma centers nationwide. Texas Children’s Hospital was first verified as one in 2010. The re-verification process occurs every three years.

Dr. Laura Monson, co-director of the Craniofacial/Craniosynostosis Clinic, was recently appointed Chief Surgical Quality and Safety Officer for Texas Children’s Hospital.

Monson was selected for the position after a thorough nationwide search and will succeed neurosurgeon Dr. Tom Luerssen, who has been the voice of surgery within Quality Operations Management at Texas Children’s driving surgical quality efforts at the hospital and throughout the system.

Among the many quality projects Luerssen was instrumental in establishing during his tenure are the OR-specific Surgical Checklist and the Surgical Quality Committee. Luerssen also was essential to the success of the hospital’s American College of Surgeons Level 1 Children’s Surgery Center Verification.

Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Charles D. Fraser and Senior Vice President/Chief Quality Officer Dr. Angelo Giardino said Monson distinguished herself in the selection process as having just the right vision and passion to lead the Texas Children’s surgical quality program into the future.

“Dr. Monson has demonstrated a remarkable commitment to improving the quality of care and quality of life for her patients as evidenced by her many cleft lip and palate and craniofacial research programs,” Fraser and Giardino said. “She is continually educating herself on quality improvement and has been an internal champion for it within the Department of Surgery.”

Monson will begin her new role on Wednesday, March 1. Click here for more information about Monson and her clinic experience and interests.

February 21, 2017

Earlier today, Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, His Excellency the President Lieutenant General Dr. Seretse Khama Ian Khama of the Republic of Botswana and the Honorable Minister Dorcas Makgato of the Ministry of Health and Wellness through public-private partnerships with the governments of Botswana, Uganda and Malawi, announced a $100 million initiative to create an innovative pediatric hematology-oncology treatment network in southern and east Africa. The comprehensive initiative called Global HOPE (Hematology-Oncology Pediatric Excellence) will build long-term capacity to treat and dramatically improve the prognosis of thousands of children with cancer and blood disorders in southern and eastern Africa.

In the United States, 80 percent of children with cancer survive. In sub-Saharan Africa, the overwhelming majority of pediatric patients do not survive. The mortality rate is estimated to be as high as 90 percent, meaning thousands of children die from cancer across Africa each year. This is in large part due to an inadequate healthcare infrastructure and a significant lack of expert physicians and other healthcare workers trained to treat children with cancer. The most common types of childhood cancers are blood cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma.

Global HOPE will partner with local Governments and Ministries of Health to build medical capacity to diagnose and treat pediatric blood disorders and cancer in Botswana, Malawi and Uganda. The initiative will also create significant clinical, educational and research capabilities. Doctors, nurses and ancillary professionals will be recruited from around the world to provide training to local healthcare professionals and to begin treating children with blood disorders and cancer immediately.

“This project is building on a solid foundation for pediatric cancer treatment in Botswana that began with pediatric oncologists from Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers,” said His Excellency the President Lieutenant General Dr. Seretse Khama Ian Khama of the Republic of Botswana. “The Global HOPE program will bring to Botswana the latest bio-medical technologies and the potential to work with local institutions such as the Botswana Innovation Hub and University of Botswana to quickly increase the survival of children with cancer and life-threatening blood disorders in Botswana and the region.”

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is committing $50 million over five years to fund the training of healthcare providers as well as clinical infrastructure and operations. BIPAI will raise an additional $50 million for the initiative.

“We are eager to get started on this critical initiative to help children with blood disorders and cancer. Working with our partners and drawing on our expertise of building sustainable health systems in underserved countries, we will help make a significant difference in the outcomes for children while creating a blueprint for other countries to follow,” said Dr. Giovanni Caforio, chairman of the board of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and chief executive officer of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. “This initiative builds on 18 years of success of the Foundation’s SECURE THE FUTURE program and will offer new hope to families impacted by pediatric blood disorders and cancer.”

As public-private partnerships, the various governments will each play an important role in developing the pediatric hematology-oncology network, assisting with the training, technical assistance, logistics and resources to support Global HOPE.

The Global HOPE initiative will train an estimated 4,800 healthcare professionals from Botswana, Uganda, Malawi and other African countries, including doctors and nurses specializing in pediatric hematology-oncology and social workers. The program estimates that over 5,000 children will receive care in the first five years.

“With only five pediatric oncologists currently in the countries of Botswana, Malawi and Uganda combined, there are simply not enough expert doctors to treat all the children diagnosed with blood disorders and cancer. We believe in these countries there are more than 11,000 new cases annually of pediatric cancer and 40,000 new cases of serious, life-threatening blood disorders such as sickle cell disease and hemophilia. Because of these staggering numbers, more healthcare providers with special expertise are urgently needed,” said Dr. David Poplack, director of Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers and Professor of Pediatric Oncology at Baylor College of Medicine. “Global HOPE will help build capacity in the region to diagnose and care for children with blood disorders and cancer, offering the potential for transformational change in survivorship for these children.”

The Global HOPE initiative will be modeled on the work of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, BIPAI and the Governments of Botswana, Uganda and Malawi, which created the largest pediatric HIV treatment network in the world, leveraging existing experience, infrastructure, and public/private partnerships created through the initiative. Since 2003, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and BIPAI have trained 52,000 healthcare professionals and currently provide care for nearly 300,000 children with HIV and their families in sub-Saharan Africa, lowering the mortality rate for these children to 1.2 percent.

“The success we’ve had in radically changing the course of pediatric HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is due in large part to the tremendous support provided by the country governments, healthcare providers on the ground and donors who have made our work possible,” said Dr. Mark W. Kline, president and founder of BIPAI, physician-in-chief of Texas Children’s Hospital and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. “We look forward to helping patients and their families by embarking on this unchartered area of cancer care in Africa. Working with our partners, we aim to build a self-sustaining infrastructure that changes the tide of these childhood diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.”

About the Republic of Botswana and the Ministry of Health and Wellness

Botswana is a country with two million inhabitants in southern Africa with abundant and diverse natural resources. The official languages are English and Setswana. Since independence in 1966, Botswana has been a parliamentary republic; the chief of state and head of government is the president. Botswana’s economy is a success story in southern Africa due to the investment of the government in the education, health, clean water and telecommunications sectors to create a better standard of living for its citizens and to foster a conducive environment for free enterprise to prosper. The Ministry of Health and Wellness aims to improve the physical, mental, and social well-being of every citizen of Botswana to fully contribute to the development of Botswana through a healthy nation.

About the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is committed to improving the health outcomes of populations disproportionately affected by serious diseases by strengthening healthcare worker capacity, integrating medical care and community-based supportive services, and addressing unmet medical need. The Foundation engages partners to develop, execute, evaluate and promote innovative programs to help patients with lung cancer and removing barriers to accessing care in the United States, HIV and comorbid diseases such as cervical and breast cancers and tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa, hepatitis B and C in China and India and veterans’ mental health and well-being in the U.S. Since 1999, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation’s SECURE THE FUTURE® initiative has been working with partners in Africa to provide care and support for communities affected by HIV, tuberculosis, women’s cancer and most recently, lung cancer. Global HOPE will apply this same transformational model to pediatric oncology and hematology in a number of the same geographic areas.

About Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers at Texas Children’s Hospital

Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers is the largest pediatric hematology-oncology program in the U.S., treating patients from 35 states and 26 countries. The centers perform advanced patient care, cutting edge clinical and laboratory research and has largest training program for pediatric hematology-oncology in the U.S. With a staff of renowned experts, the centers have developed a wide array of programs aimed at curing children with diagnoses ranging from the most common to the very rare. The team of 186 faculty and nearly 1,000 staff have pioneered many of the now standard treatments for pediatric cancer and blood disorders. TXCH has a long-standing commitment to improving global health.

About Baylor College of Medicine International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Texas Children’s Hospital

Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing pediatric and maternal health care in resource limited settings. BIPAI medical teams offer free medical care and medical education for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, malnutrition, obstetrics/gynecology, hematology/oncology and more. Partnering with Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, BIPAI operates in 11 countries, caring for nearly 300,000 children and their families.

Click here to read a story about the Global HOPE announcement in the Houston Chronicle.

As part of our commitment to our employees’ health and well-being, Texas Children’s is excited to announce the opening of an Employee Medical Clinic at West Campus.

When will clinical services be available?

Beginning March 1, 2017, employees at West Campus, as well as in nearby Texas Children’s Pediatrics practices, can access clinical services on the first and third Wednesday of each month. To provide convenient access, the medical clinic will share office space with the Employee Health Clinic located on the second floor of West Campus. Hours of operations will be from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. While scheduled appointments are preferred, walk-in patients will be worked into the schedule based on availability.

What services can I receive?

Dr. Irene M. Lomeda, from our clinic in the Texas Medical Center, will be the physician on-site. In addition to primary and urgent care services, the following services will also be offered:

  • Annual physicals/well-woman/well-men exams
  • Rapid strep, flu, glucose, urinalysis, and pregnancy testing
  • Chronic disease management for conditions such as diabetes and heart disease
  • Phone consultations (for established patients) for treatment of non-emergency medical issues
  • Vaccinations (meningococcal, papilloma virus, pneumococcal and shingles)
  • Travel medicine (limited)
  • Health Coaching program

Employees enrolled in Texas Children’s medical insurance plans will have a $10 co-pay per visit. Your privacy is of the utmost importance to us; your information will be secure via confidential electronic medical records, which is hosted externally.

To learn more about the services offered at the new Employee Medical Clinic at West Campus, please click here.

February 14, 2017

On February 9, Texas Children’s and W.S. Bellows Construction celebrated the topping out of Texas Children’s new Pediatric Tower in the Texas Medical Center.

Under a large tent across the street from the tower’s 400-foot-tall structure, nearly 700 guests cheered as Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark A. Wallace, Texas Children’s Board of Trustees Chair Ann Lents, and W.S. Bellows Construction President Laura Bellows, led the countdown.

“Five, four, three, two, one, hoist that tree!”

As the guests eagerly watched from below, a 7-foot-tall Loblolly pine tree was hoisted to the top of the hospital’s Pediatric Tower commemorating the successful completion of the building’s external structure.

Chase Fondren, whose daughter Ella was treated for biliary atresia as an infant, shared his family’s experience at Texas Children’s and how the vertical expansion of the Pediatric Tower will benefit other patients and families.

“We experienced first-hand the issues of not having enough bed choices, of the small PICU rooms, and having to fit in the hospital’s current capacity,” Fondren said. “I am extremely excited that this building behind us is going to triple the size of the PICU. That’s been a much needed expansion and will be a huge asset for patient families.”

During the topping out ceremony, Wallace recognized everyone for their contributions and support of Texas Children’s Pediatric Tower expansion. He applauded the phenomenal leadership of Texas Children’s Board of Trustees, our project partners, FKP Architects and W.S. Bellows Construction, as well as Texas Children’s executive leadership team, the Pediatric Tower leadership team and all of our donors who have so generously contributed to the Promise Campaign, which will partially support facility developments for the hospital’s new tower.

“All of you who are here today helped us achieve this construction milestone of our pediatric tower which will provide the opportunity for us to serve even more patients and their families,” Wallace said. “No longer will we have to say no to a child who needs to be transferred into an ICU. No longer will we have to cancel surgery or reschedule surgery because we don’t have a CVICU bed or critical care bed. That building right there is the solution to these issues.”

Slated to be completed in 2018, the 25-floor Pediatric Tower will house 126 beds for pediatric and cardiovascular intensive care, six new operating rooms (ORs) with the latest technology to complement the hospital’s existing 19 ORs, and will be the new home of Texas Children’s Heart Center, including the outpatient clinic, four cardiovascular ORs and four catheterization labs. This expansion includes reinvesting in the programs needed by the hospital’s most critically ill patients.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about the building,” said Lents as she addressed the crowd. “It’s all about the patients and being sure that today, in five years and in 20 years, we can help the children who need the care and the treatment that only Texas Children’s Hospital can give them.”

Following the tree topping ceremony, guests enjoyed a delicious BBQ lunch and some event goers got a tour of the construction site led by Texas Children’s Pediatric Tower leadership team and crew members from W.S. Bellows Construction, who is overseeing the vertical expansion project.

View photo gallery of the Pediatric Tower Topping Out event below.

Ronald McDonald House Charities® (RMHC) of Greater Houston/Galveston in conjunction with Texas Children’s Hospital recently announced the unveiling of its new Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® medical unit. Operated by Texas Children’s, the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® is a state-of-the-art, fully-equipped pediatric clinic on wheels designed to meet the health care and treatment needs of children in the Greater Houston and Galveston area.

The medical unit was unveiled at a ribbon cutting ceremony with special guest and speaker Mayor Sylvester Turner on February 10 at the McDonald’s restaurant located at 1619 South Loop West.

“I am excited about this wonderful collaboration between Ronald McDonald House Charities and Texas Children’s Hospital,” the mayor said. “Thanks to Ronald McDonald Care Mobile®, many children in our community will have access to immunizations, well-child and urgent care visits, vision and hearing screenings, free medicine through an on-site pharmacy, and specialty care referrals, including mental health and social service referrals.”

In addition, Sylvester said, the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® also will be offering sports physicals, allowing more area youngsters to have the opportunity to participate in school athletics.

Staffed by pediatricians, nurse practitioners, nurses, and medical assistants from Texas Children’s, Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® will provide medical care to more than 3,000 children per year in a 60-mile radius around the Texas Medical Center. The new unit’s arrival is expected to expand service reach by 10 percent in the first year.

Tanya Gee, Executive Director of RMHC® Houston & Galveston said that working in partnership with community health care leaders, the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® bridges gaps between underserved children and local community agencies.

“It travels to locations lacking pediatric resources or underutilizing existing ones,” Gee said. “We want to thank our partners at Texas Children’s for their tireless dedication to our shared mission of service to the children of Houston and the local McDonald’s Owner for their incredible generosity.”

President of Texas Children’s Pediatrics Kay Tittle said her organization is looking forward to the continued impact the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® will have on families in Houston.

“At Texas Children’s, our goal is to build a community of healthy children, and our mobile clinics allow us to provide trusted, high-quality medical services to children who normally might not have the opportunity to receive health care,” Tittle said.

The Ronald McDonald Care Mobile medical unit was made possible by a donation of $400,000 from the McDonald’s Owner/Operators Association of Greater Houston. Through its Fry Fund initiative, Houston area McDonald’s restaurants donated three cents for every case of French fries sold over the past four years.

“As local business people, we are committed to supporting the communities we live and work in,” said President of the McDonald’s Owner/Operators Association of Greater Houston Matthew Kades. “The families served by the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® are our neighbors. McDonald’s is a big brand, and with partners like Ronald McDonald House Charities® and Texas Children’s Hospital, we can make a big impact right here in Greater Houston.”

Texas Children’s Executive Vice President Michelle Riley-Brown said that to date, the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® has served more than 40,000 patients, and with this incredible updated unit, the impact will only continue to grow.

“Thanks you to everyone for your continued support of our Mobile Clinic Program,” Riley-Brown said. “We are looking forward to the continued impact the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® will have on families in Houston.”

For more information about our Mobile Clinic Program click here. For more information about Ronald McDonald House Charities® click here.

February 7, 2017

2817transplant640Transplant Services at Texas Children’s Hospital continues to prove that we are at the forefront of pediatric transplantation in the United States performing 86 transplants in 2016.

Some of last year’s highlights include:

  • The heart transplant program finished the year as the No. 1 pediatric heart transplant program in the country with 25 transplants.
  • The lung transplant program tied with St. Louis Children’s Hospital’s for the No. 1 pediatric lung transplant program in the country spot with 8 transplants.
  • The kidney transplant program ended the year as the No. 2 pediatric kidney transplant program in the country, experiencing its highest volume since the program’s inception in 1988 with 32 transplants.
  • The liver transplant program performed 21 transplants and the liver and lung programs teamed up to complete a liver/lung transplant.

Dr. John Goss, medical director of Transplant Services, said Texas Children’s Transplant Services continues to earn its reputation as one of the best pediatric transplant programs in the country.

“I believe our success is a testimony to the skill and commitment of our multidisciplinary team, which offers an interdisciplinary approach to all aspects of the transplant process, from initial referral to hospitalization and outpatient management,” Goss said. “We also work closely with patients, families and referring physicians to help make the evaluation process as convenient and efficient as possible.”

Goss added that the success of Texas Children’s transplant program would not be possible without the gifts from our selfless donors and their families.

“They are the ones responsible for providing our patients with a second chance at life,” he said. “We are forever grateful for their unwavering kindness.”

To learn more about Texas Children’s Transplant Services, click here.