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Hundreds of employees with Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands recently poured into the grand lobby of the new hospital for a day-long employee orientation that covered everything from welcoming remarks by hospital leadership to expectations regarding emergency preparedness, patient experience and quality and safety protocols.

The doors of the new 550,000-square-foot building will open its doors to the public on Tuesday, April 11. The recent orientation sessions mark the near end of a long and thorough preparation process leaders and staff have undergone to ready themselves to serve the patients and families of The Woodlands and surrounding communities north of Houston.

“Opening day is almost here and I feel confident that we have done everything in our power to prepare ourselves and the entire Texas Children’s system for what will be a monumental day in our service to patients and their families,” said Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands President and Texas Children’s Executive Vice President Michelle Riley-Brown. “Our efforts have spanned many topics but have consistently focused on quality, safety and the overall patient experience people will have when they arrive at our doorstep for care.”

During the past year, more than 600 employees and providers who will staff the new hospital have been involved in one or more of the following initiatives to prepare themselves as a team to serve the thousands of patients and families expected to seek high quality care and pediatric services in their community from Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands.

Connections: The Experience and The Vision: All Woodlands employees, physician partners, and leadership completed two courses focused on hardwiring a culture based on both the patient and the employee experience. The goal of these sessions is to build on the existing Texas Children’s core values of living compassionately, amplifying unity, embracing freedom and leading tirelessly. In addition, the sessions aspire to establish behaviors that unify Woodlands employees as a team and leave patients and families feeling connected to the new hospital and staff as their healthcare provider.

Breakthrough Communications: Eighty physicians and advanced practice providers completed this Texas Children’s Hospital led physician communication course focusing on enhancing the conversation and dialogue between patients, families and caregivers.

Error Prevention Training: Hundreds of providers and staff working at The Woodlands campus took this three-hour class taught by members of the Texas Children’s Quality and Safety Department and trained Woodlands campus instructors. The course focused on sustaining a culture of safety and strategies for reducing medical errors and serious safety events.

Provider Orientation: The entire medical staff have either attended or is scheduled to attend provider-dedicated sessions focusing on operational details specific to The Woodlands campus. Training includes topics such as emergency response, community outreach, personal safety and security, environmental safety, quality metrics, new equipment training, useful communication tools and resources for providers, and a hospital tour.

Advanced Quality Improvement (AQI) Boot Camp: A group of about 40 leaders and medical providers attended this intense program aimed at improving care delivery and quality of care. The training occurred over three days and was based on a national patient safety training program that has shown significant improvement in patient outcomes.

Simulation Training: The leadership team at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands partnered with the Texas Children’s Hospital Simulation Center to design and facilitate a robust simulation training for the care teams and testing of the hospital environment. Using advanced technology and equipment to create life-like scenarios ranging from routine patient care to emergency code situations, the simulations allowed providers, staff, and even family members to respond as a team and test the hospital’s systems, environmental layout, and processes. The scenarios were recorded on video, allowing hospital leaders to review the training exercises and make any necessary adjustments before opening the hospital.

Emergency Management Drills: Texas Children’s Hospital, in partnership with the Montgomery County Sherriff’s office, University of Texas Police Houston, the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management, and Houston Police Department, have conducted two active shooter exercises at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands. The purpose of the exercises was to test the emergency notification procedures, train staff to respond to an active shooter, and give our law enforcement partners a chance to practice their tactical response to an active shooter in the new building.

In addition to these formal training programs, leaders, physicians and staff have been meeting weekly to discuss things such as system optimizations, scopes of service, workflows, staff onboarding, teambuilding and more. Everyone involved has been working collaboratively to ensure we transition smoothly into operations on April 11, said Director of Patient Care Services Ketrese White.

“We have a unique opportunity to provide world class dedicated pediatric care to this community and surrounding communities nestled in the North,” White said. “We are excited to see the positive impact we will make in this community.”

Located off of I-45 in The Woodlands, Texas Children’s Hospital the Woodlands will serve children and families in the Woodlands, Kingwood, Conroe, Spring, Magnolia, Humble, Huntsville and beyond. The new hospital will build on a decade’s worth of relationships Texas Children’s has built in the community through our primary and sub-specialty care services offered at Texas Children’s Pediatrics locations and the Texas Children’s Health Center The Woodlands.

The hospital will offer services in more than 20 areas of specialty care at a state of the art facility with 32 acute care beds, four operating rooms, 12 radiology rooms with two MRIs, an emergency center with 25 patient rooms, a sleep center, a helipad, 1,000 free parking spaces and 28 critical care rooms (14 NICU and 14 PICU). Patients will receive expert care from highly skilled clinicians, and may also benefit from support services such as translation services, child life specialists, social work, care management, chaplains, volunteer services, and patient/family advocacy.