December 2, 2014

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Texas Children’s Pediatrics recently welcomed a new practice to the inner loop and merged two others in the Houston area.

The new practice, Texas Children’s Pediatrics Green Park, opened November 18 and is located at 7505 S. Main St., Suite 450. Three new physicians – Dr. Michael Connelly, Dr. Shannon Hayes and Dr. Jackie Wanebo – are seeing patients at the location.

Connelly, a Houston native, earned his medical degree from and completed his residency with the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. Connelly specializes in fitness, healthy eating, and infants and newborns.

Hayes is from Katy and earned her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine. Hayes completed her residency at Baylor as well, and trained at Texas Children’s Hospital.

Wanebo came to Texas from Charlottesville, Va., earned her medical degree from the University of Virginia and completed her residency with the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She specializes in asthma, healthy eating, teenagers and children with special needs.

Dr. Angela Mazur will join the new Green Park practice next summer after shutting the doors to her Texas Children’s Pediatrics Brasewood office at 7515 S. Main St. Mazur earned her medical degree from and completed her residency with Baylor College of Medicine. She specializes in asthma, breastfeeding, healthy eating, safety, sleep, toddlers, teenagers, and infants and newborns.

At the end of the year, Dr. Vinona Vohra will close her Texas Children’s Pediatrics practice at 17115 Red Oak Drive in north Houston and merge it with the Texas Children’s Pediatrics practice at 17030 Nanes Drive. Vohra – who specializes in asthma, allergies, breastfeeding, healthy eating, infants, keeping fit, teenagers, toddlers and tweens – will become the fifth physician at the Nanes Drive location.

Texas Children’s Pediatrics is a group of board-certified, expert pediatricians who have extensive training in children’s health care. With convenient locations throughout the greater Houston area, the group provides the finest pediatricians dedicated to meeting the health care needs of infants to teenagers.

For more information about Texas Children’s Pediatrics, visit http://www.texaschildrenspediatrics.org/.

November 25, 2014

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112614woodlandsadmininside175Two seasoned Texas Children’s leaders have been charged with heading the organization’s second community hospital – Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands.

Michelle Riley-Brown will become president of the new hospital and Dr. Charles Hankins will become chief medical officer of the institution, which will open its doors to outpatient care in the fall of 2016 and inpatient services the following year. Riley-Brown and Hankins will assume their new roles in January.

The leadership announcement was made November 20 to about 500 guests at The Forum Luncheon in The Woodlands, an event hosted by the Development Department.

“It’s amazing what we are allowed to do here at Texas Children’s,” CEO Mark A. Wallace said at the forum after talking to the audience about The Woodlands Campus and its leadership. “We are going to start out with the A team and then build from there.”

Riley-Brown and Hankins will come to The Woodlands with a wealth of experience in running a community hospital since both helped open and are currently leading Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus.

Riley-Brown, who joined Texas Children’s 15 years ago and has a Masters of Health Administration from Washington University, is the current president of West Campus, which opened in 2011 and has become a staple in pediatric health care for those who live in the area. Hankins, who has been with Texas Children’s for 11 years and specializes in neonatology, is the current chief medical officer at the hospital.

In addition to their experience in leading a community hospital, both Riley-Brown and Hankins will come to The Woodlands with a good understanding of the community, which sits about 30 miles north of Houston. Riley-Brown helped open and managed Texas Children’s Health Center – The Woodlands in 2003, and Hankins lives in The Woodlands community.

“I feel like I’m coming home,” Hankins said, adding that he is extremely excited to be heading up the medical team at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands.

Riley-Brown said she, too, is excited about coming to The Woodlands.

“I am looking forward to working with Dr. Hankins to ensure the success of Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands,” Riley-Brown said. “As we expand our services in this community, we will continue to bring high-quality care closer to our patients.”

Leadership at West Campus

Taking Riley-Brown and Hankins’ places at West Campus will be Chanda Cashen Chacón as president and Dr. Jeanine Graf as chief medical officer.

Chacón has been with Texas Children’s Hospital for more than a decade in leadership roles in ambulatory operations, pharmacy, the Heart Center and the Fetal Center. Currently, she is the vice president for Women’s Services at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. Chacón has a Master’s Degree in Public Health Administration from Yale University.

Graf, who was recently named a 2015 Catalyst Leadership Award recipient and president of the medical staff at Texas Children’s, is currently the medical director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Main Campus and of Pediatric Transport and Respiratory Care. She also is an associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, where she did her residency after earning her medical degree from Ohio State University College of Medicine.

“I am more than pleased to be taking on this new role at Texas Children’s,” Graf said. “I believe we have an obligation to support all children in the community and that this is a great new avenue through which I can accomplish that goal.”

Chacón said she is honored to have been chosen to lead West Campus.

“The hospital is a wonderful asset to Texas Children’s and to Houston’s pediatric community,” Chacón said. “I want to continue to grow and nurture that asset so it can benefit the patients and families we are honored to serve.”

About the community campuses

West Campus employs about 650 full and part-time workers and is home to a comprehensive array of pediatric specialty services including cardiology, gastroenterology, pediatric surgery, as well as occupational, physical and speech therapies.

Last year, the hospital saw more than 1,500 admissions and 37,000 emergency room visits. In addition, almost 4,000 inpatient and outpatient surgeries were conducted at the West Campus.

Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands will open with 500 employees and will include 24 emergency room beds, 74 outpatient exam rooms, four operating rooms, 30 acute care beds, 12 intensive care beds, five radiology rooms and a helipad.

Ample free parking will be available with 1,000 spaces planned. Along with serving families throughout The Woodlands Area, Texas Children’s anticipates serving families in counties throughout Greater North Houston, including Montgomery, Walker, Grimes, Liberty, Harris, Polk, San Jacinto and Hardin.

“You will never hear us refer to the West Campus or The Woodlands as satellites, because that’s not the way we look at them,” Wallace said during a 2013 interview about the announcement of The Woodlands campus. “We have one standard of care at Texas Children’s Hospital, whether it’s here or at the West Campus, it’s all the same.”

Texas Children’s employees are role models for our coworkers, our patients and our families. One of the most important ways we can lead during this year’s flu season is to get vaccinated against the potentially deadly illness.

Kay Tittle, president of Texas Children’s Pediatrics, agreed and elaborates below on how important it is to be a role model and to get your annual flu shot.

“One of the most important things we can do is to get the flu vaccine,” Tittle said. “It will provide protection for ourselves, our patients, our coworkers and our families.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, everyone 6 months of age and older should get a flu vaccine every season. This recommendation has been in place since February 24, 2010 when the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted for universal flu vaccination in the United States to expand protection against the flu to more people. Vaccination to prevent influenza is particularly important for people who are at high risk of serious complications from influenza. Those people include many of the patients seen here at Texas Children’s Hospital.

Influenza activity so far this year has been low in the United States, including Texas, according to the CDC, which collects, compiles and analyzes information on influenza activity year round in the United States and produces a weekly report from October through mid-May. That doesn’t mean this year’s flu season will be mild.

While seasonal flu outbreaks can happen as early as October, most of the time flu activity peaks between December and February, although activity can last as late as May. So, the time is still right for you to get your flu vaccine and join the more than 80 percent of Texas Children’s employees who already have.

Employee Health is administering free seasonal influenza vaccinations to all Texas Children’s employees, Baylor College of Medicine employees working in Texas Children’s facilities, Texas Children’s medical staff and volunteers.

Please schedule an appointment to get the flu vaccine at the Employee Health Clinic by calling Ext. 4-2150. Leaders can request a flu cart to their unit by calling the same number. If you received your vaccine elsewhere, please fax a statement from your doctor or pharmacist saying you did so to Ext. 4-2141 or via interoffice mail to Employee Health A5527.

November 18, 2014

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On Thursday, Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark A. Wallace shared exciting news: Texas Children’s Board of Trustees has enthusiastically approved our plans for CareFirst.

Wallace and the leadership team launched CareFirst in January to reinvest in the programs our most critically ill patients need – primarily in the Critical Care units, operating rooms, Heart Center, Emergency Center and many of our Diagnostic and Therapeutic Services.

“These programs are at the core of our mission to create a healthier future for children throughout our broad community,” Wallace said.

The CareFirst plan includes adding 19 floors to the existing building base next to Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. For now, this new tower is named “Pediatric Tower E.” The 25-floor tower is slated to come online in 2018 and will house a 130-bed intensive care unit, new operating rooms with the latest technology and Texas Children’s Heart Center, including the cardiovascular operating rooms and the cardiovascular intensive care unit. The CareFirst plan also includes renovation of the Emergency Center and other areas in the West Tower that will become available once Pediatric Tower E is completed. Diagnostic and Therapeutic Services will be located throughout the new spaces so that care can be delivered close to where patients are.

“This is cause for celebration,” Wallace said. “A considerable number of people, including board members, medical staff, managers and employees, have invested countless hours in this work, and together, we conducted a comprehensive study of our challenges, needs and aspirations, and a thorough assessment of the most effective solutions. The result is CareFirst.”

The expansion of the hospital’s facilities and programs in the Texas Medical Center will create access and allow us to provide the best quality care for the children who need us the most.

“CareFirst will ensure the best possible outcomes for some of the nation’s sickest children,” Wallace said. “And it will help us deliver on our promise to make Texas Children’s the best possible place to give and receive care.”

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Texas Children’s Health Plan opened its second location of The Center for Children and Women on November 11. The approximately 65,000-square-foot facility, which is located at 9700 Bissonnet Street in the Southwest Corporate Center, provides comprehensive medical care for Texas Children’s Health Plan members in the Southwest area of Houston.

Through a partnership with Baylor College of Medicine, the patient- and family-centered medical home includes pediatricians, advanced nurse practitioners, OB/GYNs, certified nurse midwives, optometrists, imaging specialists, speech therapists, a laboratory, and an onsite pharmacy. There are also plans to add dentistry services. Having all these services under one roof makes it possible for members to have their medical needs met on the same day and in the same location.

“Texas Children’s Health Plan is very proud to expand The Center for Children and Women to another location in Houston,” said Christopher Born, Texas Children’s Health Plan president. “The Center for Children and Women model has exceeded our expectations at our Greenspoint location and we look forward to the same success at the Southwest location.”

The new facility is the second Texas Children’s Health Plan – The Center for Children and Women to open in the past year and a half. The first facility opened in the Greenspoint area in August of 2013 and has made a great impact on the surrounding community. Within its first year of operation, The Center for Children and Women in Greenspoint completed more than 27,000 appointments, delivered more than 260 births, and hosted breastfeeding, car seat safety, and new parent classes to help educate the community. The facility also received National Committee for Quality Assurance recognition and was selected by Texas Health and Human Services for a national pregnancy medical home pilot program.

“Our goal is to ensure that Texas Children’s Health Plan members receive the same level of care as those with commercial health insurance,” stated Tangula Taylor, director of operations at The Center for Children and Women. “We are very proud of what we have accomplished in the time that the Greenspoint location has been open and we are uniquely positioned to serve the Medicaid and CHIP populations in Southwest Houston with the same commitment.”

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What is supposed to be a joyous occasion – the birth of your baby – suddenly gives way to anxiety. While you know the next few months are critical to your premature infant’s survival, you never expect to hear this dreaded diagnosis: “Your baby has necrotizing enterocolitis.”

Texas Children’s Neonatologist Dr. Amy Hair is on a crusade to protect fragile and premature infants from necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a life-threatening neonatal condition that causes inflammation and death of intestinal tissue. In the worst cases of NEC, perforations develop in the intestine which may require portions of the intestine to be surgically removed.

Since the internal organs of premature infants are not fully developed, they are more susceptible to NEC, which claims the lives of 500 premature infants each year in the United States. Jennifer Canvasser, a mother whose infant son died of NEC, knows this reality all too well. “My son Micah was critically ill when I first heard about NEC. In a matter of hours, Micah went from being a beautiful five-pound baby to being critically ill and intubated with cords, wires and tubes on each of his extremities.”

Micah’s tragic outcome and one from Hair’s earlier years in residency – she treated a baby who died of NEC – motivated Hair to protect premature infants from this deadly disease by encouraging nursing mothers to donate the lifesaving gift of breast milk.

“Breast milk donors are lifesavers,” said Hair. “Unlike formula derived from cow protein – which is known to increase the risk of NEC – breast milk contains antibodies and anti-inflammatory factors that protect babies against NEC and a host of bacterial infections.”

Hair says the most effective way to reduce the rate of NEC is by feeding infants a human milk diet, which supports the guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics. This diet consists of mother’s own milk, pasteurized donor breast milk and protein fortifiers that add calories and nutrients to human milk to help critically-ill infants grow and thrive.

Since Texas Children’s implemented its exclusive human milk feeding protocol in 2009, NEC rates in our NICU have dropped significantly from the national average of 10 -12 percent to 2 percent. Hair attributes this remarkable decline to the generous mothers who donate their breast milk to Texas Children’s Mother’s Milk Bank, many of whom are Texas Children’s employees.

“Every ounce of donor breast milk improves neonatal outcomes in our NICU,” said Hair. “If more mothers donate their excess supply to our Milk Bank, we can ensure our tiniest, most vulnerable patients receive a constant supply of nourishment and protection to stay healthy.”

As the associate medical director of neonatal nutrition at Texas Children’s, Hair has devoted her entire research to neonatal nutrition and delivers numerous presentations each year touting the lifesaving benefits of human milk at pediatric research conferences wordwide.

She also serves as a scientific advisor to the NEC Society, a non-profit organization that was established by Canvasser to honor her son, Micah, increase awareness about the lifesaving power of human milk, and encourage more mothers to donate their breast milk to protect babies from NEC.

Dr. Hair’s call-to-action is simple: Donate breast milk and save a baby’s life.

Click Texas Children’s Mother’s Milk Bank to learn more about our donor breast milk program.

November 11, 2014

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Texas Children’s Hospital is working hard to prepare its staff and its facilities for a patient with Ebola or a similar infectious disease.

Isolation units have been designated. PPE has been purchased. Staff is being trained on how to use it. And, leaders are meeting regularly to assess the organization’s preparedness as it relates to the most current information available.

Another initiative in the works will give the hospital the capability to test for the Ebola virus onsite instead of depending solely on lab results from state and federal government laboratories.

Dr. James Versalovic, who heads up the hospital’s pathology department, said he is in the process of purchasing equipment that will allow his staff to test for Ebola and similar infectious diseases at the main campus. Being able to test for such conditions at Texas Children’s Hospital will enable medical staff to quickly determine and provide appropriate care.

Currently, lab samples from suspected Ebola patients are sent to the Texas Public Health Department in Austin and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Georgia. Results are typically released within 72 hours. In the meantime, the patient is isolated and his or her symptoms are treated.

Versalovic said even with onsite diagnostic capabilities, lab samples from suspected Ebola patients still would be sent to the state and the CDC for confirmatory testing. Treatment, however, could be started sooner with the initial result in hand in hours compared with days. And, by ruling out Ebola more quickly in suspected patients, the correct diagnosis can be made more rapidly.

All onsite testing will be done at the main campus by a specialized team in a negative-pressure bio-containment laboratory. A similar unit is being planned for the west campus.

The goal is to have both labs ready and equipped to test for Ebola and other such diseases next year. The upgrades and additions will provide Texas Children’s with the best tools to diagnose and treat patients with infectious diseases, Versalovic said. The tools also will position the organization’s staff for effective patient care, optimal protection and safety.

 

Return to Ebola Response site.