June 10, 2014

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It’s surgery day. You park your car, arrive at the hospital, but you’re not exactly sure where to go. Navigating the hallways and buildings of a large hospital campus can add an extra layer of anxiety to an already stressful experience for patients and their families.

“We want to create a positive experience for every single patient who walks through our doors,” said Mallory Caldwell, senior vice president of Administration at Texas Children’s. “We’re always searching for innovative approaches to ensure the delivery of superior customer service to our patients and their families.”

As part of a newly launched 4-month pilot program that started May 26, Texas Children’s Facilities Planning and Development department has designed wayfinding signs to improve navigation to the surgical suites at the Clinical Care Center (CCC) and West Tower, as well as contribute to a positive arrival experience for surgery patients.

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You’ve probably noticed the colorful, kid-friendly animal signage posted inside and outside the elevators, lobby, hallways and connecting bridges at the CCC and West Tower. The fishes, frogs and dragon flies direct patients easily to specific check-in locations for different operating room suites:

  • Fish = West Tower, Third Floor
  • Frog = Clinical Care Center, Seventh Floor
  • Dragon Fly = West Tower, 17th Floor

“To accommodate our diverse patient population, the animal signs are intended to reduce language barrier issues that arise with traditional verbiage signage when translation is often required,” said Doug Fowler, graphics program manager at Texas Children’s Facilities Planning and Development. “Patients simply follow the animal symbols to get to their respective check-in location for surgery.”

During the summer, Texas Children’s sees approximately 100 patients for surgery every weekday. The pilot is focused on those patients that arrive very early in the morning for the “first case,” as they are most in need of additional support upon arrival.

Equipped with copies of the surgery schedule, volunteers in blue vests will greet patients immediately upon arrival and will direct them to their proper surgical check-in locations. Patients are given an all new pre-surgery packet.

“We want our patients to arrive at their check-in location easily, and we encourage all Texas Children’s employees to be part of this collaborative process by becoming familiar with the signage and what it stands for,” says Dr. Larry Hollier, chief of Plastic Surgery at Texas Children’s.

The pilot program, along with feedback received from the patient experience surveys, will help us identify which areas need to be fine-tuned.

June 3, 2014

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When you think of Texas Children’s Neuroscience Center, two distinct attributes come to mind: integrated expertise and comprehensive patient care.

“Every single day, our neurologists, neurosurgeons and clinical researchers work together to pioneer innovative therapies to improve the lives of children with neurological disorders,” said Dr. Gary Clark, chief of Neurology and Developmental Neuroscience at Texas Children’s. “We needed a name that communicated this partnership and our firm commitment to providing high-quality comprehensive care to all of our patients.”

As a result, the neurology and neurosurgery divisions merged under one marketing umbrella to become the Neuroscience Center which focuses on a multidisciplinary team approach for treating childhood neurological disorders. If a neurologist diagnoses a brain disorder in a patient that cannot be treated by medication alone, for instance, then surgical treatment may be required.

Expert teams of neurologists collaborate with neurosurgeons daily to deliver complete care in more than 12 pediatric specialty clinics. Our Neuroscience Center brings together a diverse group of pediatric specialists representing different areas of expertise:

  • Neurology
  • Neurosurgery
  • Neurophysiology
  • Neurological Critical Care
  • Genetics

“By combining clinical care with easy access to surgery, our Neuroscience Center offers patients and their families access to treatment in one centralized location,” said Dr. Thomas Luerssen, chief of Neurosurgery and chief quality officer of Surgery at Texas Children’s. “From diagnosis to treatment, whether it involves surgery, inpatient rehabilitation or access to a clinical trial, our patients will have the full complement of services.”

Texas Children’s has consistently been ranked among the nation’s top children’s hospitals in neurology and neurosurgery by U.S. News & World Report.

“Since neurology and neurosurgery are measured as one specialty program by U.S. News & World Report, it makes sense to market them together as the Neuroscience Center,” said Dr. Clark.

Texas Children’s is one of the largest pediatric neurological service providers in the country. On average, more than 30,000 clinic visits take place every year and more than 900 surgeries are performed by providers in our Neuroscience Center.

Click link to learn more about Texas Children’s Neuroscience Center.

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Information Services (IS) will introduce several customer improvements this month to simplify service requests, solve problems more quickly and track service better.

“Information Services continually works to assess the effectiveness of our customer services, and we are aware our Service Desk customer care does not currently meet our standards or our customers’ needs,” said Myra Davis, senior vice president of IS.

Within the next few weeks, IS will implement several service enhancements, including improved staff, self-service options and a new support portal that allows customers to:

  • Report an issue or submit a request to IS online.
  • Check the status of any open service ticket previously submitted (with or without the ticket number).
  • Add comments to your ticket for the service analyst working on your issue.
  • Search articles and answers to common questions to help quickly resolve issues that may not need a service analyst.

How will this affect me?
Davis said customer improvements will provide a better, more efficient experience for all.

“We have renovated our customer service model to introduce enhancements like a new customer portal for online status updates and staffing improvements to reduce wait times,” she said. “New self-service options will help resolve issues without having to call the IS Service Desk. Everything is designed to improve the customer experiences of employees by helping our staff be more efficient.”

What employees need to do
The new customer support portal will pull contact information from each employee’s Connect Profile. Click here to check your Connect profile to make sure all of your contact information is current.

Questions?
Information Services is dedicated to providing a secure, reliable technology environment. If you have questions about IS customer service improvements, please call the IS Service Desk at Ext. 4-3512 (external 832-824-3512).

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The Clinical Research Center presented the Clinical Research Award for First Quarter 2014 to Catherine Loffredo, research nurse, Department of Molecular and Human Genetics-Clinical Program.

The award was established by the Clinical Research Center in collaboration with the Research Resources Office to recognize and honor individual contributions to protecting the best interest of the research subjects and compliance with applicable rules and regulations.

Ms. Loffredo’s research activities in the CRC focus on genetic syndromes.

May 27, 2014

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Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair in Tropical Pediatrics, put the spotlight on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in the Central African Republic (CAR) through a recent op-ed piece in the Huffington Post. With just more than five million people, CAR is considered one of the most remote and economically devastated countries in Africa – and according to Hotez, its brewing brutal civil war could mean an overwhelming increase in disability and death caused by NTDs if action isn’t taken quickly.

“NTDs and poverty reinforce each other through mechanisms that involve reductions in workforce, food insecurity and the health of girls and women. Less well known, but equally important social forces, in promoting NTDs, are war and conflict,” said Hotez. “CAR has a fragile health system to begin with. If we now superimpose conflict and war, it could result in near or complete collapse and inability to provide treatments.”

CAR is one of Africa’s largest sources of endemic and hyperendemic NTDs, and the numbers are staggering. Approximately 1.5 million children require periodic deworming for their intestinal helminth infections, of whom more than 500,000 also need regular treatment for schistosomiasis. Hotez explains that while all of the most common NTDs, such as intestinal worms and schistosomiasis, are of concern in CAR, there also is reason to be especially worried about NTDs transmitted by insect vectors such as kala azar and African sleeping sickness. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), CAR is one of four African countries annually reporting more than 100 cases of the Gambian form of sleeping sickness, which usually leads to death in two to three years.

Currently, neither the United States nor the United Kingdom governments support NTD control and elimination programs in CAR, and there is very little private philanthropic money focused on NTDs going to support such measures. The END Fund, a private philanthropic fund dedicated to combatting NTDs, was one exception and supported NTD control efforts in CAR in 2012. But due to the impact that violence and instability had on the ability for program partners to move forward with mapping and mass drug administration (MDA) activities, the END Fund had to place support to CAR on hold.

“NTD control often falls off the priority list when conflict arises as agencies and governments focus on providing food, shelter and security to affected populations,” said Hotez. “As MDA often mobilizes thousands of health workers to treat millions of people at risk of NTDs in a short period of time, the activities can be dangerous in times of conflict.”

While the majority of health organizations in the U.S. don’t seem focused on NTDs in CAR yet, Texas Children’s is highly aware of the situation there, stressing how important it is that the people of CAR receive access to essential NTD medicines.

“Texas Children’s Hospital is emerging as the first truly global children’s hospital – we take care of the world’s children,” said Hotez. “This is an absolutely unique vision pioneered by Dr. Mark Kline and Mark Wallace, but also extends to Drs. Michael Belfort and Chuck Fraser who are committed to women’s health and surgical issues in resource-poor settings.”

To ensure that NTDs are not further neglected during times of crisis in CAR, Hotez calls for engagement from health agencies with expertise in complex emergencies and a willingness to ensure NTD control efforts remain a priority.

He also is working tirelessly to develop vaccines that can be administered in places like CAR to help eliminate the spread of NTDs. The Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development are pioneering the development of a human hookworm vaccine and schistosomiasis vaccine. They also have a new vaccine for leishmaniasis under development.

“At Texas Children’s, we are very concerned about the suffering of children everywhere,” said Hotez. “We’re making vaccines for the world’s poor.”

May 20, 2014

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St. Joseph’s Women’s Medical Center in downtown Houston recently cut the ribbon on its newly renovated neonatal intensive care unit. The renovations were a result of a partnership agreement with Texas Children’s Hospital which extends our neonatal care to the downtown hospital. The project cleared the way for state of the art support devices critical for the care of medically fragile infants. Just as important, it improved the environment for the patient and families in ways that have been shown to improve outcomes for critically ill infants.

“This partnership is critical to our overall regional strategy of ensuring the best care is available within reach for babies not just at Texas Children’s Hospital, but across the area,” said Dr. Stephen Welty, chief of neonatology. “We work closely with excellent nurseries in the community to promote the same quality and care standards followed in our level IV NICU.”

Texas Children’s provides St. Joseph’s with administrative and clinical support, giving patients access to the latest treatments available in neonatal and pediatric care, state-of-the-art equipment and pediatric sub specialists. That includes cardiology, neurology, infectious disease, ophthalmology and more.

St. Joseph’s is the seventh hospital in the Greater Houston community affiliated with our NICU. The others include Methodist West Houston Hospital, Methodist Willowbrook Hospital, Methodist San Jacinto Hospital, The Methodist Hospital, St. Luke’s The Woodlands Hospital and St. Luke’s Hospital at the Vintage. The partnerships also mean in the relatively rare circumstances when level IV care is necessary, the patients will be transferred to Texas Children’s Hospital.

“At Texas Children’s Hospital, our mission to build a healthy community of children begins at the very start of life,” said Cris Daskevich, senior vice president of Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. “Our relationship with St. Joseph’s allows us to partner in providing exceptional neonatal care to the premature and critically-ill infants that need it most, so that babies can have the best possible outcomes.”

May 13, 2014

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Today marks the opening of the first Texas Children’s Urgent Care clinic, which will offer high-quality, efficient and affordable pediatric care after hours, closer to home.

“Texas Children’s Urgent Care was created to respond to the growing need for expert pediatric urgent care after hours,” says Randall Wright, executive vice president of Texas Children’s Hospital. “Our clinics are conveniently located in your neighborhood, and available evenings and weekends, to continue our commitment to providing care to all patients and families in the Houston community.”

Texas Children’s Urgent Care is open Monday through Friday, 4:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 8 p.m. Clinics are staffed by board certified pediatricians who have privileges at Texas Children’s Hospital. Pediatricians 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 provided include: antibiotic injections, breathing treatments, fracture care and splinting, IV (intravenous) fluids, lab services, laceration repair and x-rays on-site.

“We are excited to bring this expert urgent care model to the Houston community,” says Dr. Gary Gerlacher, Texas Children’s Urgent Care lead physician. “In my experience, I’ve seen firsthand how the urgent care setting has truly helped fill a void in treatment for children and their families.”

The first Texas Children’s Urgent Care clinic is located at Cinco Ranch, and the second, scheduled to open this summer, will be in the Town & Country area.

Oftentimes, families turn to an emergency center after hours, on weekends or perhaps even during the day, when a significant event occurs with their child. Though the emergency center is the right place for some incidents or ailments, the majority of the time, minor illnesses can and should be treated at a pediatric urgent care facility.

Texas Children’s Urgent Care accepts major insurance plans and has self-pay rates, which are less than emergency center charges, and there are no hospital fees. A complete list of insurance plans is available on the website. Texas Children’s Urgent Care specializes in after hours care, but does not replace the need for children to have a general pediatrician. Routine physical exams and vaccinations are services that should be obtained from a general pediatrician, and these services are not available at Texas Children’s Urgent Care.