May 13, 2014

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Employee Health & Fitness month is an opportunity to educate employees on the resources available for you right here at work to help you improve your health and well being. Texas Children’s Employee Health & Wellness wants to help you achieve your fitness goals by making a fitness plan you can follow consistently. Read the tips below and come to recess day on The Auxiliary Bridge on Wednesday, May 21, to have some fun while getting fit with your colleagues.

Tips to make fitness fun:

1. Find exercise you love: While exercise provides amazing health benefits it also provides an outlet and release from the world. Everyone needs their own authentic way to unwind through movement. Is running and yoga not your cup of tea? Keep trying new things until you are hooked!

2. Get techy: Health and fitness apps can help you create a customizable workout regimen, personalized diet plan, track your healthy habits, and monitor your health status over time. Most apps allow you to set goals and can keep you accountable by tracking your progress. Employee Health and Wellness has compiled an introductory list of some of the most popular fitness apps on the market. Click here to learn more!

3. Play outdoors: If possible, go for a walk outside to get some fresh air. Take a brisk walk around the medical center, the MD Anderson pathway (at the corner of Holcombe and Fannin) or through the pretty tree-lined neighborhoods near Main Street. West Campus and J.P. McGovern employees also have access to convenient outdoor walking paths. Find a local walk near your work location.

4. Adopt the buddy system: Walking, running, or attending a group exercise class is much more fun with a friend or coworker. Help yourself and your rolodex look and feel the best by inviting others to sweat with you.

5. Move outside your comfort zone: Whether dancing in public, participating in a running event, or rock climbing, challenge yourself to move outside your comfort zone.

6. Come out to Recess Day on Wednesday, May 21: Employee Health and Wellness will be hosting a Recess Day on The Auxiliary Bridge from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Come over and take a break or “recess” from your busy day with classic games to get you in fitness mode.

Other Upcoming Wellness Events

  • New Series of Weight Watchers at Work starts Monday, May 19
  • Employee Well-being Fair is Thursday, June 18

Your wellness matters, click here to learn more! (This link will only open internally)

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National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week was celebrated the fourth week in April. Leaders, staff members, pathologists and laboratory staff members commemorated this time with many notable events.

Every year, the Department of Pathology honors and remembers Virginia Deeken, a respected educator for the Texas Children’s Hospital Laboratory from 1972 to 1993, with the Virginia Deeken Memorial Lecture. This year, Dr. Adekunle Adesina, medical director, Texas Children’s Molecular and Neuropathology Laboratories and Global Pathology, presented “Global Pathology Outreach – All the Sides of the Coin.”

The department recognized both a team and individual who made extraordinary contributions to patient care through their laboratory service.

The presentation of the GJ Buffone Pathology Improvement Award was made to Betty Sapinsky, Maureen Quinn, Christina Moreno, Tyler Giess, Mindy Dement and Shari Lim who worked together to create the protocol for management of massive transfusion cases with the Pavilion for Women patients. They collaborated with physicians and caregivers to create a standardized and streamlined process to support the fastest service. The system has reduced nursing staff’s efforts in providing the required information and samples needed for laboratory testing. This revised protocol reduced turnaround times for results and seamlessly tracked transfused blood products.

For the Individual Excellence award, we honor a pair of individual leaders involved in information mining and presentations/graphics services, respectively. Michael Dowlin, Pathology’s senior programmer analyst, quietly creates and advances the data mining and analytical tools we demand for quality assurance, dashboard metrics and information archiving and retrieval. Karen Prince, Pathology’s graphics and image specialist, has incredible talents in design and presentation that illustrate the department’s staff, faculty, accomplishments and communications both professionally and artistically.

Medical laboratory testing plays a crucial role in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of disease in patients. An estimated 60 percent to 70 percent of all decisions regarding a patient’s diagnosis and treatment, hospital admission and discharge are based on laboratory test results.

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Drs. Greg Buffone (left), Rocky Hui, and Jun Teruya (right), present the GJ Buffone Pathology Improvement Award to the Pavilion for Women Massive Transfusion Protocol team: Betty Sapinsky, Mindy Dement, Maureen Quinn, Shari Lim, Christina Moreno (not pictured) and Tyler Giess (not pictured).

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Individual Excellence Award recipients are Michael Dowlin (left) and Karen Prince.

May 6, 2014

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Texas Children’s first urgent care clinic will soon open to continue our commitment to providing high-quality, efficient and affordable care to all patients and families in the Houston community. Created to respond to the growing need for expert pediatric urgent care after hours, the clinics are conveniently located and open evenings and weekends.

The first location, Texas Children’s Urgent Care Cinco Ranch, will begin seeing patients on Tuesday, May 13, at 9727 Spring Green Blvd., Suite 900 in Katy. A second urgent care clinic is slated to open later this summer.

The clinics will be staffed by pediatricians who have privileges at Texas Children’s. They will diagnose and treat a variety of illnesses and conditions including: asthma, strep throat, fever, minor burns, flu, ear infections and allergic reactions. Patients needing fracture care and splinting, IV fluids, lab services, laceration repair and x-rays may also receive treatment at Texas Children’s Urgent Care.

The urgent care clinics will not perform routine physical exams for patients or administer vaccinations as those services should be obtained from a general pediatrician. Texas Children’s Urgent Care will accept major insurance plans and has self-pay rates, which are less than emergency center charges.

For more information, visit Texas Children’s Urgent Care’s website.

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We love our volunteers at Texas Children’s Hospital. If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer, visit here for more information.

April 29, 2014

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Employee Health and Wellness launched a six-week nutrition program called MyPlate Challenge for all Texas Children’s badge holders last Monday with an impressive 733 participants. This week, the challenge focuses on how to incorporate whole grains into one’s diet. The participants have been challenged to consume at least three servings of whole grains per day for at least four days this week.

Not sure what constitutes a grain much less a whole grain? Any food made from wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley or another cereal grain is a grain product. Bread, pasta, oatmeal, breakfast cereals, tortillas, and grits are examples of grain products.

All food products made from grains, however, they’re not all created equal. Grains are divided into two subgroups, Whole Grains and Refined Grains. Whole grains contain the entire grain kernel – the bran, germ and endosperm. Refined grains have been milled, a process that removes the bran and germ. This is done to give grains a finer texture and extend their shelf life, but it also removes many of the necessary nutrients our bodies need like dietary fiber, iron, and most B vitamins.

Here are five tips to help you eat whole grains:

  1. 1. Upgrade your white bread and pasta to whole grain bread and pasta
  2. 2. Choose brown rice over white rice
  3. 3. Reach for popcorn as a snack, but go light on the butter and added salt
  4. 4. Try ancient grains like quinoa especially if you or someone in your family is on a gluten-free diet
  5. 5. Begin your day with oatmeal. Skip the added sugar by opting for basic oatmeal. You can add plenty of flavor through topping your bowl with honey, nuts, and fresh fruit

Hungry for more? Click here to learn more about the challenge and other wellness offerings at Texas Children’s. (This link will only open internally)

connect anywhere

Texas Children’s is a big place with lots going on, and sometimes it’s tough to keep a pulse on it all. With that in mind, Texas Children’s Internal and Corporate Communications team has launched a new website – www.texaschildrensnews.org – to put all of the organization’s top news at employees’ fingertips.

Texaschildrensnews.org launched in February and already has had nearly 18,000 views.

“The best thing about this site is that we finally have created a place where staff and employees can access Texas Children’s news easily,” said Angela Hudson, assistant director of Internal and Corporate Communications.

The site was launched to complement the team’s weekly news cycle. The team updates the Connect intranet site every Tuesday with five to six top news stories, which rotate in the homepage photo carousel. On Wednesdays, the team emails the Connect News enewsletter to all staff and employees featuring the week’s new headlines.

“Connect News now links you directly to the new texaschildrensnews.org, and you can get there from a mobile phone, tablet or computer at home or work,” Hudson said. “This was really important to us – It’s important to provide this access to our audience. There’s no logging in, no passwords, no firewalls. Just hop on, take a quick read and stay informed.”

In addition to the new site, the team also will debut a refreshed design for the weekly Connect News enewsletter this week. Connect News first launched in summer 2012 and was significant in helping decrease the amount of global email traffic within the organization. The new, cleaner look complements the Connect site and the new external news site and will continue to be emailed weekly.

“We’re committed to telling and sharing the Texas Children’s story internally,” Hudson said. “After all, our ‘story’ revolves around our staff and employees and their amazing work. Our team’s goal is to get them information they want and need, when they need it, as easily as possible.”

Get Connect News sent to your home email
If you don’t have access to your Texas Children’s email on your phone or don’t typically have time to check your email at work, we can send the weekly Connect News enewsletter to a home email address. Just email us at connectnews@texaschildrens.org.

April 22, 2014

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The Spring 2014 graduates of the Texas Children’s Hospital Lean Six Sigma Green Belt program received their certifications at a ceremony on March 31. Since February 2009, the Department of Business Process Transformation has trained more than 150 employees including physicians, directors, managers and other informal leaders including front line staff members on the Lean Six Sigma process improvement methodology. More than 80 percent of the candidates trained in the program went on to complete the requirements for certification, with more students approaching their project close dates this summer.

The Texas Children’s certification recognizes candidates who provide statistically significant evidence that their process improvement project resulted in positive outcomes in quality, cost or cycle time metrics. Certified Green Belts at Texas Children’s include representation from inpatient/outpatient areas, ancillary departments, Texas Children’s Health Plan (TCHP), Texas Children’s Pediatrics, Baylor and Texas Children’s Physician Service Organization (TCPSO). The certification ceremonies are held annually each spring.

The Department of Business Process Transformation offers Lean Belt Training (a prerequisite for Green Belt) now available for enrollment through the Learning Academy.