While COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations have increased sharply in recent weeks, Elaine Whaley encourages our nurses to continue to practice the safety precautions that have proven successful throughout this pandemic – both at work and at home – to prevent community spread of COVID-19 and promote a safer patient care environment for everyone. Read more
While the COVID-19 global pandemic continues to take center stage around the world, the community and staff at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus held a special tribute to salute our heroes on the frontlines of this crisis. It was their turn to shine and be recognized for their hard work and sacrifice.
“Once the sirens went off, it was just this heart-warming experience to see everybody coming together,” said Lia Hales from Harris County ESD No. 48 Fire-EMS-Rescue, who collaborated with Texas Children’s to bring this event to West Campus. “We are all one, and we are all helping our community.”
On June 17, a parade of police and emergency vehicles representing several agencies – Harris County No. 48 Fire-EMS-Rescue, Katy Police, Harris County Sheriffs Office, and Community Volunteer Fire – made their way to West Campus. With flashing lights and sirens blaring, first responders waved to a cheering crowd of health care workers to show their appreciation and support for everything they do.
Ashston Tiney, a patient care assistant in the Nursing Operations Float Pool at West Campus, and her colleagues watched the parade as it passed the front entrance of West Campus and circled around the hospital where first responders thanked more frontline staff gathered outside the Emergency Center.
“I think it is amazing for our first responders to come out and take their time to show us their support,” Tiney said. “We love our community so much and we’re here to take care of them and their families.”
While some West Campus staff stood outside to watch the parade, others watched the celebration from their windows, including patient families. Staff say they were grateful and humbled by this experience.
“Many of the people who came out to support us are also on the frontlines themselves,” said Mary Reddick, Child Life activity coordinator at West Campus, who helped organize this event. “To see people wanting to give back to us in a time where we typically give back to them is very humbling.”
Texas Children’s West Campus leaders are grateful to our community partners for helping to plan and organize this celebratory event to honor our frontline heroes especially during these challenging times.
“I appreciate all of the time and effort committed to making this tribute successful,” said Gbolahan Harris, assistant director of Clinical Support Services at West Campus. “It was remarkable to see all the planning involved culminate into an uplifting experience for our frontline staff who enjoyed this shining moment.”
On June 12, Juliana Graves met her donor heart family with her mom, dad and brother by her side. Juliana, now 6, had a life-saving heart transplant at Texas Children’s in 2014 at just 17 days old.
The Graves family knew they would one day want to meet the family who gave their daughter the gift of life. That meeting happened last week when the Graves family met the Aguiars at LifeGift where they shared stories and memories about Juliana and the Aguiars’ son, Christopher.
Christopher’s mom, Jennifer Aguiar, also listened to her son’s heart beating inside Juliana’s chest.
“Meeting the Graves family was both beautiful and comforting,” Jennifer Aguiar said. “It’s helping me process the loss of my son.”
Riki Graves, Juliana’s mother, said her family thinks and prays about Christopher every day and that being able to meet his family was “wonderful.”
During the meeting, Juliana handed Jennifer a teddy bear and gave her a big, long hug.
“The most important thing this family has given me is Christopher’s heart,” the little girl said.
Living without a new heart was not an option for Juliana. Doctors with Texas Children’s Fetal and Heart Centers diagnosed her with a complex heart condition before she was born and initially thought she would need several heart surgeries shortly after being delivered.
Riki was already fighting a battle when she found out, at 20-weeks pregnant, that her unborn daughter might not survive. Earlier in her pregnancy, Riki was diagnosed with breast cancer and decided to pause treatment while still pregnant.
Her team of doctors at the Fetal Center monitored her pregnancy very closely. Juliana was born on April 9, 2014 and it was determined that her heart was too structurally abnormal and weak to undergo surgery. Juliana was placed on the transplant list on April 21. On April 26, at 17 days old, she received her new heart.
Dr. Jeffrey Heinle, associate chief of congenital heart surgery, led the transplant surgery, which was a success. He and Dr. Jeff Dreyer, pediatric cardiologist and medical director of heart failure, cardiomyopathy and cardiac transplantation, have been following Juliana and working with the Graves family to provide them with continuous, ongoing care.
“The Graves’ story is a remarkable one and much of it is owed to the generosity of the Aguiar family,” Heinle said. “Organ donation truly saves lives. This is a perfect example of that.”
Dreyer agreed and said it’s always nice to be part of such a happy ending.
“This mother and child have overcome so many obstacles,” he said. “Continuous monitoring for Juliana will be needed, but she is on a positive path forward thanks to her donor family and others.”
Diana Harter, assistant clinical director of nursing for transplant, was Juliana’s transplant coordinator. She said she knows the Graves family has been waiting a long time to meet their donor family and that such meetings are meaningful and healing for everyone involved.
“Donor meetings are so special to witness,” said Harter, who attended the meeting with the Graves and Aguiars last week via video conference. “They bring everything full circle.”
As we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, more employees are working remotely these days, which has significantly increased the demand for telephone conversations between Texas Children’s and patient families. While video visits are the best option for telemedicine appointments, sometimes our providers and ancillary services need to reach out to families with a simple and quick phone call, like updating them on a medication or test result, without the need to schedule a video appointment or meeting where both parties have to log in at the same time.
Since our providers and ancillary team members are minimizing the amount of time they spend in the clinic with patient families and are conducting more telephone visits remotely, they primarily rely on their personal cell phones to reach out to families instead of using their Texas Children’s desktop phone.
“When our ancillary or clinical teams call families while working remotely, they are unable to mask their personal cell phone numbers and instead have to call from a blocked number reducing the likelihood that a family will answer their phone,” said Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Melanie Lowther. “Since 35 percent of our social workers and care coordinators have long distance numbers, they can’t forward their Texas Children’s desktop phone to their personal phone, which puts an extra wrinkle in that communication loop.”
To effectively address these challenges and make it easier to connect remotely with patient families, Texas Children’s Information Services recently expanded the organization’s work-from-home solutions. There are four solutions available, addressing different needs and work configurations, including a mobile function that turns a person’s mobile device into an extension of their desktop phone.
“While we already had a strong foundation in place, we had to modify the organization’s existing phone system to support the mobile application,” said Trey Jones, director of Digital Services for Information Services. “Before enabling this new technology, we validated the product stream to ensure we had enough incoming connectivity pieces to support the number of users that may want to access it.”
This new functionality within Texas Children’s existing phone system was truly a collaboration on many fronts that helped get this product up and running. Even before COVID-19, the organization had been reassessing its work-from-home solutions to better meet the needs of our employees and staff.
“We have a resourceful workforce, and this new mobile app will be beneficial for providers and especially for our ancillary groups who are in close contact with families several times a day,” Lowther said. “These tools are available to anyone who needs to make phone calls that look like they’re calling from their desk number, and receive phone calls through their desk number. These are universal solutions for everyone.”
Every 10 years, the U.S. Constitution requires that all residents of the United State are counted. The 2020 Census will have a lasting impact on our country and the state of Texas. The count will determine how many members of congress can represent the interests of Texans in Washington and how hundreds of billions of federal dollars will be distributed amongst the states. Over the next decade, the Census count will help lawmakers at all levels of government, business executives, school officials, and leaders of various organizations make critical decisions specific to the needs of their communities. Therefore the Census count will have broad impacts for years to come on issues that touch our everyday life like where new schools are needed, road and infrastructure investments, and how Medicaid, CHIP and other health program funding will be allocated. An undercount would dramatically deprive various populations, community organizations, businesses, and institutions like ours of vital public and private resources.
It is extremely important that every member of our One Amazing Team engage in their civic duty and respond to the 2020 Census questionnaire as soon as possible. We should all encourage our family and friends to do the same.
As Mayor Turner recently shared, “Houston could lose about $1,578 for each person who is not counted. And if we undercount 10% of the city’s population, we could lose $3.78 billion over the course of a decade.”
In mid-March, most households received an invitation in the mail to respond to the 2020 Census, followed by multiple reminders and a paper questionnaire. Census takers are scheduled to visit households that have not yet responded to the 2020 Census beginning in August.
Secure Internet: For the first time this year, the Census will be available online.
https://2020census.gov/en/ways-to-respond/responding-online.html
Respond by phone: The census phone lines are available at 1-800-923-8282.
https://2020census.gov/en/ways-to-respond/responding-by-phone.html
Respond by mail: By now, every home was mailed a hard copy Census form that can be filled out and returned. Information on how to complete the Census accurately is in the link below.
https://2020census.gov/en/ways-to-respond/responding-by-mail.html
In-Person interview: United States Census Bureau enumerators will visit residences that choose not to self-respond.
August 11 – October 31, 2020: Census takers will interview homes that haven’t responded to the 2020 Census to help make sure everyone is counted.
Need assistance?
Lines are open. CST seven days per week.
English (1-844-330-2020) and Spanish (1-844-468-2020).
If you service communities with different language needs, please check out the language-specific phone lines at: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/2020-census/planning-management/memo-series/2020-memo-2019_18.html
For the past several years, Texas Children’s Hospital and the Houston Texans have challenged kids of all ages and abilities to be active at least 60 minutes every day through PLAY 60, the NFL initiative encouraging kids to start healthy habits young – an initiative that Texas Children’s serves as the local sponsor of. That mission has not changed – and has become even more important – amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
To help motivate kids to get moving, Texas Children’s and the Texans are hosting a Get Fit with TORO Week this week (June 15-19) and Junior Cheerleaders Online Dance Parties (every Friday for the next few weeks). Details about each event are below. Have fun and keep moving!
Get Fit with TORO Week
Get Fit with TORO is the elementary school program that Texas Children’s sponsors each academic year. With school suspended to COVID-19 and now out due to summer, TORO wanted to bring the curriculum to kids at home.
June 15-19
Event schedule
Monday: Flexibility
Tuesday: Muscular Strength
Wednesday: Cardio
Thursday: Nutrition
Friday: Recap with special guest
Junior Cheerleaders Online Dance Party
Calling all dancers … the Houston Texans Cheerleaders invite you to join the Junior Cheerleaders Dance Party, presented by Texas Children’s! Practice along with them, record your routine and share with us using #TCHPlay60 #TCHJuniorCheer.
Texas Children’s Hospital is the Official Children’s Hospital of the Houston Texans. To learn more about our partnership, visit: texaschildrens.org/texans.
Texas Children’s joins TMC in peaceful protest and walking vigil
On Tuesday, while George Floyd was being laid to rest in a solemn private service in Pearland, Texas, our Texas Children’s family joined almost 1,500 health care professionals in the Texas Medical Center for a peaceful protest with Scientists and Health Professionals for Black Lives.
Click here for an inspiring video from the event.
George Floyd grew up in Houston, and on May 25, he died beneath the knee of a police officer in Minneapolis, MN. His death has ignited global outrage and sparked more than two weeks of fervent protests and a call to action.
Tuesday’s peaceful protest and vigil were organized by Malcolm Moses and Ayesha Khan with the Association for Minority Biomedical Research (AMBR), who both moved the crowd with their heartfelt words. They were joined by Texas Children’s Cancer Center physician Dr. Rayne Rouce whose impassioned speech moved the crowd and brought to light the struggles she, her colleagues, and patients face on a daily basis.
“Being a black woman who is a physician and scientist means living in dual realities,” Rouce said to the crowd. “It means sometimes wondering if I can not only make a difference in the health of an individual patient but reflecting on how much needs to happen to make a difference in the health of all black people. It means struggling to find the words to explain to a colleague why their recommendations, which may seem doable, are not feasible for a black patient living in a food desert or one who does not have consistent transportation. It means choosing when to bite my tongue and when to speak up regarding the constant barrage of racially insensitive encounters we face on a sometimes daily basis. It means advocating for patients who look like me.”
The speeches in the Commons were followed by a walking vigil. Participants walked around the Texas Medical Center, wearing masks and carrying signs with messages of support for the Black Lives Matter movement. The protest was a critical demonstration intended to provide support and awareness.
On Monday, Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark Wallace sent a note to all Texas Children’s employees and faculty, sharing his bold stance against systemic racism and oppression and urged people to join the march. Texas Children’s was proudly represented at the event with strong attendance by employees, staff, and physicians, including Wallace, his wife Shannon, our in-chiefs, medical staff leaders, and many of our executives.
“In my 30 years leading this organization, I have not seen an event like this in the TMC,” Wallace said. “I could not have been more proud of all of the students, researchers, and medical professionals, some who are just starting out in their careers, organizing this protest on behalf of all of us in the Texas Medical Center. And although it saddens me that we are not where we need to be today, I’m grateful that we’re finally at an inflection point where so many people around the world have been moved to rise up and bring about change.”
Khan, President of AMBR, noted that Tuesday’s protest was the first time space within the Texas Medical Center was used to amplify black voices and directly address racism, especially related to health care disparities, biases among medical providers and the experience of minority medical students. “Protests like ours are especially important within health care,” Khan said. “It is an important first step.”
“Colleagues from all different walks of life came together as allies to promote equality and, most importantly, to promote respect for humanity. It was a powerful display of alliance, togetherness, and condemnation of racism, and I was honored to participate with colleagues from Texas Children’s Hospital,” said Jackie Ward, Texas Children’s Vice President and Associate Chief Nursing Officer.
Texas Children’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Lance Lightfoot attended with his family. “I attended with my wife and my 16-year-old son because I felt it was important for my family to show support for the Floyd family and the Black Lives Matter movement,” Lightfoot said. “We were moved by the speakers and the crowd, and I know it’s a day we won’t forget. I felt even prouder to be there as part of Texas Children’s, an organization that promotes diversity and practices inclusion every day.”
“It’s a powerful and bold start,” Wallace said. “We have much more work to do, and I’m so encouraged to see so many of us are taking deliberate, decisive steps to affect real change. Each one of us have a role to play, and this is our moment to speak up, speak out, and create the world we want the next generation to live in.”
