May 4, 2023

Every day, our team members deliver safe, personalized, compassionate care for our patients. From small gestures to life-saving procedures, everything we do contributes to creating a positive and impactful patient experience.

Recently, our teams rose to the occasion to thank and celebrate both our patients and team members. With special activities, such as volunteer tea cart and fun cart experiences, character visits, including Star Wars and Princesses on Parade, visits by therapy volunteer dogs, as well as fresh baked cookies delivered during culture rounds, ice cream socials and root beer floats, there was something for everyone. Thank you to the Patient Experience team for putting the events together!

The dedicated team members across our TCPs, TCUCs and The Centers created fun environments to show their patients how valued they are and to thank them for choosing their practices for the care of their loved ones. Check out the amazing photos from around our various locations. Many of the teams also made special videos with their staffs with the TCP Cypresswood location putting their own lyrics to a familiar favorite. Here are just a few.

“I’m so proud of how our teams rise and shine for patients every day, and the extra effort they put in last week was so special for everyone,” said Dan Gollins, president, TCP/TCUC. “Our teams continue to nurture the special connections they have with our patients and their families, and we appreciate their trust in us. Everyone had so much fun celebrating with each other and enjoying the activities all week long.”

Patients commented on their positive experiences last week:

“I loved her visit, the staff always makes her feel welcomed. She especially loved the game they had at this visit.” – North Shore family

“We visited during patient appreciation week and there was this very creative tic tac toe activity which allowed the kids to learn more scout the staff and share some of their own favorite things. I found this to be fun and engaging.” – TCP Town & Country family

There were events happening all across the Texas Children’s system. View the photo gallery below for the activities from around The Medical Center, West and The Woodlands campuses.

This year’s Patient Experience Week theme was SHINE and that’s exactly what our team members did for our patients. They went above and beyond to make it a special week.

If you want to recognize someone for making an impact, click here for the Caught You Caring form. Anyone (patients, families, colleagues, vendors, volunteers or visitors) can provide a kind word about someone who went the extra mile. Even the smallest act of kindness can brighten someone’s day. The recipient and their leader will receive an email notification. Since its inception in 2015, there have been more than 30,000 recognitions submitted.

May 1, 2023

Grow healthy environments with slight behavioral changes. Read More

Click the image for a larger view.

Last year, the child abuse pediatric team was consulted to see more than 200 admitted patients and over 500 patients in their outpatient clinic.

Providers who treat child abuse are particularly vulnerable to experience vicarious (or secondary) trauma, a process of change resulting from empathetic engagement with trauma survivors. This can lead to a range of negative physical and emotional symptoms like intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, anxiety, depression and burnout.

For Child Abuse Prevention Month in April, child abuse specialists from Texas Children’s spoke to other providers in a recent Respite Rounds conference on the unique challenges that come with treating difficult cases, and offered insights on protecting your mental health when caring for our most vulnerable children.

Navigating intense emotions and vicarious trauma

When asked to speak to her younger self, Dr. Marcy Donaruma said she’d offer up ways to better manage the intense emotions she felt. “I was always angry, and I learned that burning my fuel on anger wasn’t healthy,” she said. “You can be angry, but the time you take to sit in those feelings needs to be thoughtful, not sustained.”

Donaruma is a child protective health provider who spends most of her time seeing sexual abuse patients at the Children’s Assessment Center. “I always try to find ways to find the upside in rotten situations … even when it’s something major, you can always find an upside if you look hard enough,” she said.

Dr. Mackenzie Hughes, a clinical pediatric psychologist, shared her own perspective and tips on practicing self-care. “It’s OK to feel hopeless, especially when we’re hearing awful details and witnessing the horrors of child abuse every day,” said Hughes. “But when we stretch ourselves thin and spin our wheels trying to fix all the things, that’s when we start to burn out.”

“We each have a role to play,” Hughes continued. “I don’t have control over CPS or where the kids I work with are placed, but my role specifically is to help them process their traumas and give them what they need to heal and move forward.”

“My journey is my journey,” added Grace Harmon, a PICU social worker with 20 years of experience working with CPS and child abuse victims. “I’m here to support patients and families on their path, but I’m not doing them any benefit by taking it home with me … I can be present with them in the moment, but I had to learn how to say goodbye to the moment as well, for my own sake.”

Work-life balance is easier said than done, but incorporating small actions into your day that “wash off” the trauma you hear and interact with can make all the difference. Dr. Hughes suggests taking just five minutes to do a mindfulness activity, breathe, watch a funny video, or find something that activates your senses like taking the stairs.

Other tips and advice shared from the panel discussion include:

  • Surround yourself with positive and hopeful reminders of why you do this work.
  • It’s normal for the work to impact us … it doesn’t mean we’re not built for it or tough enough to handle it.
  • Try to place focus on caring for and healing the child, not the circumstances that led them to us.
  • Sometimes, the most patient-centered thing to do is let a child be surrounded by familiarity and biologic connection.
  • When the effects of vicarious trauma start to impact your functioning, tap into professional support like therapy and treatment.

Click here to join the Respite Rounds Repository group on Teams and watch a full recording of the discussion, hosted by Palliative Care Service (PACT).

You are not alone

Need support? The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is designed to promote emotional health and wellness, and improve quality of life at work and home. The program is confidential and here to support all Texas Children’s employees and eligible dependents with experienced, licensed and credentialed professionals. If you or someone you know is struggling, please contact EAP at 832-824-3327 or EAP@texaschildrens.org.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and our Workforce Well-Being team is hosting a variety of events, trainings, conversations, and more for Texas Children’s employees to take advantage of. Check the SharePoint site for a full list of activities!

The Child Abuse Protection team is available on-call to support staff and providers through possible maltreatment cases 24 hours, seven days a week. You can reach out via the page operator at 832-824-2099 or through an EPIC referral. For additional training surrounding child abuse, trauma-informed care and human trafficking, please contact Diane Kaulen at dbkaulen@texaschildrens.org.

Lastly, thank you to our Public Health Pediatrics and Child Abuse Protection teams for their continued dedication, research and advocacy. Click the flyer above for a recap of their efforts to address childhood adversities in 2022. With a team as great as ours, the difference is truly life-changing.

April 28, 2023

A relieved family member submitted the following Caught You Caring recognition for Account Representative Marc Hurrigan.

“I am so thankful to Marcus. I was trying to get help with my billing request for hours throughout the day. When I finally called again I was thankfully transferred to him and just by hearing his confident and friendly tone of voice I knew I had the right person to help me.”

Caught You Caring

There are countless examples of how team members make an impact every day. Through our Caught You Caring recognition program, anyone (patients, families, colleagues, vendors, volunteers or visitors) can provide a kind word about someone who went the extra mile. Even the smallest act of kindness can brighten someone’s day. Click here to submit a recognition for a colleague. The recipient and their leader will receive an email notification. Since its inception in 2015, there have been more than 30,000 recognitions submitted.

One of Texas Children’s most unique and meaningful traditions, TC Hi, is back to a full-day session! This first-day orientation for new team members not only provides a strong foundation, it establishes connections that last long after they hear, “Welcome to TC Hi!”

The full-day session provides a more robust introduction to our culture, core values and accomplishments as an organization. In a nod to a high school setting, team members start their day in “freshman assembly,” where they learn about our commitment to safety and health, strategy, and dedication to our mission. Then, they proceed through the four years of high school, each with an activity corresponding to one of our four values.

As part of the networking activities during the day, team members are encouraged to share what brought them to Texas Children’s. For new team member Ciara Smalling, “it feels like home.”

Ciara came to Texas Children’s in 1997 for the first liver cell transplant and has now completed “a full circle” after being hired as a front office specialist at the Texas Children’s Pediatrics Conroe. It’s a dream come true for her to give back and care for future patients just like Texas Children’s took care of her and her family all those years ago.

Click here for more moments from TC Hi where our new team members embark on the first day of their career at Texas Children’s!

April 25, 2023

On Mark Wallace’s blog, he celebrates his monumental 70th birthday and reflects on how proud he is to have grown up with Texas Children’s. Read More

To be the best, you need the best people, and at Texas Children’s our Transplant Services Team has proven year after year they reign supreme.

Texas Children’s is home to the largest and #1 ranked Pediatric Transplant Center in the United States. The hospital has great success in helping patients with cases other hospitals might consider untreatable, and it’s all thanks to the dedicated individuals who form our world-class Transplant Services team.

“We have an incredible team, and I’m so proud of what they do for our patients,” said Diana Harter, director of Nursing, Transplant Services and Palliative Care. “I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for my team knowing the sacrifices they make and the emotional toll this work takes, but they do it with such grace and humility. Thank you also to everyone across the system involved in the care of these patients. Transplant is a team sport and working alongside such talented experts in the field is a privilege.”

There are so many memorable patients and success stories that come through the transplant center. Everyone who had the pleasure of working with Ava came away with a special feeling. Ava was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was just a few weeks old, but had remained healthy and up until last April was never hospitalized.

As a then 4-year-old, she suddenly developed pneumonia, and after a short time at a local hospital in New Orleans was transported to Texas Children’s for advanced therapy. Unfortunately, her health kept declining, and she remained in the PICU for 10 months. She was placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and put on the transplant list for lungs. After waiting for more than 200 days, she received her transplant in November 2022. It’s been a tough recovery, but thanks in large part to a dedicated team supporting her along the way, Ava is now thriving.

There are many people involved in the care of a patient, especially for those who spend an extended period of time with us. Nikki Beard, PICU/TICU child life specialist, was an integral member of Ava’s care team. Their time together involved a lot of activities from arts and crafts to playing “Dr. Ava,” as well as celebrating milestones and holidays.

“Ava is a strong little girl, and honestly, made my job so easy and fun,” said Nikki. “Most of my time with Ava was creating a sense of normalcy for her in the ICU and establishing myself as a supportive presence for both her and her family. Ava viewed me as a person who was there to play with and make the hospital fun, which was exactly my goal.”

In honor of Ava’s legacy, Nikki gifted her with a scrapbook of her PICU memories. It included letters from the staff who worked with Ava reflecting on their journey with her and their favorite memories. It also included the many photos Ava’s mom took of Ava with the staff.

“Watching Ava flip through the pages and get so excited to see all of the friends she had made over the last 10 months was such a fulfilling moment that I will never forget. When she is older, I hope this scrapbook will remind Ava how much she overcame, and how strong she truly is!”

Child Life Specialists in critical care often are there to provide emotional support for children and families on the worst days of their lives, but Nikki and her fellow specialists lean on each other for support and motivation to deliver the best care they can.

Nikki believes she has the best job in and world and is grateful for what she does. “Supporting kids and families on their most difficult days is such an honor and something that I do not take for granted. Witnessing the resiliency of my patients inspires me more than they will ever know, and I feel so honored to have a front-row seat to the miracles happening on a daily basis.”

Last year alone, Texas Children’s successfully performed 99 organ transplants, the highest volume for all pediatric centers across the United States for the sixth year in a row. According to the Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network (OPTN), in 2022, our heart, lung and liver transplant teams had the top pediatric volumes in the country with 29 hearts, 7 lungs and 35 liver transplants. Our kidney transplant program completed 29 transplants, finishing the year with the second highest pediatric kidney transplant volume in the nation. In addition to these exceptional volumes, our teams are dedicated to quality patient care and our programs lead the nation with exceptional outcomes as well.

Pediatric Transplant Week and Patient Experience Week are both celebrated this week. April is also Donate Life Month. We thank and honor all the dedicated team members in these departments who create a healthier future for children and women, every day. We are also so grateful to all the selfless organ donors and their families who chose to donate life during their darkest hour.