February 5, 2024

Last week, years of planning and hard work culminated in a special ribbon cutting ceremony and open house for employees to celebrate the grand opening of Texas Children’s Hospital North Austin. With the opening of North Austin Campus, we expand our hospital reach to four campuses, three of which are located in the Greater Houston area, including the esteemed Texas Medical Center.

The ribbon cutting just so happened to take place on Texas Children’s platinum anniversary, and with a “1-2-3, cut the ribbon!” we signaled a major milestone in our 70-year history. Afterwards, local press, community leaders, friends and partners of Texas Children’s were invited to take a first look at the $485 million, state-of-the-art, 365,000-square-foot campus through guided tours – exploring different areas of the hospital and taking in its unique design inspired by Central Texas landscape and ecology.

This changes everything in Austin

In the last 10 years, an estimated 30,000 children had to leave Austin and travel to Houston to receive specialized care. “Austin families and the surrounding communities deserve the most advanced treatment from world-renowned physicians at any given moment,” said Austin Senior Vice President Russ Williams. “Texas Children’s is doing their best to ensure this will happen now and in the future.”

Texas Children’s has been building a presence in Austin since 2018 with more than 20 locations offering pediatric, women’s, urgent and specialty care in the region. The opening of North Austin Campus – starting with outpatient clinics on Feb. 5 and inpatient services on Feb. 20 – will provide Austin families and surrounding communities with access to top-ranked services closer to home. What’s inside North Austin Campus? Here is just a highlight:

  • Five floors with 52 patient beds
  • 13-room emergency center seeking Level II designation
  • 11 urgent care rooms
  • 12-room NICU seeking Level IV designation (the highest level)
  • 10 ICU beds with room for another 14
  • Seven operating rooms (five for pediatrics and two for women’s)
  • Dedicated rooms for full L&D, recovery and postpartum stays
  • Renal/dialysis unit
  • Sleep study and epilepsy monitoring rooms
  • 170,000-square-foot outpatient building with a Texas Children’s Pediatrics clinic

“It has been a longtime goal of mine to continue the incredible mission of our founders and expand access to Texas Children’s high-quality level of care to families throughout Texas,” said CEO Mark A. Wallace. “As we celebrate our 70th anniversary as an organization, we are looking forward to serving even more children and women with one of the most elite clinical teams in the world.”

The right people make the difference

Opening a brand new hospital would not be possible without the passion and dedication of our One Amazing Team, including hundreds of newly hired employees and 75+ staff transfers who bring over 600 years of Texas Children’s experience to Austin.

After cutting the ribbon, we rolled out the red carpet for these team members and their families for an Employee Extravaganza complete with swag bags, food and beverage trucks, Terry Black’s BBQ, face painting, photo stations, live music and so much more. It was an evening to remember as more than 2,000 people filled the halls of North Austin Campus to marvel at the space and enjoy the festivities.

“It was a really fun and thoughtful event,” said North Austin social worker Claire Andrefsky. “It was nice to be able to show my family the hospital, especially because it’s been such a busy year leading up to opening.”

“I am most excited about all our services being in one place, it makes my job to help families navigate the healthcare system so much easier to simply send them down the hall for lab work and other important testing,” added Andrefsky. “I think it will reduce delays in care, and improve long term health outcomes for our patients.”

See photos from both grand opening events below.

 

February 2, 2024

Team members gathered at North Austin Campus for a hard-earned celebration. Read more

February 1, 2024

We celebrate our 70th anniversary by cutting the ribbon on North Austin campus. Read more

Seventy years ago, Texas Children’s opened our doors with a three-story building in the Medical Center and welcomed our first patient, three-year-old Leigh Van Wagner. Fast forward to today, and because of our One Amazing Team’s dedication to our mission to create a healthier future for children and women, we’re now the largest pediatric hospital in the United States opening our new 365,000-square-foot hospital in North Austin.

As the first pediatric hospital in Texas, we offered a specialized experience for patients and families in the area. Our opening year we had 4,588 patient admissions; 5,492 visits to 11 clinics and performed approximately 92,000 lab tests. Due to our incredible growth over the next seven decades, today, we have nearly 4.9 million patient encounters and nearly 7,000 births take place annually.

Our employee numbers have skyrocketed with employees in our campus hospitals in Medical Center, West, The Woodlands and Austin, Texas Children’s Pediatrics, Urgent Cares, Texas Children’s Health Plan, The Center for Children and Women, Duncan NRI, Specialty Care locations and non-clinical areas. What started with 128 employees in 1954 has grown to more than 17,000 Texas Children’s employees today.

Congratulations to all our team members for 70 years of changing lives.

Happenings from 1954

While our hospital opening changed the landscape for pediatric medicine in Texas, many other amazing things happened around the world that year:

  • A group of children from Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Penn. receives the first injections of the new polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk. Thanks to the vaccine, polio cases were reduced by 99 percent worldwide by the 21st century.
  • Dr. Joseph E. Murray at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Mass. performs the first human kidney transplant between 23-year-old identical twins.
  • Bell Labs announces the first solar battery made from silicon. It has about 6% efficiency.
  • Brown v. Board of Education – The United States Supreme Court rules that segregated schools are unconstitutional.
  • RCA manufactures first color TV set for consumers (12½” screen at $1,000).
  • First Lady of the United States Mamie Eisenhower launches the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, in Groton, Conn.
  • English athlete Roger Bannister becomes first to run a sub-4 minute mile, recording 3:59:4 at Iffley Road Track, Oxford.
  • New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio weds Marilyn Monroe at San Francisco City Hall.
  • New York City Ballet co-founder and balletmaster George Balanchine’s production of The Nutcracker is staged for the first time in New York, becoming an annual tradition still being performed.
  • The first issue of Sports Illustrated magazine is published.
  • Texas Instruments announces the development of the first transistor radio.
  • The first Hyatt Hotel, The Hyatt House Los Angeles, opens. It is the first hotel in the world built adjacent to an airport.
  • The first branch of Burger King opens in Miami, Fla.
January 31, 2024

We continue to monitor the recent increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations across our communities, our workforce and our system.

Highly transmissible COVID-19 variants combined with the peak of the flu season and other circulating respiratory illnesses have made for a somewhat challenging winter in the communities we care for, but we remain confident in our ability to meet the needs of our patients, families and team members.

We’re prepared for this, and part of that preparation means taking simple yet effective steps to help stop the spread of winter illness.

Reminders to fight contracting and spreading germs

Masking. While masking remains optional, we recommend you consider masking at work, particularly in shared spaces or patient settings. In the community, consider masking, particularly in crowded areas. Masks are strongly encouraged for those with high-risk conditions. Please note that masks are widely available at Texas Children’s hospital campuses and care locations at building entry points.

Hand hygiene. Clean your hands frequently and thoroughly to protect yourself and your patients. Clean your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer. Follow the Five Moments for Hand Hygiene ENG|ESP.

Schedule your free updated COVID-19 vaccine

Updated vaccines provide more current and complete protection. Texas Children’s strongly advises team members to receive the latest COVID-19 vaccines. All team members (including BCM faculty and staff) can click here to schedule a free vaccine appointment through Employee Health at Medical Center, West, Woodlands and Austin Specialty Mopac.

Additional resources

Stay home if you feel sick and get tested if you have respiratory symptoms compatible with COVID-19 or Flu. Note that antiviral treatments are effective if administered early enough for Flu or COVID-19. Early diagnosis and treatment also reduce spread of viruses in the workplace. Click here to review the COVID-19 Return to Work process. For non-COVID-19 related illnesses, click here to review the Illness in the Workplace Policy.

All team members can access the Employee Health Virtual Assistant from any device, any time, on or off the Texas Children’s network for COVID-19 exposure, symptom or illness related guidance and support.

If you have any questions about COVID-19 or vaccines, you can contact Employee Health at (832) 824-2150, option 4, seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Team members can also email emphealthcovid19@texaschildrens.org.

For Flu or non-COVID-19 related illness questions, please contact Employee Health at (832) 824-2150, option 2, Monday – Friday from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. After hours for any emergencies (i.e., needle sticks, splashes, work related injuries), please page the on-call nurse through the page operator at (832) 824-2099. Team members can also e-mail emphealth@texaschildrens.org.

January 29, 2024

It’s time for a hole-in-one! The Texas Children’s Houston Open is only weeks away, so let’s get ready to tee off. We’re honored to be the title sponsor of this celebrated PGA TOUR event, building on its legacy and providing a memorable experience for the city of Houston. Through our partnership with The Astros Golf Foundation, we’re thrilled to be a part of this monumental sporting event, hosting some of the PGA TOUR’s most outstanding players.

The event will occur on March 25-31, and our team members and their spouses/significant others are invited to volunteer free of charge. Don’t miss your chance to be involved, give back and be part of something special.

The volunteer registration deadline is Friday, February 23.

Texas Children’s team members and their spouses/significant others are also eligible for 20% off the purchase of grounds tickets at the tournament through our partnership with The Astros Golf Foundation.

Visit the Texas Children’s Houston Open SharePoint site for ticket and volunteer details, including the promotion code and registration link.

 

On January 23, Texas Children’s Hospital launched its most recent major care venture – virtual nursing. The Virtual Care Network will transform the bedside care model, provide on-demand support and offer real-time surveillance.

While virtual nursing has recently grown in popularity among adult hospitals, Texas Children’s is set to be the first major children’s hospital with a robust program. Focused initially on care model redesign, it reimagines typical patient care at the bedside – removing administrative tasks from the bedside nurse and taking family-centered care “beyond the bedside” by offering coordinated, convenient support to patients using technology.

In October, over 60 providers, leaders, parents and care team members assembled to bring the vision for virtual nursing to life. “Innovation is contagious, and nurses are especially primed for it,” said System Chief Nurse Executive Jackie Ward as she opened the kickoff event. “They are critical thinkers who get creative with solutions and look at problems from multiple angles…they are tenacious and caring, constantly assessing situations to improve patient care.”

The NICU is the first department to pilot the virtual nursing care model redesign. This hybrid model adds a virtual nurse to the clinical care team from a remote hub, and through these virtual interactions, parents and caregivers can access supportive resources without interruption of bedside care. Virtual nurses will focus on department orientation following admission, enhanced education, support during the length of stay, and robust discharge readiness planning with intention to expand to different inpatient areas over the next year.

“Protecting our teams from burnout continues to be a top priority…with this redesign of duties, we can work to retain nurses who may have otherwise left the bedside and continue delivering compassionate care to families” shared Ashley Simms, Assistant Vice President, Nursing.

Virtual nursing offers game-changing opportunities around how we cater to our patients, families and nursing teams with evolving needs. The creation of this network highlights all the talents that make us One Amazing Team – problem solving, collaboration, patient advocacy, continuous learning and adaptability.

Stay tuned for more to come from the Virtual Care Network! For more information about the initiative or NICU pilot, please connect with one of our workgroup leaders: