July 19, 2021

This month’s Take FIVE recognizes that people have multiple parts of who they are, including race and gender – this is called intersectionality. Importantly, the ways these identities layer on top of one another can increase the challenges of each one. For Black women, this can create multiple opportunities for mistreatment.

  1. What is Intersectionality? Kimberlé Crenshaw describes intersectionality and powerfully highlights how it results in exclusion and erasure of African American women: https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality?language=en
  2. Young, Gifted, and Black – and Over-Monitored: Young Black female athletes have a history of being overly critiqued, especially in relation to how they look and present to the public. Recent examples of controversy and criticism include: Responses to champion tennis player Serena Williams’ catsuit at the 2018 French Open which she wore to manage blood clots following a medically challenging pregnancy (https://www.vox.com/2018/8/28/17791518/serena-williams-catsuit-ban-french-open-tennis-racist-sexist-country-club-sport), record-breaking sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson’s style and response to family trauma surrounding the qualifying trials for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics (https://www.thezoereport.com/beauty/history-of-black-track-field-athletes-manicures), and backlash to tennis star Naomi Osaka’s decision to take a break from press conferences to protect her mental health (https://time.com/6077128/naomi-osaka-essay-tokyo-olympics/).
  3. Barriers to Advancement in Academia: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones made headlines with the challenges, hurdles, and discrimination she faced in seeking Tenure for the Knight Chair professorship position she was offered at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her experience reflects the systemic roadblocks that Black academics – especially Black women – face in their careers (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/07/09/black-women-underrepresented-tenure-university-faculty/7890102002/).
  4. Persistent, Stark Wage Inequality: Houston Chronicle article spells out the many factors that systematically lead to higher poverty in Black women. They highlight data that Black women made 61.3 cents for every dollar made by non-Hispanic White men – and that the comparison is 47.1 cents to the dollar locally. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Gender-inequality-can-be-fixed-New-University-of-15125694.php
  5. Intersectionality and Transgender: Black transgender women are too often the victims of violence based on their intersecting identities of gender and race (https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/13/us/black-transgender-women-attacks-trnd/index.html). With a history of erasure and victimization, Black trans women have played an important role in fighting for women’s equal rights. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a35746428/black-trans-women-fight-for-womens-rights/
July 13, 2021

Fueled by the work of a multidisciplinary team, Texas Children’s has officially passed the exciting milestone of 1 million online patient appointments scheduled through MyChart.

Since launching Direct Scheduling in 2018, Texas Children’s has continued to make strides towards ensuring that patients and their families have convenient, easy access to our high-quality services.

Over the past year, under the scope of the Ambulatory Redesign Project, a team including dedicated members from operations and Information Services has worked to enable enhanced online scheduling functionality for our patients and their families.

“Online scheduling is an important part of our ‘customer obsession’ journey,” said Carrie Rys, assistant vice president for the Department of Pediatrics. “This is just one of the exciting ways that we are offering patients greater self-service options through MyChart that they have come to expect.”

The Online Scheduling Redesign Team has implemented all-inclusive online scheduling in 31 specialties across the hospital system, which includes scheduling functionality for new patients, return patients, telemedicine appointments, panel appointments and ticket scheduling.

“It’s so easy now, for instance, for a family to finish up a telehealth visit, then immediately schedule their follow-up visit from their MyChart app on their phone that allows them to see different day and time options that work for them,” said Curtis Yee, practice administrator for Diabetes & Endocrinology and Dermatology. “Without stopping at a check-out desk, we may have missed an opportunity to get that follow up scheduled.”

Texas Children’s section leaders are hearing firsthand about how these optimized functionalities have enhanced the patient experience.

“Online scheduling has helped Neurology improve our engagement with families with establishing new and follow-up care,” said Michael LaRose, practice administrator for Neurology. “We noticed that when patients have more autonomy to select their appointments we see fewer late cancellations and no shows to clinic, improving access for all patients as a result.”

Texas Children’s is in the top 10 percent of pediatric Epic clients for online scheduling utilization, which speaks to the success of countless team members working to educate and support our patients and their families in its use.

The online scheduling journey has been a true success for the organization thus far, and team members expect even greater gains in future months.

“Kudos to our teams activating MyChart, and (for) sharing these tools with families over the years that has put these tools in the hands of so many,” said Sara Montenegro, assistant vice president for Texas Children’s Pediatrics. “I love that this journey has been incremental, and has taught us so much directly from our patients and families.”

 

Come on, One Amazing Team! Together, let’s embody the bold spirit of the Olympics and push each other to achieve greater heights of physical well-being.

As the official pediatric center of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, Texas Children’s is excited to cheer on the world’s most amazing athletes during this year’s Summer Olympics, beginning Friday, July 23.

In the spirit of sportsmanship, determination and teamwork, Texas Children’s is inviting all of its team members to participate in its Go for the Gold health and wellness initiative, which challenges participants to work out for 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week, while the summer games are being played.

Program details

Go for the Gold will run from Monday, July 19, to Sunday, August 8.

To win Gold, participants must complete 30 minutes of physical activity at least 5 days a week (a minimum of 15 active days). To register, click here.

Once registered, you will receive a welcome email with a tracking sheet to follow your progress, as well as additional tips on nutrition, hydration and strength training. Participants will also receive weekly motivational tips.

To complete your workouts using Active and Fit Direct, learn more by visiting our Well-Being page on Connect.

All participants who win Gold receive a free Texas Children’s workout band.

Now, let’s Go for the Gold!

Michael Sparks shares the important role of preceptors and their impact on education and professional growth for new hires. Read more

July 9, 2021

Due to the critical Microsoft “PrintNightmare” vulnerability that affects all Windows devices, Information Services will patch all workstations and servers beginning Friday, July 9, per the schedules below.

Server update schedule
  • 10 p.m. Saturday, July 10 to 6 a.m. Sunday, July 11 (8 hours)
  • Applications will experience a short outage during the server patching window.
Workstation update schedule

Non-Clinical Workstations Update Window

  • Desktops/VDIs: 8 p.m. Friday, July 9, to 6 a.m. Saturday, July 10
  • Laptops 8 p.m. Friday, July 9 to Open ended*

Clinical Workstations Update Window

  • Even numbered workstations: 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday, July 10
  • Odd numbered workstations: 8 p.m. Friday, July 9, to 1 a.m. Saturday, June 10

How to check a workstation number:

  1. Click Ctrl + Alt + Delete to open the Windows security information box
  2. Workstation number – in blue bar at top of box (next to the words “Windows Security”)

*Laptop updates will begin when users connect to Texas Children’s network

Didn’t receive the update?

If your computer does not receive the update, you will receive popup messages that workstation updates are available. Click here for instructions on how to install the updates manually.

Workstation update: On campus

If your workstation is located on campus, please leave it turned on to help facilitate the installation.

  • If a workstation is on and unattended, the updates will load automatically.
  • If you are at a workstation, here’s what to expect during the update:
    1. You will receive an install notice with a countdown timer displaying the number of minutes until the download begins.
    2. Log off the workstation before the countdown reaches zero. The updates will then begin automatically.
    3. Workstations will not be connected to Texas Children’s network during the updates.
    4. The updates will restart the workstation. Reboot warnings will appear before the machine restarts.
Workstation update: Teleworkers

If you telecommute, follow these steps to receive updates to your TCH computer:

  1. Lock your computer, leave it on and connected to VPN (if applicable). This will help to facilitate the installation of the updates if your TCH device is connected remotely.
  2. Your TCH workstation will REBOOT during this process, possibly several times, so please save all current work.
  3. Remote note: These steps apply only to TCH assets (e.g. laptop) that are connected remotely via VPN. For people that connect via remote.texaschildrens.org on home PCs, there is nothing to do, since your assets in the office will update automatically.
Questions?

For questions about the security updates, call the IS Service Desk at 832-824-3512.

July 7, 2021

Seven years after performing the world’s first successful two-port fetoscopic surgery to treat spina bifida, Texas Children’s surgeons have performed the100th surgery of its kind.

Dr. Michael Belfort, OB/GYN-in-chief at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, and Dr. William Whitehead, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Texas Children’s, developed the fetal surgery technique, which presents less risk to the mother and less risk of prematurity to the baby.

The condition occurs when a fetus’ neural tube fails to close during the first month of pregnancy, and can cause children to have difficulty walking, to need a shunt to drain cerebral fluid, and more.

“This milestone is very exciting and has been years in the making at Texas Children’s,” said Belfort, who is also professor and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine.

“Fetal surgery for spina bifida improves the baby’s chances of being able to walk and decreases the need for a shunt to drain fluid from the baby’s brain. Our procedure allows the mother the chance of a normal term delivery and reduces her risk of the type of complications that may be seen with the open uterus approach,” Belfort said. “We hope that our outcomes will inspire other physicians to use this technique to improve spina bifida care across the world.”

Belfort and Whitehead began to develop and practice their method in 2011, before performing the procedure on a patient three years later. At the time, the then-investigational surgery began a research study overseen by the Institutional Review Board at Baylor College of Medicine, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a Data Safety Monitoring Board and the Texas Children’s Hospital Fetal Therapy Board. Now, the procedure is standard of care for eligible patients at Texas Children’s.

“I am so proud of Dr. Belfort, Dr. Whitehead and the entire Texas Children’s Fetal Center team for this incredible accomplishment,” said President and CEO Mark A. Wallace. “Improving the quality of life for even one mother and child is reason enough to be proud, but 100 successful surgeries truly shows the consistent expertise of our team. Reaching this remarkable milestone is only the beginning, and I know the team will continue to take care of the children and women who need us the most while innovating new lifesaving treatments.”

Currently, the typical procedure to treat spina bifida prenatally is an open procedure, where the spine is repaired through a 7 to 10 centimeter opening made in the uterus. Women who undergo this procedure need a preterm cesarean delivery for this and all future pregnancies to avoid uterine rupture.

Instead, Belfort and Whitehead’s method allows mothers to deliver around 38 weeks instead of 34 to 35 weeks, and about half have a vaginal delivery.

“The benefits to the mother are what convinced me to be part of this fetoscopic program, and I am even more pleased now to see that the later gestational age at birth also has benefits for the baby,” said Whitehead, who is also a professor of neurosurgery at Baylor.

Now, Belfort and Whitehead are training physicians from across the world to perform the procedure.

“There are babies on four continents and more than 12 countries who have benefited from the fetoscopic approach. We hope to continue improving spina bifida outcomes for children and mothers, wherever they may be,” Belfort said. “We are looking forward to innovating additional fetal surgeries to address other life-limiting or life-threatening congenital anomalies.”

Over the July Fourth holiday weekend, a ransomware attack hit as many as 1,500 businesses across the globe, with hackers demanding $70 million.

Now more than ever, it’s imperative that the Texas Children’s community be informed about ransomware attacks. Knowing how they can impact Texas Children’s and what you can do to help is the first step in awareness.

What is ransomware?

Ransomware locks a computer system to prevent the owner or organization from accessing data until they pay a ransom. Although there are different ways ransomware can enter a network environment, the most common threat comes from fraudulent email, when an employee may be deceived into clicking a link or opening an attachment that then transmits ransomware into an organization.

What do we know about this latest ransomware attack?

REvil, a Russian-language group, is demanding $70 million after it targeted information technology company Kaseya and 15,000+ customers. It’s the biggest ransomware attack on record and is just one of several attacks that have impacted businesses and health care providers across the globe.

What’s being done to prevent ransomware attacks at Texas Children’s?

Texas Children’s has multiple security systems in place to protect our systems against malware, including continuous monitoring of our network. Employees, though, are on the frontlines of protecting our systems, and it is important that they take steps to prevent dangerous ransomware from impacting our network.

What can you do to help?

Heighten your awareness of external emails from unknown senders, and carefully consider before clicking on website links and opening email attachments, especially links to file-sharing sites like Google Drive. To do that, please follow these steps:

  1. Look for the yellow bar. Every email that originates from outside Texas Children’s network is tagged with a yellow bar at the top of the message. If you see this yellow bar, do not click any links or open any attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
  2. Pay close attention to who the message is coming from. Look carefully at the sender’s email address. If it is one you do not recognize, or looks suspicious, do not engage with the message.
  3. Spelling and grammatical errors. These are telltale signs of a phishing scam. Treat these messages as a threat to our network and delete them immediately.
  4. Be cautious of links. If you are being engaged to click a link, take a moment to hover your mouse over the link to see where you will be directed upon clicking. Simply put: if the link is not legit, do not click.
What do I do if I receive a suspicious email?

If you receive a suspicious message, refrain from opening it or any attachments, and do not click any links. Simply delete the message from your inbox and notify IS Security by emailing isservicedesk@texaschildrens.org.

If you have any questions about information security or phishing, please call the IS Service Desk at 832-824-3512.

How do I sign up for emergency alerts through Everbridge?

In the event that Texas Children’s is impacted by a ransomware attack, our IS team may be required to shut down all or parts of our network, including email. Should this happen, Everbridge emergency text messaging would serve as a primary means of communicating with our workforce.

If you are not currently receiving emergency text communications from Everbridge, please sign up for alerts by following the instructions below:

  • For TCH employees: Add your mobile phone number to your profile in MOLI to begin receiving these messages. Upon logging in to MOLI, simply click on “Personal Information” and then “Phone Numbers.” From there, you will see an area to add your mobile phone.
  • For BCM employees: To opt-in for emergency text messages, please click here and then log in with your username and password. From there, you will be prompted to submit a mobile phone number.