September 23, 2019

Texas Children’s Hospital was recently re-verified as a Level 1 pediatric trauma center by the American College of Surgeons and the Texas Department of State and Health Services.

During the re-verification process, the American College of Surgeons evaluated whether Texas Children’s Hospital met specific criteria. The evaluation included a lengthy and thorough questionnaire, patient care review, and an on-site visit.

The evaluation found no deficiencies and listed multiple strengths, including the excellent multidisciplinary efforts, leadership, quality improvement, and commitment to research by the hospital and its staff.

Selected comments from the reviewers are below:

  • The hospital administration’s commitment to provide the facilities and support for the trauma program is outstanding. Texas Children’s Hospital clearly demonstrates leadership in both the state and regional trauma system development. The comradery and commitment of everyone associated with the trauma program is outstanding. The Trauma Program has an outstanding trauma registry validation process. The addition of an outreach and education coordinator has markedly impacted this service in only a few years. The trauma prevention manager is a strength for the program and brings extensive experience, productivity, and energy to the program. The hospital’s collaborative efforts internally and with the other Level I pediatric trauma centers in combined prevention efforts is excellent.
  • The commitment of the Pediatric Emergency Medicine physicians to the trauma program is outstanding and there is a notable culture of cooperation, trust, and respect between the emergency medicine physicians and the trauma service.
  • The hospital has many outstanding resources including a technologically advanced Mission Control Center, an extensive child abuse program and resources, and the commitment of the trauma floor to provide dedicated trauma nurses and rooms. The commitment of the PICU physicians to the trauma program and their relationship with trauma related services is also outstanding.

The trauma center is led by Dr. Bindi Naik-Mathuria, medical director and Christi Reeves, the director of trauma services.

September 17, 2019

The Urology Division at Texas Children’s Hospital offers the most advanced surgical care for routine urological needs as well as complex genitourinary problems related to congenital birth defects, trauma and a range of other medical conditions. Our urologists have experience successfully carrying out to most extreme procedures on the most delicate patients. Those success rates are evident through nation-wide recognition.

For the first time, Texas Children’s is ranked in the top 10 in each of the U.S. News & World Report-recognized pediatric sub-specialties and this year Urology ranked No. 6.

“Now is the time to show that we can elevate to an even higher level of patient care and do even better than we already have,” Urology Chief of Service Dr. Paul Austin said. “We have to strive to be on the cutting edge of advancement and I envision our reputation factor only increasing further in urology.”

The U.S. News rankings uses an approach that analyzes quality of health care and patient outcomes data from thousands of medical institutions across the country. This includes measuring specialized clinics and programs, external accreditations and compliance with best practices. Improved rankings determine a health care organization’s commitment to not only providing high-quality care, but also to identifying gaps where improvements are needed.

“We’re not going to slow down when it comes to advancing in the areas where we have room for improvement,” Urology Physician Dr. Nicolette Janzen said. “We are going to continue to work toward providing the best care for our patients.”

Big wins for patients and families

This last year, Urology exceeded their yearly goals and executed additional initiatives to increase transparency, reduce risk of infection, and improve the quality of care.

  • Exceed threshold for Percent revision surgery for pyeloplasty
    Pyeloplasty is the surgical reconstruction of a portion of urinary drainage system. This is a procedure that has a national average success rate of over 90 percent. Our Urology team is trained to successfully carry out various approaches to pyeloplasty including robotic-assisted laparoscopic and open. Having this broad range of skill for this procedure ensures the ability to tailor the approach for every patient from babies to teenagers.
  • Significantly decreased unplanned hospital admissions for a urologic issue within 30 days of inpatient urological surgery
    A patient may be re-admitted to the hospital for a urologic issue subsequent to a surgical procedure. Urology has been able to minimize this by analyzing the data from previously re-admitted patients, determining areas for improvement, and applying these improvements to future patients. One successful initiative has been the implementation of “Enhanced Recovery After Surgery” (ERAS). These are protocols for perioperative care pathways provided to advance practice providers (APP), physicians, and nurses as they work together to care for our patients. Lastly, making sure the patient families are educated on how to maintain the child’s health at home helps prevent re-admission.
  • Increased patient volume seen by a pediatric urologist in your Oncofertility program
    Texas Children’s Cancer Center is one of the busiest centers nationally and is on the cutting edge of therapies for cancer patients. An important consideration as patients undergo chemotherapy and radiation therapy for various cancers is fertility preservation. Our urologists are committed to this endeavor. Through our partnership with Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), patients have access to extensive resources for fertility preservation and appropriate counseling. According to Janzen, improving the communication between all services involved with these families has helped to improve access to fertility preservation services.
  • Have closed out 70 percent of gaps
    Gap closure is the result of successful yearly strategies that improves quality outcomes. One of those objectives focuses on preventing infections, more specifically as it relates to Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection. Urology’s prevention of gaps in care is a combined effort with the hospital’s system-wide infection control initiatives as we work tirelessly to provide high quality care to our patients.

Click here to learn more about our Urology services at Texas Children’s Hospital.

September 16, 2019

Texas Children’s Health Plan insures the medical needs of some of the sickest children. But what happens when these children grow up healthy and are ready to contribute to society?

For most members, this isn’t an issue. However, for children who have significant disabilities, this is a top concern.

This concern is what sparked Texas Children’s Health Plan to form a partnership with Project Search, a national organization dedicated to helping people with disabilities find employment. Project Search makes it possible for an annual class of interns to earn valuable work experience each year.

Seeking new opportunities at Texas Children’s Hospital

For the past three years all of those internships have been within the walls of The Health Plan. But this year the program’s leaders are looking to offer more opportunities at Texas Children’s Hospital.

“Our main goal is to ensure that our students complete their time with us and are able to land a job,” said Aracely Olmeda, project search program coordinator. “As the host site, we work hard to teach hands-on skills here at The Health Plan, but we are also interested in expanding our offerings and would love to partner with departments at the hospital. The more robust and inclusive an experience we can provide, the higher quality our program will be.”

The class of interns are ready to work and are capable of a variety of tasks; including but not limited to:

  • Data entry and other basic computing
  • Filing and organizing
  • Food service
  • Front desk responsibilities

Olmeda says that Houston Independent School District instructor Lisa Mangum and Texas Workforce Commission job coach and job skills trainer Daphne Wills, lead the efforts and offer full support to Texas Children’s employees who provide opportunities to the interns.

If your department is interested in partnering with a project search intern, please reach out to Aracely Olmeda at anolmeda@texaschildrens.org. Job coaches will train the students on the skills needed for the position.

Want to know more about project search?

Home

The Food Allergy Day at The Health Museum was a huge success recently. The event touched more than 1,100 members of the Houston community who played at the unique exhibits and were educated about food allergy. This event neared the most highly attended Thursday Family Days the Health Museum has experienced!

The Houston Health Museum partnered with the Texas Children’s Hospital Food Allergy Program to host the day, which kicked off with Texas Children’s Food Allergy Program exhibits throughout the museum. These exhibits were designed, staged and manned by Texas Children’s Food Allergy Program team and members of the Texas Children’s Food Allergy Program Teen Advisory Board led by Daisy Tran. This program was coordinated by LaTanya Miles from the Museum and Christina Nance, PhD, from Texas Children’s.

Special recognition goes to Dr. Christina Nance for leading the expert panel, Drs. Sara Anvari and Katherine Anagnostou for providing expert advice on the panel, and Lauren Kronisch for giving dietary tips. The Food Allergy Program is grateful to the Kelly Family (Mercedes, Adriana and Alexander) who shared patient perspectives on living with food allergy and participation in research trials. Christina Cowperthwait was outstanding in helping the museum plan the event.

Special thanks go to several members of the Immunology Allergy Rheumatology team who participated in handing out flyers and engaging with families and special guests, including Theresa Aldape, Chivon McMullen Jackson, Ashley Reiland, Kathy Pitts, Larraine Lyter-Reed, Joel Oyibo, America Lueso, and Dr. Ivan Chinn.

John Arcidiacono, President and CEO of The Health Museum gave an introduction at the event and members of the Board of Directors were in attendance. It was a great day in the community of education and increased awareness about food allergies.

September 10, 2019

Your name, title and department. How long have you worked here?
Donna Jackson, Senior Administrative Assistant, Texas Children’s Health Plan. I have worked at the Health Plan for two years and previous to that at Facilities Planning and Development at the Medical Center Campus for four years.

Tell us how you found out you won a super star award.
Sara Gonzalez-Quezada asked me for help with the AV equipment in the conference room. When I walked in everybody from the Executive 14th floor was there, including Mark Mullarkey and all my leaders. They yelled surprise and that’s when I found out I won a Super Star award. I was in disbelief and speechless.

What does it mean to be recognized for the hard work you do? How has the organization helped you achieve your personal and professional goals?
I was very shocked as I have been at the Health Plan for a fairly short time, compared to others who work so tirelessly every day. I am accepting this award for the entire Administration team as there are many people here at the Health Plan who deserve this award as well. My leaders have continuously shown me appreciation, flexibility and support. In turn my goal is to make their jobs easier, within my possibilities. At The Health Plan I get to work with an amazing group of people and the view from the 14th floor is the envy of many. In addition to this, the location makes for a shorter commute to work, which allows me to spend more quality time with my family.

What do you think makes someone at Texas Children’s a super star?
A super star creates opportunities to go above and beyond and provide a service reflective of the mission. At the Health Plan, we have so many super stars who work tirelessly for our Health Plan members.

What is your motivation for going above and beyond every day at work?
As an Admin everything we do is to make Leaderships’ job easier in some way. They are always very busy and work long hours, so anything that I can do to minimize their workload, by taking the initiative, being a problem solver and always having a positive attitude helps. They always let me know that I am appreciated which is nice.

What is the best thing about working at Texas Children’s?
Working at the Main Campus was my first experience in health care, so knowing that you are working for children and their families is really special. There is always something interesting going on. At the Health Plan we are all working toward the same goal for our Health Plan members. Everyone here is so dedicated to making the members’ satisfaction a success.

What does it mean to you that everyone at Texas Children’s is considered a leader? What is your leadership definition?
“We are all leaders” is something that is stressed at the Health Plan. For me personally, it enables me to be very proactive in my work and allows me to take the initiative on many projects. Because of this I am always learning new ideas and making contacts, which in turn makes me better at what I do.

The Woodlands Rewards and Retention Committee is honored to present this quarter’s Woodlands Shining Star winners. Physical and occupational therapy (PT/OT) technician Robert Cole, and Infectious Disease provider Dr. Ankhi Dutta, were honored for their hard work and dedication.

Cole was nominated by many of his co-workers and peers for embodying all of the values of Texas Children’s. He constantly makes himself available when needed, even if this means coming in early or working through lunch.

“There was a patient that had to be rescheduled multiple times and due to no other opening, the patient had to be scheduled during lunch time one week and early morning before regular appointment times the following week,” Physical Therapist Kendall Peterson, shared. “Robert offered, without hesitation, to come in to assist the therapist put a cast on the patient both weeks. He gave up his lunch and he came in early before his shift started in order to help the therapist and the family.”

Another example of Cole living the core values is his undeniable willingness to help. One day when he was headed to lunch, he noticed a family from the therapy department in the parking garage having car trouble. He spent his lunch time helping the family get their car started, and making sure their needs were met.

Cole’s helpful spirit is also spread to other employees during times when they may need to step away from the stress of work. He is the organizer and motivator for the Woodlands Therapy Department kickball team and constantly encourages new therapists to participate.

Dutta was nominated for living the values of embracing freedom, leading tirelessly, living compassionately, and amplifying unity. She is very well respected and known for going above and beyond for her patients and families.

“Dr. Dutta is the rare specialist who knows and cares for the whole patient,” Dr. Stephen Edwards said. “As a tireless leader, no matter where the patient is inpatient, outpatient, PICU, NICU, even College Station, she is readily available to offer guidance and is a light when doubts in patient care case darkness.”

She has been instrumental with helping the care team diagnose and care for patients even after they are transferred to the Medical Center Campus PICU. This is just one of the many ways that she constantly goes the extra miles for our patients and their families.

Congratulations to each of you and a huge thank you for being the shining stars that you are and going above and beyond for our patients, families, and co-workers!

September 4, 2019

Two years after Hurricane Harvey, Texas Children’s employee Alex Sardual is still dealing with the effects of the historic disaster. Last year we reported that he had not even scratched the surface of fully renovating his home that was destroyed in 2017. Today, Sardual is excited to say that the process is almost completed and his family can move in soon.