February 1, 2024

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.
December 5, 2017

A little over a year ago, Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands Outpatient Building opened its doors to the Greater Houston area and beyond. Since then, the ever-growing team of providers and support staff have seen 50,000 plus patients in the outpatient areas and received numerous compliments from the patients and family members they serve.

“Our first year has been packed with many new and exciting opportunities,” said Julie Barrett, director of outpatient and clinical support services for the Outpatient Building. “We have grown substantially, adding new service lines, providers and staff, and we have established a culture that exemplifies our mission to provide the best possible care for our patients and their families.”

Designed with a “spirit of the woods” theme to incorporate the lush, woodsy landscape that surrounds it, the six-floor, 209,973-square-foot Outpatient Building opened in October 2016 housing almost 20 areas of specialized care including cardiology, sports medicine, neurology and hematology/oncology. A dedicated medical staff at the facility works in conjunction with the Texas Children’s system to provide top-notch medical care.

Connected to the almost year-old Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands on floors one and two, the Outpatient Building offers a fresh, new kid-friendly environment to families seeking the best pediatric care for their children. A state-of-the art sports physical therapy gym is on the first floor, check-in and check-out stations resembling a child’s club house are at the entrance of each clinic, and spacious exam rooms and provider work stations line many of the building’s halls.

Susan Niles, a senior athletic trainer with Sports Medicine, said the Outpatient Building’s Sports Medicine staff has grown substantially since it starting seeing patients a year ago, adding nurses, physical therapists, athletic trainers and a sports dietitian. Such growth has allowed the staff to provide quicker access to therapy services, Niles said. It also has provided opportunities for research.

“Using technology from the motion analysis lab, we have launched a research project that we hope will provide breakthrough information on concussions,” Niles said. “We are the only campus with a motion analysis lab and we are excited to use the technology for our patients.”

Ambulatory Services Therapy Manager Jay Mennel said another unique service offered in The Woodlands comes by way of an Alter-G treadmill, an anti-gravity treadmill utilized by sports therapy patients, he said. Such a specialized service combined with other specialty clinics led to the therapy staff completing more than 18,000 outpatient visits during the Outpatient Building’s first year in operation.

“We have some fantastic physicians and great senior leadership at The Woodlands, which has helped our department grow at an exceptional rate,” Mennel said. “We hope to continue to grow this next fiscal year.”

Heather Jordan, a staff nurse in Outpatient Surgical Services, Melanie Garcia, a medical assistant with Plastic Surgery, and Yvonne Barham a staff nurse with Diabetes and Endocrine, all said they have seen tremendous growth in their areas and that they have seen patients from all over Texas and surrounding states.

“Our patients have come from Nacogdoches, Lufkin, Bryan/College Station, Corpus Christi, Port Arthur, and Louisiana,” Barham said. “Many of the local residents have stated how happy they are to not have to travel for their regular office visits.”

Garcia agreed and said patient experience is something that everyone at The Woodlands Outpatient Building takes to heart. “We go above and beyond on a daily basis to make sure every patient feels special,” she said. “We are always improving, always compassionately serving each other and our patients.”

When asked what’s next, leaders, providers and staff point to continued growth and involvement in The Woodlands community.

“Now that we are here and have established workflows, processes and procedures, we can begin to work on things such as more access to patients and families, and staff being more involved in the community,” said Shawnda Kelley, ambulatory manager of various service lines at the Outpatient Building. “I am happy and proud to be a part of this new beginning and can’t wait to see what’s next.”