January 17, 2018

Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women has earned the coveted Blue Distinction Center for Maternity Care designation for its expertise in the delivery of safe, efficient, high quality care to women and newborns.

As a leader in obstetrics, gynecology and fetal intervention, the Pavilion for Women specializes in high risk pregnancies and provides a continuum of care to women during every stage of their reproductive lives. To become a nationally designated Maternity Specialty Care Center, Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) evaluated the Pavilion for Women on a variety of quality and patient satisfaction measures.

The BCBS noted the Pavilion for Women’s successful implementation of evidence-based breastfeeding practices to ensure our nurses, obstetricians and pediatricians are well trained to teach mothers how to breastfeed and maintain lactation to give newborns a healthy start.

The Pavilion for Women excelled in maternity quality measures including the rate of episiotomies performed and the administration of antenatal steroids, which are medications given to pregnant patients who are at risk for delivering their babies too early. The hospital has consistently exceeded the national target rate of 90 percent or above for antenatal steroid administration.

The Pavilion for Women received exceptional marks in patient satisfaction. The hospital’s improvement efforts are directly related to the feedback received through the patient satisfaction survey. In September 2017, the Pavilion for Women achieved a patient satisfaction score of 92 percent and a 93 percent score for both pain management and care instructions that are given to patients before their hospital discharge and at the end of their clinic visit.

“We are grateful to our team’s collaboration in helping us achieve this designation,” said Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women Senior Vice President Cris Daskevich. “By reaching this milestone, we ensure that we continue to meet the standard of care and excellence that our patient families have come to expect.”

Click here for more information about the Blue Designation Center for Maternity Care designation.

January 9, 2018

The 18th Annual Reba Michels Hill Memorial Grand Rounds were held recently. Awards were given to Neonatology non-physicians who have made a significant contribution to advancing the quality to which Dr. Hill was dedicated: compassionate commitment to education, patient care, research and family.

December 19, 2017

Representatives from the Otolaryngology, Pulmonology, Audiology, and Speech, Language and Learning groups at Texas Children’s Hospital presented and attended the 2017 SENTAC (Society for ENT Advances in Children) Annual Meeting in Toronto.

Otolaryngologist Dr. Carol Liu, former fellow Dr. Annabelle Tay Sok Yan, resident Dr. Tanner Fullmer, Sr. Audiologist Barbara Novak, and medical student Mark Michael gave presentations during the conference.

Dr. Rodrigo Silva and Dr. Tony Hughes from Otolaryngology served as session moderators and Dr. Shailendra Das from Pulmonary was a panelist.

Barbara Novak received the 2017 SENTAC Quality Care Award for the highest scoring abstract at the conference.

At the conclusion of the conference, Texas Children’s Dr. Deepak Mehta received the SENTAC President’s Bell to ring as he assumed the SENTAC presidency for 2018.

The Texas Children’s contingent also attended an event at the Hockey Hall of Fame and had a group photo taken with the Stanley Cup. The 2018 Annual Meeting will be held in Houston with Texas Children’s as the host site.

December 12, 2017

For the fourth year, Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus has been named one of the 10 top children’s hospitals in the nation by The Leapfrog Group, an independent hospital watchdog organization. The award recognizes achievements in patient safety and quality and is widely acknowledged as one of the most competitive and exclusive honors an American hospital can receive.

“We are honored to again be recognized as a top performing children’s hospital by The Leapfrog Group,” said Michelle Riley-Brown president of Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus and executive vice president of Texas Children’s Hospital. “Our entire team of physicians, nurses and employees strive to provide a safe environment where we can deliver the highest quality care possible for our patients and their families. We applaud our team for their tireless work and the incredible care they provide for the children in our community every day.”

In the survey, Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus received a Top Children’s Hospital distinction and was recognized nationally alongside 45 Top General Hospitals, 18 Top Rural Hospitals, 36 Top Teaching Hospitals and only nine other Top Children’s Hospitals.

“We are proud to recognize Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus as a 2017 Leapfrog Top Hospital,” said Leah Binder, president and Chief Executive Officer of Leapfrog. “This demonstrates extraordinary dedication to patients and the local community. The entire staff and board deserve praise for putting quality first and achieving results.”

The Leapfrog Group is an organization that provides the only national, public comparison of hospitals across safety, quality and efficiency dimensions. Performance across many areas of hospital care is considered in establishing the qualifications for the award, including infection rates, maternity care, and the hospital’s capacity to prevent medication errors.

To see the full list of institutions honored as 2017 Top Hospitals, visit www.leapfroggroup.org/tophospitals.

October 31, 2017

“I do a lot of walking around the hospital,” said Donald Wilkins, a patient ambassador at Texas Children’s Hospital Medical Center campus and a 2017 Caught You Caring award recipient. “I average anywhere between 15 to 20,000 steps a day.”

While Donald’s job requires him to spend a lot of time on his feet, he wouldn’t have it any other way. As a patient ambassador, Donald always looks out for his patient and their families’ well-being. He provides updates, information and general reassurance for patients and their families involved in the perioperative process.

“When patients come in for surgery, they are anxious about what to expect during and after their procedure,” said Becky Hanson, patient care manager at PACU West Tower. “Donald is a very compassionate person. He listens and empathizes with our patients and families, ensuring their questions and concerns are addressed.”

Besides caring for patient and their families, Donald also assists the physicians with family communications and provides support to the admissions staff when they need clarification regarding patient classification. He plays an essential role in making sure that all of the operating rooms at West Tower run smoothly.

“His outgoing personality and can-do attitude makes Texas Children’s a better place for our patients and their families,” Hanson said. “Donald is just one of those people that you always want to have on your team, and is well deserving of the Caught You Caring award.”

Launched in 2015, Texas Children’s Caught You Caring program is a systemwide program that recognizes employees for going above and beyond to provide compassion and kindness in the care of a patient, family or co-worker. Last month, Donald was among more than a dozen employees who received a pair of tickets to watch the Houston Texans Play 60 game, after being recognized for his acts of kindness through this program.

Texas Children’s wants to continue to recognize those who take great pride in the work they do and encourages patients, families and employees to catch someone who is making a difference.

To nominate a colleague, Caught You Caring boxes and cards can be found across the Texas Children’s hospital system for patients and families to fill out. Employees can fill out a Caught You Caring form on Connect. Cards and online submissions will be distributed to leaders for staff recognition.

For the next three weeks, Connect will feature a series of Caught You Caring videos spotlighting several of our employees who have gone above and beyond their role in the care of our patients and their families.

October 17, 2017

For the twelfth consecutive year, Texas Children’s Hospital has been ranked by the Houston Business Journal as one of the Best Places to Work in Houston. This year Texas Children’s ranked No. 3 among companies employing more than 1,000 employees!

“This ranking is a result of employees’ transparent feedback about life at Texas Children’s, and with what I witness on a daily basis, I’m not surprised we landed among the city’s top employers,” said Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark A. Wallace. “We are one amazing team!”

The Houston Business Journal held an awards luncheon October 12 at the Marriott Marquis to present the 17th annual Best Places to Work awards and celebrate all 104 companies that made the cut.

The award recognizes companies in the Houston area with the most satisfied employees and are compiled by Quantum Workplace, which sent a survey to employees of nominated companies. Quantum then comes up with scores based on corporate culture, amenities, benefits, and worker retention and attraction strategies. Companies are ranked by that score in four categories based on company size.

October 10, 2017

More than a dozen employees recognized by the Texas Children’s Caught You Caring program got to watch the Houston Texans defeat the Tennessee Titans on October 1. The Texans-Titans game was sponsored by Texas Children’s Hospital and celebrated the National Football League’s Play 60 campaign, which encourages children to be active 60 minutes a day to help decrease childhood obesity.

In honor of the Kids Day game, Drs. Charles D. Fraser Jr. and Daniel J. Penny, along with their patient Jack Guyre, served as Coin Toss Captains. The tickets to the game were one of the benefits of Texas Children’s Hospital being the official children’s hospital of the Houston Texans football team. The goal of Texas Children’s and the Texans partnership is to inspire children to lead healthier, more active lives.

Caught You Caring is a recognition program offered to patients and families, as well as staff, to recognize employees who have gone above and beyond their role to provide compassion and kindness to another person. This could be in the care of a patient, service to a family, or in support of a coworker.

Launched in 2015 in ambulatory surgery, the now system-wide program has recognized many employees, including the 13 listed below who were honored by the program this year and were chosen to receive the additional benefit of attending the Play 60 Texans game.

Experience Consultant with Family and Patient Services Maggie Weimer said being able to reward our Caught You Caring recipients in this way is truly amazing.

“Recognizing people for their hard work goes a long way when it comes to creating a positive work environment,” she said. “So many members of our Texas Children’s family go above and beyond each and every day for our patients, families and colleagues, and we appreciate that very much.”

Texas Children’s wants to continue to recognize those who take great pride in the work they do and encourages patients, families and employees to catch someone who is making a difference. Caught You Caring boxes and cards can be found throughout the Texas Children’s system for patients and families to fill out and recognize staff. Employees can fill out a Caught You Caring form on Connect. Cards and online submissions will be distributed to leaders for staff recognition.

Click here to learn more about the Caught You Caring Program.

Click the links below to read more about this year’s Play 60 ticket recipients and how they were caught caring.

Grace Collins
William Davidson
Joyce Enochs
Heather Eppleheimer
Dr. Yong Han
Roderic Johnson
Amanda Riddle
Sandy Rodriguez
Linda Santana
Keith Thomas
Debra Udombat
Donald Wilkins
Kevin Young