December 19, 2019

The holidays are a season of giving, and no one does it better than Ambassadors for Texas Children’s Hospital and Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands.

This year, at two festive soirées, Ambassadors announced they had raised more than $850,000 to benefit Texas Children’s Heart Center®.

More than 250 Texas Children’s supporters attended the first event, which was held at the West University home of Beth and Nick Zdeblick. In a brief presentation, the Zdeblicks told guests of their appreciation of Texas Children’s for the care their children have received there, which inspired them to open their home for the merry occasion. Texas Children’s Chief of Congenital Heart Surgery Dr. Christopher Caldarone was on hand to accept the generous gift to the Heart Center.

At the holiday gathering in The Woodlands, more than 125 guests were in attendance at the home of Candi and Gerald Glenn. Special speaker Keridon McMahon thanked Ambassadors for their generous support of Texas Children’s mission and for giving a voice to patients – like her daughter, Teagan, who is treated at the Heart Center. McMahon then introduced Dr. Paul Sirbaugh, chief medical officer of Texas Children’s’ Hospital The Woodlands, who spoke about the lasting difference Ambassador’s generosity will make for patients from The Woodlands and surrounding areas – nearly 3,000 of which came to Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands this year alone.

About the Heart Center
Texas Children’s Heart Center has been ranked No. 1 in the nation for pediatric cardiology and heart surgery for the past three years by U.S. News & World Report.

The Heart Center pioneered many of the now-standard procedures and therapies related to the diagnosis and treatment of children with cardiac problems. The multidisciplinary team cares for children and adults with the most complex congenital heart conditions. Texas Children’s Hospital was named the first Pediatric Heart Failure Institute in Texas by The Healthcare Accreditation Colloquium and provides a multifaceted continuum of care for patients with cardiac issues and heart failure. Additionally, the Heart Center is home to a cardiovascular genetics clinic, a syncope (fainting) clinic and the Adult Congenital Heart Program.

In addition to providing care in the Texas Medical Center, the Heart Center offers diagnostic testing and cardiology procedures at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus and Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, and also offers walk-in EKGs at all three hospital locations and at our Texas Children’s Specialty Care locations in the community.

About Ambassadors
Ambassadors for Texas Children’s Hospital is a community of socially engaged individuals who share a dedication to the hospital’s mission and serve as a strong voice for children and women who need the most specialized care available. In addition to raising significant funds for Texas Children’s each year, Ambassadors gather together for a wide array of events including Ambassadors On Call luncheons – where guests hear from Texas Children’s experts and tour world-class facilities – and annual social events such as the Holiday Party and Family Fun Day.

Learn more about Ambassadors.

December 16, 2019

When Jackson Guyre was born with tetralogy of Fallot – a rare and complex heart defect – he was one of 40,000 children born with a congenital heart defect (CHD) in the United States each year. Today, thanks to the expert care he’s received at Texas Children’s Heart Center®, Jackson is an extremely active 15-year-old. He even runs half marathons.

He’s also now one of the hundreds of teenagers who have begun a new chapter in their journey with CHD – the transition from pediatric to adult care – through Texas Children’s Cardiology Transition Medicine Program.

Identifying the need

Though CHDs are the most common type of birth defect (affecting one in every 100 births), advancements in care have contributed to a steady decline in childhood mortality over the past two decades and helped more than one and a half million CHD survivors reach adulthood. Because a large proportion of patients are palliated and not fully cured, they are at risk for future health complications and even death. For this reason, they require lifelong care and disease management by physicians who specialize in taking care of adults with CHD.

However, lapses in care do occur. And according to several studies, including a 2018 study out of Texas Children’s Hospital and academic affiliate Baylor College of Medicine, and led by the Cardiology Transition Medicine Program’s medical director Dr. Keila N. Lopez, there are serious disparities in the care provided to the growing adolescent CHD survivor population, involving poor transition from pediatric to adult-centered care. It was a problem Lopez had seen firsthand.

“When I became a cardiology attending in 2012, I was seeing a lot of pre-teen and teenage patients who, universally, didn’t know anything about what was going on with their heart,” Lopez recalled. “I realized there was no way these kids were going to successfully transition to adulthood if they didn’t know what their condition is and weren’t able to answer basic questions about their health or what to do in the event of a medical emergency.”

Additionally, Lopez saw patients were being transferred to adult care without being properly transitioned first, which only exacerbated the problem. She noted, “Transition and transfer of care are not the same thing. Transition is the shift in the responsibility of health care management from the parents to the patient and is a gradual process that takes several years. Transfer of care is the movement of patients and their care from one medical facility or provider to another. Patients often find transfer of care much harder if a solid transition program has not been a part of their preparation.”

It was a passion for the adolescent CHD population and the obvious clinical need for a better, more comprehensive approach to transition cardiology care that drove Lopez to put together a business proposal that addressed why Texas Children’s could be the ideal place to pilot a cardiology transition program.

From the ground up

In the first year, the small but mighty team – made up of Lopez; cardiology transition coordinator DK Lovick, RN; and social worker Nicole Broussard, LCSW – began developing the program from scratch, first by surveying adolescent CHD patients, their parents or guardians, pediatricians, providers in each service at the Heart Center, and Texas Children’s Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) team, to find out things like what patients typically know about their condition, medicines, insurance, etc.; where the gaps in knowledge usually are; and what other factors patients struggle with (i.e., coping with anxiety or depression).

“There was a lot of trial and error, and lots of focus groups,” Lovick said. “We were asking providers what patients and families need to be better at, as far as really understanding and managing their condition, and asking the patients and families what they felt they needed to know more about. We discovered a critical piece of the puzzle: most of them wanted an individualized learning plan.”

At the heart of the process, and the primary method for information-gathering, assessment, and development of individualized learning plans, is motivational interviewing, which involves empathetic listening, positive reinforcement, and providing prompts based on the patient’s values and feelings to help them find the motivation they need to change behaviors.

The result is an approach to transition care built on shared decision-making that motivates the patient to become the captain of their care team, with the parent or guardian as co-captain, and their doctor as coach.

Helping patients take the lead

The transition journey typically begins when a patient is 14 years old with a preliminary visit that is used as an introduction. They meet the team and learn about the process, the individual learning plan, and what the expectations are for the process of transition. The team also tells the patient about opportunities such as meeting other teens with CHD, volunteering or mentoring. During this visit, parents or guardians provide the team with information about their understanding of the patient’s condition and trajectory, the patient’s knowledge of basic health skills (e.g., carrying health information with them, knowing their doctor’s phone number), and whether the patient might be dealing with a learning disability or psychological concerns.

When a patient is 15, they have their first official visit with the cardiology transition team by themselves. This is the first step in helping the patient take more ownership of their care journey. Using motivational interviewing, the team administers transition readiness and CHD knowledge assessments and begins individualized CHD education and health care skills training. This begins to prepare the patient to know and understand their condition, and to learn how to communicate health care information to providers or to someone in the case of an emergency. Patients have a similar visit at 16 years old.

At each of these appointments, the team also asks the parent or guardian what they think the patient needs to work on. Once all the information and responses have been gathered, the cardiology transition team begins building the patient’s learning plan and setting goals to work on before the next visit using CHHATT, the Congenital Heart Health Activation Transition Tool.

This tool, developed entirely by the Texas Children’s cardiology transition team, takes all the information reviewed in the appointment and collates it in a format that will help the patient learn, retain and understand how it fits into the larger picture of their long-term care. This includes:

  • A three-sentence summary of the patient’s personal information, details of their CHD and what an emergency situation looks like
  • Basic self-management information about such things as medications, high-risk behaviors, traveling tips, and everyday activities and restrictions
  • An outline of their trajectory and lifelong management, including possible long-term issues, reproductive risks and genetic risk of passing on the condition, and basic insurance information

The CHHATT is reviewed at all subsequent meetings (including at 17 and 18 years old). After a review with the patient, the patient will then teach their parent or guardian what they’ve learned. If parents ask a question, the patient can use the tool as a prompt to help answer. If the patient is able to repeat the information in the CHHATT twice in a row with minimal or no prompting, that usually means a patient is prepared to transfer to adult care. After their 18th birthday, patients will also have an adult planning visit with the transition team and their pediatric cardiologist, where an ACHD physician is officially identified as their next cardiologist, advance directives are discussed, insurance options are reviewed, and a transfer summary (comprehensive summary of pediatric cardiac care) is completed.

The cardiology transition team also helps prepare families of patients who may not be able to live independently in the future or have some developmental delay. In these cases, the team works with the patient so that they can, if they’re able, at least repeat their three-sentence summary from CHHATT. The team also helps enter the patient’s information in their medical app on their phone, or will encourage the parent or guardian to get a medical ID bracelet. The team may also start walking the family through guardianship or supported decision-making that may happen in the future, sometimes referring the family to Texas Children’s Medical-Legal Partnership, a collaboration with Houston Volunteer Lawyers. When patients with special needs turn 17, in addition to pointing them toward important legal information, the team also provides them with information on numerous resources and programs available, and community organizations able to offer assistance.

Access through technology

In addition to publishing all original materials in Spanish, the Cardiology Transition Medicine Program also uses special real-time translation technology to make the program accessible to non-English speakers. The program was also the first at Texas Children’s to create an outpatient ambulatory education template for EPIC. Providers are able to simply click on a tab to see who was educated, what they learned, what the response was, and if follow-up is needed. Additionally, the transition team is hoping to expand its reach to satellite clinics in the future through the use of telemedicine. And currently, Lopez is working with the Center for Collaborative and Interactive Technologies at Baylor College of Medicine to develop a mobile app that will be the first of its kind for CHD. The app – a project supported by the National Institutes of Health – will act as a portable medical summary and will include information for the patient’s specific CHD, what surgeries or repairs they’ve undergone, diagrams, and more.

Learning to “Adult” with CHD

In addition to presenting about the program at major conferences and symposiums on a national and international level – including the Adult Congenital Heart Association (ACHA) and America Heart Association – the Cardiology Transition Medicine Program also hosts events at Texas Children’s to raise awareness around the need for more comprehensive cardiology transition care, to share the methodology, and to provide information and resources.

One example was the “Adulting with CHD” symposium, which was held this past summer at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. The event was staffed by more than 30 volunteers, all of whom were ACHD patients and connected to the program through relationships with outside CHD groups. Many of the volunteers acted as table hosts to facilitate conversations with the more than 40 attendees, including CHD patients and parents. One of those parents was Jackson Guyre’s mom, Emily.

At her table were other families with children who had been born with tetralogy of Fallot, and adult patients who had lived through the diagnosis.

“As a parent of a child with a congenital heart condition, it’s hard to think about them being an adult because the parent is the one who checks all the boxes for so long,” Emily said. “Ahead of Jackson’s first appointment with the Cardiology Transition Medicine Program, it was so helpful to learn about the program and to meet and see adults who have the same condition who are now living normal lives.”

And now that Jackson has attended his first appointment with the team, Emily has seen the program’s value firsthand.

“We thoroughly enjoyed our first visit with the cardiology transition team,” she said. “It gave my husband and me a chance to sit back and listen to how much Jackson knows about his condition and how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. We appreciate Texas Children’s for creating this program and introducing our family to it as we transition to Jackson’s teenage years. It proves they really care about both his medical condition and his emotional needs, and it gives us all the confidence necessary as he prepares to move to his adult heart team.”

Another attendee of the symposium was Angel Olvera, Executive Vice President of Sales at Patient Educational Media Systems. Olvera and his associate, both parents of children with CHD, founded the company to provide CHD and ACHD education and to raises awareness through film, innovative media, and streaming platforms. As part of their research for an upcoming film about cardiology transition care, they had been traveling the country visiting several heart programs.

What Olvera learned at the “Adulting with CHD” event left quite an impression.

“I’d heard so much about Texas Children’s Cardiology Transition Medicine Program and actually knew people who’d moved to the area specifically to be closer, and now I understand why,” Olvera said. “From what we’ve seen, Texas Children’s cardiology transition program is one of the best in the country by far. A lot of programs have pieces of the puzzle, but they lack a structure. Texas Children’s has a continuous, measured process. Patients and families always know where they are and what they need to improve toward taking ownership of their condition. It was really impressive.”

One of Patient Educational Media Systems’ projects, “The Heart Within,” is currently available on Amazon Prime. The new film on transition medicine will be released in February 2020.

Looking ahead

It’s been three and a half years since the pilot program launched. The concept has been proved, and the success has been undeniable. A study conducted by Dr. Lopez and presented at the American Heart Association assessed Texas Children’s cardiology transition program and demonstrated that with each successive visit to the cardiology transition team, there were reduced lapses in care, and each successive visit made for even more reduction in gaps in care. This demonstrable success for a cardiology transition program has never previously been reported in the United States.

“The growth we’ve seen has been tremendous,” said Broussard. “Currently, we’re seeing more than 700 patients a year. We’re constantly affirmed by families, patients and providers, who see that their patients are doing well. The more people find out about us, the more the demand for our services grows. And the ACHD patients with whom we work are constantly telling us they wish they’d had this resource available to them when they were teens, and that we’re on the right track.”

Added Lovick, “The key to our success, and the reason why the process works, is that we listen – to our patients, their parents, and the providers. They all told us what they needed and how it needed to be delivered. We’re looking forward to continuing to grow outside of the services we currently work with and delivering this much-needed resource to even more patients.”

Learn more about Texas Children’s Cardiology Transition Medicine Program, part of the nation’s No. 1 heart center, according to U.S. News & World Report.

For information about volunteering at Texas Children’s Heart Center or at Cardiology Transition Medicine Program events, please contact DK Lovick at DKLovick@texaschildrens.org.

October 29, 2019

Texas Children’s Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower recently won the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Design Award sponsored by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the American Institute of Architects Academy on Architecture for Health.

Each year, a panel of judges including physicians, nurses and architects from the sponsoring organizations evaluate adult, pediatric and neonatal ICUs around the world. The award is based on several criteria including functional design, integration of technology, and use of innovative, aesthetic and creative design elements that promote an efficient, safe and healing environment for the delivery of critical care.

“We are grateful to receive the ICU Design award,” said Dr. Lara Shekerdemian, Chief of Critical Care at Texas Children’s. “This award is a culmination of four years of hard work, collaboration, creative thinking and meticulous attention to detail that went into the design of our ICU spaces. The award is for everyone at Texas Children’s who, together with our partners at FKP Cannon Design, Bellows, and our amazing family advisory committee, helped us plan, design and seamlessly transition to our wonderful new home – Legacy Tower.”

To create a safe, efficient, and family-centered environment, Texas Children’s involved patients, families and all disciplines of the health care team from day one of the project through its completion in September 2018. From reviewing workflows to participating in patient care simulations before, during and after construction, design requirements were continuously refined to ensure the final layout would meet patient and staff needs.

As part of the ICU Design Award application process, Texas Children’s created a video highlighting our award-winning Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and the distinct features that help distinguish our hospital from other pediatric institutions.

The Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower has 138 ICU rooms, all with dedicated family space, over seven floors. The new ICU floors include a dedicated subspecialty neuro-ICU, surgical ICU, heart failure ICU and a neonatal cardiac ICU.

Since opening the Legacy Tower PICU in May 2018 and the Legacy Tower Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CICU) in September 2018, patients, families, and our critical care team have benefited from the design features that helped the organization achieve this award.

Patient families
  • The overall size of the patient rooms is more than double that of the older ICU rooms, allowing more space for visitors and patient families to remain together comfortably. Each patient room has a spacious private bathroom, complete with a shower for patient and family convenience.
  • Patient rooms have large windows that provide more natural sunlight and beautiful views for patients and their families who aren’t able, or rarely leave the hospital.
  • Large family lounges sponsored by Ronald McDonald House are on each patient floor to provide space for family members to wait, read, eat, and engage in activities outside a patient’s environment. Family laundry spaces on each floor also offer a much-needed convenience for families.
  • Sun-filled respite areas are located throughout the PICU floors to provide families peaceful time to themselves.
PICU Team
  • The configuration of the ICU spaces provides care teams with enhanced visibility and monitoring between patient rooms and into the patient rooms from the nurses’ workstations.
  • Remote monitoring and carefully designed communication panels enable clinicians to respond quickly to emergencies throughout the ICU areas.
  • Patient’s pumps, monitors and ventilators are attached to booms mounted to the ceiling of the room. This allows the patient to be positioned anywhere in the 360-degree circle, and allows medical staff to use high-tech equipment at the bedside while keeping the equipment off the floor.
  • Each ICU bed has an LED examination light that enables the teams to carry out intricate surgical procedures at the bedside on the most unstable patients.
  • A badge-accessible medication “pass-through”, similar to what you see at a pharmacy drive-through, allows pharmacy technicians to drop off medication to patients without having to enter the patient room, providing more privacy for patients and their family.
  • A touch screen safety monitor in each room allows clinicians to call for assistance from the nurse’s station. The technology allows for more efficient communication.

“Our patients and their families are very happy with their new spaces, and we are very excited to be in our new home for critical care in Legacy Tower,” said Gail Parazynski, Vice President of Nursing. “It took several years of planning to get to where we are today. It was a team effort on many different levels to ensure a safe environment of care was cultivated for our critical care staff, patients and their families.”

Texas Children’s will formally receive the ICU Design Award when the Society of Critical Care Medicine convenes for their annual meeting in February 2020.

September 30, 2019

Texas Children’s Hospital has announced the two new leaders of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) Program at Texas Children’s Heart Center® – esteemed cardiologist, Dr. Peter Ermis, as medical director and Dr. Edward Hickey, a recognized cardiovascular surgeon, as surgical director. Beginning on October 1, they will together guide the largest ACHD program in the state.

Texas Children’s is ranked No. 1 in the nation for pediatric cardiology and heart surgery by U.S. News & World Report, but for years the hospital has also offered expert care for adults with congenital heart disease. Texas Children’s ACHD Program allows patients with congenital heart disease to receive seamless continuity of care from birth throughout adulthood. As pediatric patients with congenital heart defects transition into adulthood, the program’s multidisciplinary team of experienced congenital heart disease specialists advises them on health and lifestyle choices for their adult needs, including physical challenges, exercise options and family planning. The program offers comprehensive medical and surgical care in collaboration with colleagues at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women® and Texas Children’s Fetal Center®. The hospital’s ACHD Program is accredited by the Adult Congenital Heart Association (ACHA) and is one of only three accredited programs in Texas.

Ermis, a native Houstonian and dedicated member of Texas Children’s ACHD Program team since 2014, also serves as assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s academic partner.

“I’m honored to take on a leadership role in the program where I began my cardiology career,” said Ermis. “As this population of patients grows, it is even more important they are cared for by congenital heart disease specialists who recognize their specific needs as they transition to and live through adulthood. Our team is revolutionizing the way we care for these patients, and I look forward to continuing to do so in partnership with Dr. Hickey.”

Ermis received his undergraduate degree at Rice University. He earned his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and went on to complete his residency and pediatric and adult cardiology fellowship at Baylor. He is board certified in pediatric cardiology, adult cardiology and adult congenital heart disease. Ermis is a fellow in the American College of Cardiology and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Texas Heart Institute Cardiac Society and the International Society on Adult Congenital Heart Disease.

Hickey, a proven leader in cardiovascular surgery, most recently served as associate professor of cardiac surgery at the University of Toronto and cardiac surgeon and chief of the ACHD program at The Hospital for Sick Children. In addition to his leadership role, he will also perform congenital heart surgeries and serve as associate professor of surgery at Baylor.

“I’m thrilled to join Texas Children’s and lead the ACHD Program alongside Dr. Ermis,” said Hickey. “Treating these unique patients requires dedication from an entire team, and it is evident Texas Children’s is paving the way in this field. I’m looking forward to joining this innovative and collaborative group as we continue to develop tailored approaches for our patients.”

Hickey received a Bachelor of Medicine degree from the University of Southampton in the U.K., where he also completed his general surgery residency. He went on to complete higher surgical training in cardiothoracic surgery and simultaneously earned his Doctorate of Medicine research thesis from Oregon Health & Science University and the University of Southampton, respectively. Later, he received the John Kirklin Fellowship from the Congenital Heart Surgeons’ Society, University of Toronto and spent two years at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He then pursued residency training in Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of Toronto, followed by a clinical fellowship in congenital heart surgery.

Learn more about Texas Children’s ACHD Program.

September 23, 2019

Just a few months after being named the No. 1 destination in the country for pediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery for the third straight year, Texas Children’s Heart Center® is celebrating another milestone.

One year ago, on September 25, the Heart Center made the historic move into its new home in Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower.

Watch the video of move day.

The entire day was a carefully orchestrated ballet of coordination.

“The move to the Heart Center was the culmination of two years of preparation and was a momentous day for us all,” said Chief of Critical Care Dr. Lara Shekerdemian. “There were lots of moving parts all working together in concert, which was incredible. The entire day was a testament to collaboration and great planning.”

Six specially trained teams made up of more than 200 members transported 64 heart patients, some critically ill, safely to their new, state-of-the-art rooms. The patients ranged in age from 3 days to 22 years. As units in the new tower prepared for patients’ arrival, team members in a command center were monitoring patients’ conditions, making sure facilities were ready, and stationing support teams along the travel routes in case of emergency.

“Fortunately, we had experience since we had moved the pediatric and the transitional intensive care units over to the new building in the months prior to the Heart Center move,” said Maria Happe, Texas Children’s nurse practitioner and clinical project manager for Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower. “There was a lot of excitement and tons of activity in each unit as we were getting patients, parents and teams ready to move.”

Settling in

The new Heart Center was designed from top to bottom with families in mind. One of the most important difference-makers that Heart Center staff and employees are quick to point out is the ability for families to stay together while a child receives care.

“Being able to have parents in the rooms with their children, for them to be able to comfortably stay in the space, has been a huge improvement, said Carmen Watrin, director of nursing for inpatient units. “It’s also made families essentially a part of the care team, which has been phenomenal. The families are so grateful.”

The new space also increased desperately needed care capacity. During one especially difficult period in 2013, spatial constraints rendered Texas Children’s incapable of accepting additional transports of critically ill children. We were simply too full. This prompted the historical expansion of critical, surgical and emergency care capacity that included the construction of Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower.

“We never want to be in a position where we say no to a family or to a child,” said Chief of Cardiovascular Anesthesiology Dr. Emad Mossad. “This new setting has given us the privilege, and the space and resources, to be able to serve as many patients as come our way. It’s been a great thing to move to a new space, a new place, a fresh start, and to have the capacity to be able to say yes to families who are seeking our help.”

In addition to new space, the Heart Center has been on a mission to ensure that it has the staff needed to deliver the highest possible level of care. One example has been the onboarding of over one hundred new nurses to ensure that nurse-to-patient ratios are always at the optimum level. There’s also no substitution for experience, especially in health care, which is why in the months leading up to the Heart Center move, cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) leadership worked not only to recruit the best nurses, but also to retain them. As a result, the number of CICU nurses with greater than two years’ experience has increased over the past year, which helps improve the overall quality of the team.

Eyes on the future

With a year now in the books, the No. 1 heart center in the country is focused on continuing to deliver the best care, but also to improving wherever possible and to growing as a team.

“I’m looking forward to further consolidating the concept of a heart center as something that we all are part of,” said Chief of Congenital Heart Surgery Dr. Christopher Caldarone. “We all have allegiances to many things – to our community, to our families, to our homes, to the hospital, to our academic department. Over the next year, we want to continue creating a culture here in the Heart Center where people feel like they are truly a part of this big team.”

Additionally, the Heart Center is looking forward to growing care capabilities, including an expansion of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) program. Over the course of the next year, the Heart Center will develop a dedicated center for adults with congenital heart disease, where they will be treated by specialists who recognize and understand their unique needs.

“This expansion will be a huge statement by Texas Children’s Hospital,” said Chief of Pediatric Cardiology Dr. Daniel Penny. “There should never be an expiry date on the care of children with congenital heart disease as they transition to adulthood. Our ACHD team already provides amazing care, but with this expansion, all aspects of care for adults with congenital heart disease will be available on one dedicated unit. It’s an exciting time at Texas Children’s Heart Center.”

Learn more about the world-class care and services provided at Texas Children’s Heart Center.

August 26, 2019

A group of 25 Texas Children’s ventricular assist device (VAD) patients of all ages and more than 100 other guests, including families, caregivers and guest speakers, recently attended the second annual VAD celebration – “A Night with VAD Superstars.”

There was plenty of food, a visit from Child Life Specialist Adair Galanski with Bailey – the dedicated therapy dog for Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower – and games and activities provided by Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Child Life.

The evening was emceed by Barbara Elias, VAD coordinator and the event’s founder, who started the celebration as a way to honor patients currently on heart pump or circulatory support, or those patients who have previously been on support but have had their pump removed or received a transplant. The VAD celebration also honors families and caregivers and has quickly become an outlet for information exchange and networking.

“Device patients are a special group that lead challenging lives, and their families and caregivers are with them every step of the way for what is sometimes a very long journey,” said Elias. “This event serves many purposes: It provides a forum for families to meet one another, share their experiences and build a community. It allows parents of children with VADs to meet other children or adults who have lived through the experience and persevered. And it gives caregivers – especially those from the ICU, who have seen these patients at their worst – an opportunity to see these patients living their lives and doing well.”

The evening’s speakers included Dr. William Dreyer, Texas Children’s medical director of Heart Failure, Cardiomyopathy and Cardiac Transplant; Dr. Lara Shekerdemian, chief of Critical Care; and Texas Children’s heart surgeon Dr. Iki Adachi. Attendees also heard from special guest speaker Dr. Richard Wampler, the inventor of Medtronic’s HeartWare® HVAD pump, a device frequently used in Texas Children’s patients. In turn, the event gave Wampler an opportunity to see firsthand how his invention has positively affected the lives of so many children at Texas Children’s.

“This event was testimony to what our VAD program has accomplished over the last decade,” said Adachi. “There is no doubt that VAD support has provided our patients with a chance for life. It was a pleasure seeing and sharing the happiness generated by such life-saving therapies with patients, families and medical colleagues.”

The VAD program’s expertise was on display in the evening’s two special patient honorees, Eugene Carrette and Jameson Finney. Eugene, who is from Belgium, was the smallest and youngest patient to receive a VAD since the beginning of the program. Thanks to the expert care he received at Texas Children’s, he has been able to travel with his family to Europe recently, a phenomenal feat for a young VAD patient. Jameson Finney earned the nickname “Daredevil” for living life to the fullest while on a device, running, golfing and riding bikes until receiving a heart transplant in 2018. Both the VAD implantation and the transplant were performed by Adachi. Jameson has been doing well since his transplant and continues to lead an active life.

The event concluded with a special moment of sharing and reflection. During this emotional and cathartic time of testimony, patients, families and caregivers who wished had the opportunity to share their stories and to speak frankly about living with a VAD. Many also thanked the experts at Texas Children’s for the care they received and how it has empowered them to live their lives.

“The event was extremely well received and was powerful for everyone in attendance,” said Elias. “I would like to thank Dr. Adachi, Dr. Hari Tunuguntla, my partner, VAD coordinator Jason McMullen, RN, the Heart Center Social Committee, and therapies including Physical and Occupational Therapy and Child Life, whose efforts allowed the event to occur.”

Texas Children’s Heart Center® was recently named the No. 1 pediatric heart center in the country for a third straight year by U.S. News & World Report. The VAD program is part of the Heart Failure Program and is one of the busiest pediatric programs in the country. There are currently 15 VAD patients in the program. Seven of those are full-time students.

Learn more about the Heart Center and its recent U.S. News ranking.

August 6, 2019

Early on the morning of June 18, Texas Children’s Heart Center staff filed into Taussig auditorium on the 16th floor of Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower. Details about the meeting’s purpose had been scarce. Little did everyone know that they’d been called in for a big reveal.

Texas Children’s Heart Center had once again been named the best place in the country for pediatric cardiology and heart surgery in the U.S. News and World Report 2019-2020 Best Children’s Hospitals rankings – the center’s third straight year at No. 1.

“It’s thrilling for our team to be recognized for the care we provide to our patients every day,” said Chief of Pediatric Cardiology Dr. Daniel Penny. “Even though we received the top honor, we know there is always room for improvement. We are continuing to evolve as a true multidisciplinary team that is dedicated to setting a new standard for the treatment of children and adults with congenital heart disease.”

The U.S. News rankings use a well-accepted framework for evaluating quality of health care, which factors in patient outcomes, such as mortality and infection rates; available clinical resources, such as specialized clinics and programs and external accreditations; and compliance with best practices. Improved rankings demonstrate a health care organization’s commitment to not only providing high-quality care, but also to identifying gaps where improvements are needed.

But where do you go when you’re No. 1?

“Our goal is to be so far ahead that no one can catch us,” said Dr. Christopher Caldarone, Texas Children’s chief of Congenital Heart Surgery. “Being No. 1 is a state of mind, where commitment to excellence is inherent in everything a program does. Our team has a No. 1 mindset. We work hard, we constantly measure our performance, and we drive ourselves to improve in every aspect of providing care.”

Big wins for patients and families

This past year, the Heart Center built on the successes of previously existing programs and also implemented new initiatives to increase transparency, reduce risk of infection and improve the quality of care.

  • Participated in STS National Database public reporting
    The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) is a national leader in health care transparency and accountability. Participation in STS public reporting demonstrates a commitment to quality improvement in health care delivery and helps provide patients and families with access to information that can help them make more informed health care decisions.

Texas Children’s holds a three-star rating in the STS Congenital Heart Surgery Database (CHSD), which is calculated based on overall risk-adjusted operative mortality for all patients undergoing pediatric and/or congenital heart surgery. The rating is the highest category of quality and places Texas Children’s among the elite congenital heart surgery programs in the U.S. and Canada. Additionally, STS recognized Texas Children’s for having operative and adjusted operative mortality rates that were consistently below expected rates over a 4-year period.

  • Implemented a program to routinely track and submit IMPACT data
    In partnership with clinical and physician leadership, the Heart Center’s Cardiac Catheterization Labs implemented processes to submit metrics on all catheterization procedures included in the American College of Cardiology’s IMPACT Registry®. This national register collects quality-focused data on the management and outcomes of pediatric and adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) patients who undergo diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterization procedures. The registry also allows Heart Center leadership to compare performance against a national aggregate for quality improvement initiatives.
  • Increased the number of cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) RNs with greater than 2 years’ experience
    CICU care requires a multidisciplinary team effort. Success is due, in part, to the team’s being able to rely on experience. In the months leading up to the Heart Center’s move into Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower, CICU leadership worked tirelessly to not only recruit the very best nurses, but also to retain them. This enables the nurses to gain valuable experience and mature as caregivers, and also helps improve the overall quality of the CICU team. The response has been extremely positive, with low turnover.
  • Implemented a universal methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) decolonization treatment protocol
    To reduce the risk of infection faced by all surgical patients during the perioperative period, the Congenital Heart Surgery team partnered with experts from Infectious Disease to implement a universal decolonization protocol for MRSA, which causes infections that are more difficult to treat than methicillin-susceptible staph. The protocol, which involves five days of antibiotic ointment in the nose and five days of special wipes, has the added benefit of decreasing MRSA wound infections, and incidence of methicillin-susceptible staph ventilated-associated pneumonia and central line infections.

Learn more about the Heart Center, its services, and volume and outcomes.