June 23, 2015

62415newshuttles640Everybody likes getting a new vehicle. The whole experience – from the new-car smell and shiny gadgets to the sleek paint job and smooth ride – is exciting.

On Monday, June 29, the entire Texas Children’s family will get to have such an experience when six of our 12 new shuttles are rolled out sporting colorful designs and several innovative features.

“We are very excited about this new capability for Texas Children’s,” said Director of Supply Chain Rick McFee. “We think you will be too.”

The first thing people will notice about the new shuttles is the outside of them, McFee said. All 12 will be bright, bold colors and graphics with designs of clouds, fish, flowers or blades of grass.

“The wraps share the excitement we all have to work for Texas Children’s Hospital,” McFee said. “They also share a bit of the spirit we have when it comes to healing sick children and taking care of women.”

A not-so-obvious feature the buses will have is an environmentally-friendly fueling system. Instead of using diesel, all 12 shuttles will be fueled by propane. Switching to this much cleaner-burning gas will reduce our carbon footprint by 70 percent and make Texas Children’s Hospital the first hospital in the Medical Center to offer completely green-friendly shuttle service.

Some of the features inside the shuttles include:

  • A comprehensive security system that will keep employees safe and will record how many people get on and off the shuttle.
  • On-board video capabilities will give Texas Children’s another avenue to share important information.
  • A voice announcement system will keep riders up to date about where the shuttle is and where it’s headed.
  • USB charging ports will be available at each seat for riders who need to charge their phone or other electronic devices.

All buses will be equipped with GPS technology, allowing riders to connect to an Internet link that will tell them where a bus is, when it’s going to arrive and how long it will be until the next stop.

McFee said the GPS technology will give Texas Children’s management the opportunity to monitor the shuttles’ movements and to adjust accordingly based on ridership activity. As for now, however, all routes will stay the same.

The remaining six larger shuttles in the fleet will be on the road in late summer.

“Welcome aboard!” McFee said. “We are glad to have you on our new shuttles.”

62415tcpapp640Managing health care decisions and accessing provider relationships just got easier for thousands of patients and families in the greater Houston area thanks to a new mobile application introduced by Texas Children’s Pediatrics.

The ParentAdvice Center, available for free on iTunes and Google Play, will help families make smart decisions about what level of care is needed for their child and how to provide symptom relief for minor illnesses or injuries at home. The new app also includes answers to common behavior and wellness questions, medication dosage tables, links to each Texas Children’s Pediatrics practice web page and maps to our urgent care locations.

“As the world moves in a more digital direction, we feel it is important to meet patient families exactly where they are, providing the information they need in the way they want to receive it,” said Dr. Stanley Spinner, chief medical officer and vice president of Texas Children’s Pediatrics. “The clinical advice, validated by TCP leadership, is the same evidence-based, high-quality advice we already give patients, only now it will be available in a digital format around the clock.”

Produced by StayWell, a leading provider of health education and engagement solutions, the app will help families better understand their children’s health symptoms. The app will give parents the support and information they need to make timely decisions about the appropriate level of care for their child – whether that means providing care for minor illnesses at home or finding a Texas Children’s facility. The mobile app also will give parents access to their child’s health records via the MyChart patient portal.

Some of the app’s valuable features include:

  • Online symptom checker with access to 129 care guides, first-aid illustrations, parent message boards and over-the-counter medication guides.
  • Access to MyChart patient portal for personal medical information and to manage relationships with Texas Children’s hospitals and clinics.
  • Ability to find a practice or care facility within the Texas Children’s Pediatrics, from individual pediatricians, urgent care centers or emergency rooms.
  • Tips on how to prepare for an appointment and connections to popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

“This is an important step in meeting the needs of our families where it’s convenient for them – on their smart phones,” said Lou Fragoso, vice president of Texas Children’s Pediatrics. “Now, patient families can have easy and quick access to helpful medical information and links to our pediatric practices, urgent care facilities and emergency rooms.”

Download the app and tell patients, friends and family about it today. Anyone who has children or spends time with children can benefit from Texas Children’s Pediatric ParentAdvice Center. For more information about the app, click here.

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May 11, 2015

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Bench and Bedside is a digest of the previous month’s stories about the clinical and academic activities of our physicians and scientists. We welcome your subsmissions and feedback.

51215icd10300April 28

Countdown to ICD-10: Deadline to meet educational requirements is September 1

On October 1, Texas Children’s and hospitals across the nation will switch from ICD-9 to the ICD-10 coding system to report patients’ diagnoses and procedures. The ICD-10 codes will allow greater specificity and accuracy in describing a patient’s diagnosis and classifying inpatient procedures. Texas Children’s education teams have developed helpful tools to ensure all employees are prepared for this mandatory conversion.

“We believe that communicating the change clearly and consistently will help ensure a smooth transition,” said Texas Children’s Chief Safety Officer Dr. Joan Shook. Read more

 

April 28

Super Star Physician: Dr. Stephanie Marton

Dr. Stephanie Marton from the Center for Children and Women – Greenspoint is the latest Texas Children’s Super Star physician. “Every day I see patients coming in to the Center, and I directly see the impact that Texas Children’s Hospital is making in this community.” Read more

 

April 28

Giardino to serve on ABMQ Board of Directors

Texas Children’s Chief Quality Officer and Senior Vice President Dr. Angelo Giardino was recently unanimously confirmed to serve on the American Board of Medical Quality (ABMQ) Board of Directors. The organization is closely associated with the American College of Medical Quality of which Giardino is a distinguished fellow. Read more

 

April 28

Patel receives distinguished fellowship award

Dr. Akash Patel will be presented with the 2015-2016 Christopher R. Getch Fellowship Award from the Congress of Neuroligical Surgeons Fellowships Committee during its annual meeting in September. This prestigious award provides $100,000 for advanced training and is given to a neurosurgeon or fellow engaged in clinical research that promises to significantly impact the field of neurosurgery. Read more

 

April 28

Dr. George Bisset receives prestigious award

Radiologist-in-Chief Dr. George Bisset will be honored for his contribution to pediatric radiology at the 45th annual Sociedade Paulista de Radiologia (SPR) meeting held in Brazil. The conference is the biggest diagnostic imaging meeting in Latin America and the fourth largest in the world. Bisset will be the first non-Brazilian to receive honorary membership in this organization. Read more

 

51215Cainlab300April 21

New Cain Labs website promotes groundbreaking epilepsy research

Texas Children’s has launched a new website dedicated to innovative epilepsy research conducted at the Cain Foundation Laboratories in the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute and other test centers around the world. The website also includes a repository of helpful information about epilepsy treatment programs for patients and their families, including a link to Texas Children’s Level IV Epilepsy Center. Read more

 

51215cooley300April 21

Surgeon-in-chief speaks at Texas Surgical Society meeting

Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Charles D. Fraser, Jr. spoke at a Texas Surgical Society meeting on April 11 in Galveston. Fraser, who is the son-in-law of Dr. Denton A. Cooley, talked about the hospital’s 60-year history of pediatric heart surgery and the roles played by Cooley and himself. More

 

 

April 20

Texas Children’s Hospital helps determine standard of care for children with cleft lip and palate

Representatives from Texas Children’s Hospital: Dr. Laura Monson, pediatric plastic surgeon; Christy Hernandez, director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Outcomes and Impact Service; and Dr. John Wirthlin, craniofacial orthodontist, joined an international group of medical professionals, patients and parents to determine a standard set of outcome measures for children born with cleft lip and palate. These guidelines will help all institutions develp a standard treatment of care of this population of patients and will be available for implementation starting in February. Read more

 

51215wesleylee300April 14

Lee recognized for his contribution to fetal imaging advancements

Dr. Wesley Lee, co-director of Texas Children’s Fetal Center and section chief for women’s and fetal imaging at Baylor College of Medicine, recently received the William J. Fry Memorial Lecture Award from the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM). Read more

 

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New PAPRs help provide full complement of PPE

Texas Children’s recently acquired 30 powered air purifying respirators (or PAPRs) to protect emergency responders from chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear agents. This addition to our PPE inventory helps ensure the safety of our health care professionals when they are treating patients with highly contagious infectious diseases. Read more

 

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Texas Children’s, AAP partnership helps physicians advocate for their patients

Texas Children’s and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) signed a first-of-its-kind partnership agreement whereby every eligible faculty member of the Baylor College of Medicine Department of Pediatrics is a member in the AAP and the Texas Pediatric Society (TPS). Since this partnership began a year and a half ago, the following Texas Children’s faculty have been actively involved with the AAP and TPS to champion the health, safety and well-being of children: Dr. Robert Voigt, Dr. Robert Ricketts, Dr. Mark Gilger, Dr. Fernando Stein, Dr. Carol Tapia, Dr. Mark Ward, Dr. Krithka Lingappan and Dr. Bruno Chumpitazi. Read more

 

April 14

Texas Children’s Hospital receives Healthcare Informatics Magazine’s 2015 Innovator Award

Texas Children’s Hospital has earned second place in Healthcare Informatics Magazine’s fourteenth annual Innovator Awards. The award was given to Texas Children’s for its quality improvement work to identify, deploy and measure new best practices and improve outcomes for children with appendicitis.

“We felt there was an urgent need in the health care industry to accelerate the identification and deployment of shared guidelines of care,” said Dr. Charles Macias, Texas Children’s Chief Clinical Systems Integration Officer and Evidence Based Outcomes Center director. Read more

 

April 14

New pediatric urologist joins Department of Surgery

Dr. Duong Dai Tu has joined Texas Children’s as a new pediatric urologist. Tu, who started April 1, has been appointed assistant professor of urology and attending surgeon in urology at Baylor College of Medicine.

“Dr. Tu is bringing an exciting vision to the surgery team that will help us continue to develop a preeminent program, enabling us to better serve our patients and their families,” chief of Urology, Dr. David Roth said. Read more

 

April 7

Texas Children’s welcomes new surgeon and researcher, Dr. Sundeep Keswani

Dr. Sundeep Keswani joined Texas Children’s as a pediatric and fetal surgeon and an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine. He also is the principal investigator of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded laboratory. Read more

 

51215transplantnos300April 7

Transplant team perform 95 organ transplants in 2014

Transplant teams with Texas Children’s Hospital performed 95 solid organ transplants in 2014, continuing to serve as one of the largest, most active and successful pediatric transplant programs in the nation. The heart and the lung transplant programs were the largest in the country last year with 32 heart transplants and 16 lung transplants.

“Texas Children’s Transplant Services continues to earn its reputation as one of the best pediatric transplant programs in the country,” said Dr. John Goss, medical director of Transplant Services. Read more

 

April 7

CRC presents resarch award to Dr. Srivaths

The Clinical Research Center presented the Clinical Research Award for First Quarter 2015 to Dr. Poyyapakkam Srivaths, Department of Pediatrics – Renal, Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Srivaths’s research activities in the CRC focus on investigating cardiovascular morbidity associated with end stage renal disease (ESRD) in children. Read more

January 20, 2015

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MyChart, the online patient portal that allows patients or their parents to access health information from Epic, recently underwent significant improvements and enhancements.

Now, patient families can:

  • Sign up for MyChart in their doctors’ offices and receive access the same day (with a few exceptions
  • Request, confirm and cancel appointments online
  • Review appointment history, chronic illnesses, medical and surgical history, allergies, medications and after-visit summaries
  • Email non-urgent medical questions to providers
  • Request prescription renewals online
  • Complete medical questionnaires prior to appointments

The increased use of MyChart by Texas Children’s patient families will help providers stay connected to their patients, improve patient care and save time.
Here’s how:

  • MyChart is an effective tool for patient engagement, leading to better outcomes. The more patient families are involved in their care, the better their outcomes.
  • MyChart allows easy login – whether on a computer or a smart phone – so patient families can see their health information and review comments from their physicians.
  • MyChart enhances how physicians communicate directly with their patients, by allowing conversations to occur online and at times that are convenient for the physician and the patient. This direct communication helps patient families feel connected to their care providers.
  • MyChart improves the patient experience by allowing easier access to their health information, such as after visit summaries, immunization histories and more.
  • MyChart promotes efficiency by decreasing the need for printing, mailing and faxing patient information.

“We are excited about the changes that have been made to MyChart during the last six months,” said Dr. Joan Shook, Texas Children’s chief clinical information officer. “Now it’s time for us to enlist all the Texas Children’s medical staff and employees to help us encourage our patient families to sign up and use MyChart.”

If you want to watch the MyChart video outside of the organization on our YouTube channel, click here.

For more information about MyChart, visit the links below:
My Chart Overview
Clinical MyChart Workflows
Workflow and Instructions for Responding to Patient Emails
Details about Outpatient After Visit Summary (AVS)
Results Release

Results Release Tip Sheet
eLearning Results Release Tutorial
PowerPoint Results Release Tutorial

Details about Blocked Lab Results and Sharing Letters

Details about History Questionnaires

Functionality for the Teen Patient and Teen Proxy

June 17, 2014

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Texas Children’s Radiology Department is taking part in an initiative to create a better patient experience. After noticing access to radiology services was becoming more difficult, the department took on an initiative called Creating a Remarkable Experience, C.A.R.E. The initiative targeted several areas for improvement.

The first step was getting patients an appointment time. The team realized there were multiple points of entry for a patient family seeking a radiology appointment. Each campus offering these appointments was using a different scheduling method, creating a different patient experience from campus-to-campus.

The department looked at the best methods for easy access. One phone line was created which directs patients to a group of schedulers who can make an appointment at any of the three sites providing radiology services, including Main Campus, West Campus or the Pavilion for Women. The number, 832-TC4-XRAY (832-824-9729), gives patients one phone line with access to all scheduling.

“Since we implemented our new and improved scheduling system, patients have better access to our services. We’re able to better accommodate their schedules and get their radiology examinations performed in a timely manner,” said Dr. George Bisset, chief of Pediatric Radiology. “All of this has a direct impact on patient satisfaction.”

The initiative looked at cycle times and determined how to reduce the percentage of times the MRI cases were started late. After making a few adjustments to scheduling patients and the patient flow, the team went from experiencing 73 percent late starts to 27 percent. Wait time in nuclear radiology went from more than 100 minutes to 22 minutes.

“Once we were able to streamline the process to schedule patients, we wanted to ensure that our patients continued to have excellent service when they arrived at our doors,” said Maryam El-Bakry, the initiative lead. “Our patient families’ time is valuable and we wanted to avoid having long waits and provide the best service.”

The department also took on a major clean out of the radiology areas across the system to reorganize and follow joint-commission standards. Bisset believes the new initiative allows the team to be better prepared, and reenergized about their roles in patient care.

February 25, 2014

Most Texas Children’s Hospital telephone service at all locations will be unavailable from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday, March 2, for maintenance.

What does this mean to you?

  • Red emergency phones will be available, and the hospital’s Disaster Routing Service will be activated.
  • Other available communication services include:
    • Beeper paging through 713-605-8989
    • Hospital page operator “0” can be dialed from any red phone to reach the page operator
    • IRM paging system will be available through page operators for normal hospital groups such as Inpatient Code Team, Transport Team, CARLA Teams and Pyros
    • Voalte-to-Voalte phone communication
  • No other phone-related services, including Spectralink, will be available until maintenance is completed.

What should you do?

  • All departments should implement standard downtime procedures during this outage.
  • If your SpectraLink handset displays “system unavailable” or “no PBX” after service resumes, turn the phone off and back on, and the error will clear.
  • Call Center Agents will have to log back into the telephone after service is restored to receive calls.

Questions?
Information Services is dedicated to providing a secure, reliable technology environment, and will provide the following support resources:

  • Before the outage – call the IS Service Desk at Ext. 4-3512
  • During the outage – call the IS Service Desk from a red emergency phone by dialing Ext. 5332.

The latest issue of IS Technology News is now available online. Click here to view important technology news and helpful information such as:

  • How IS protects Texas Children’s against cyber security threats (and what you can do at home!)

Recent data breaches by major retailers exposed security vulnerabilities, and put millions of consumers at risk for spam, phishing and malware. Texas Children’s faces similar threats, so Information Services (IS) uses a combination of programs, policies and practices to protect both the organization and its individual employees and patients. In fact, many information security best practices can also protect you at home!

  • The IS Customer Support Portal has a fresh look and helpful new features. Check it out!
  • Enhance security and access to your favorite web sites with an (easy) update to Internet Explorer 8
  • Locked out of your computer? Never again with Password Reset!
  • Windows 7 migration benefits – they’re for everyone!

Please visit the Information Services Connect site for more helpful technology tips, updates and information.