May 1, 2018

On April 29, Dr. Lisa M. Hollier became the 69th president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ (ACOG) during the Presidential Inauguration and Convocation ceremony.

Hollier is a professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, serves as chief medical officer of obstetrics and gynecology for Texas Children’s Health Plan and is the medical director of obstetrics and gynecology for The Health Plan’s Centers for Children and Women.

Hollier has held many roles in ACOG over her career. She was assistant secretary of ACOG and served on many college committees and Presidential Task Forces and work groups. She chaired the Committee on Professional Liability, the Committee on Credentials and the Work Group on Women’s Health Care Team Leadership. Additionally, she served as the ACOG representative to the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine board of directors for five years. Currently, she is chair of the Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Task Force.

Past president of the Texas Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and past chair of District XI of ACOG, Hollier has throughout her career been dedicated to caring for the underserved and improving women’s health by advancing women’s health policy.

She earned her medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine and her master’s in Public Health from Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans. She completed her residency training in obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, followed by subspecialty fellowship training in maternal-fetal medicine at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas.

Texas Children’s congratulates Hollier on this well deserved recognition and honor.

Click here to read the text of Hollier’s speech.

April 10, 2018

After two independent studies were published two years ago suggesting that the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in Texas had doubled within the past decade, an updated report released today in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology found that the MMR in Texas was significantly lower in 2012 than previously reported due to data collection error. The identification of this error illustrates an important role of the maternal mortality review process – ensuring accurate data on which to base interventions.

Comprised of 15 Texas-based multidisciplinary experts and chaired by Dr. Lisa Hollier, chief medical officer at Texas Children’s Health Plan and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine, the Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Task Force used an enhanced methodology that combined data matching and records review for identifying maternal deaths. After meticulously reviewing 2012 data, investigators determined that the MMR in Texas was 14 to 18 deaths per 100,000 versus the 37 deaths per 100,000 previously reported.

“Our analysis found there were data quality issues,” said Hollier, who also is president-elect of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. “When we examined the data, it showed that some deaths were mistakenly coded as “dying while pregnant,” when there was never a pregnancy. Beginning in 2010, Texas transitioned from paper to electronic death certificates, so unintentional user error in reporting pregnancy status may be responsible for the inaccurate data.”

Texas’ current electronic death registration system displays pregnancy status options as a dropdown list. The “pregnant at time of death” option is directly below the “not pregnant within past year” option. The investigators concluded that this could have led to erroneous selection, and could explain why pregnancy at time of death was reported for nearly 76 percent of the 74 obstetric-coded deaths with no evidence of pregnancy upon review.

The task force determined that a total of 56 Texas resident maternal deaths occurred during pregnancy or within 42 days postpartum in 2012. The most common causes for these deaths were drug overdose and cardiac events.

While the MMR is lower than initially reported, the updated report confirms a vast disparity still exists – black women had a higher MMR (27.8 per 100,000 live births) than did women of other racial and ethnic groups. Black women in Texas have more than double the risk of dying during pregnancy or within 42 days postpartum.

As one of the nation’s premier facilities for women’s, fetal and newborn health, Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women remains actively involved in grassroots advocacy at state and national levels with the goal of improving health outcomes, quality of care and patient safety for women and newborns across Texas and the nation.

Through the efforts of the Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Task Force, Texas Children’s maternal-fetal medicine physician leadership is helping to review cases and study trends in maternal deaths so that we can better understand the problem and make recommendations to help reduce the MMR across Texas.

While these results published in the new report likely have national implications – since miscoding of obstetric deaths may occur in other states and affect the accuracy of their MMRs – the updated data demonstrates that Texas is more in the middle of the pack when it comes to MMRs across the nation.

“We believe future efforts should focus on improving the quality of death certificate data, especially pregnancy status,” Hollier said. “It is also critically important we don’t lose the unfortunate truth that even this updated data demonstrates a huge disparity between the MMRs faced by black women compared to women of other racial and ethnic groups. We need to continue work to identify why this disparity exists and create strategies to remedy it.”

Click here to read the report in the medical journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

February 27, 2018

Texas Children’s Health Plan and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston have teamed up to provide free school year and summer memberships to active Health Plan members between the ages of 6 and 12.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston has 14 locations across the region and offers a range of after-school programs, including Academic Success, Healthy Lifestyles, and Good Character and Citizenship.

“We are proud to be a partner of Texas Children’s Health Plan,” said Kevin Hattery, president and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston, at a recent celebration of the partnership. “Both of our organizations serve Houston’s youth and families with valuable programs and resources that truly change lives.”

Dr. Heidi Schwarzwald, chief medical officer of pediatrics at Texas Children’s Health Plan, said the new relationship reaffirms our belief that community health and wellness is achievable when we take a holistic view of a child’s life and ensure medical, physical and emotional needs are met.

“We are excited for what this partnership will mean for our health plan members and the community at large,” Schwarzwald said.

Lou Fragoso, president of Texas Children’s Health Plan, echoed Schwarzwald’s comments adding that care happens beyond hospital walls, in homes, communities, and at organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston.

“By offering our members access to these clubs allows us to expand that holistic vision of care and helps create healthier communities,” Fragoso said.

December 6, 2016

112316lisahollier175Dr. Lisa Hollier has been named president elect of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) for May 2017 to May 2018. Hollier will officially take office on May 9.

With 20 years of experience, Hollier is a board certified professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and director of the Division of Women’s Health Law and Policy at Baylor College of Medicine. She is the chief medical officer for Obstetrics and Gynecology for Texas Children’s Health Plan and the medical director of The Centers for Children and Women.

She received her doctorate in Medicine from Tulane University School of Medicine and master’s degree in Public Health from Tulane University School of Public Health and Topical Medicine. Hollier completed her residency at Baylor University Medical Center and completed a fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

As a national expert in obstetrics and gynecology, Hollier’s work has been published in prestigious national journals and she has served on several national boards.

October 25, 2016

102716starkidsinside350Three years ago, Jessica Coker of Willis, Texas, gave birth to her son, Christopher. Unbeknownst to Coker during her pregnancy, Christopher would be born with various medical issues. Christopher has apert (a cranio facial syndrome) and a heart murmur. He also relies on a trach and has, at times, needed a feeding tube.

After delivering her baby, the new mom was suddenly faced with needing to learn how to care for a child who would have very complex needs, as well as how to manage the comprehensive care he would need from more than two dozen specialists. Just in his first week of life, Christopher had 17 doctor’s appointments. As a newborn, Christopher was transferred to Texas Children’s and had a team of doctors here taking care of him, successfully treating some of his issues and managing others.

Today, the toddler still sees about 24 doctors at Texas Children’s and other medical facilities near his family’s home in Willis. He’s doing well, because he is receiving excellent care – and because his mother has created a system to manage and coordinate his complex care.

“We currently have great access to care,” Coker said. “I can call doctors directly, and they do a fantastic job when I need them the most. It’s a team approach that we’ve worked hard to establish.”

Coker’s fortunate to have figured out a system to manage her son’s care. Learning to advocate for and manage the care of children with complex medical needs is often critical to their ability to thrive and realize a decent quality of life. Beginning November 1, STAR Kids will provide the support these families need, and Texas Children’s Health Plan is leading the way. Last year, the Health Plan was selected by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission as one of three managed care organizations offering the STAR Kids plan in Harris, Jefferson and Northeast service areas.

“The STAR Kids contract allows the Health Plan to increase its reach to about 40,000 new children and teens in 54 counties,” said Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark Wallace. “These children see multiple specialists and therapists, and many receive home care services. They typically see at least one physician every week.

“Coordination and management of care is essential for these children. It helps prevent children with significant intellectual development disabilities or complex medical problems from falling through the gaps and provides a structure where their progress can be followed throughout the system.”

While many of the children transitioning into STAR Kids already are Texas Children’s patients, we expect thousands more to become part of the Texas Children’s system through enrollment in STAR Kids. In preparation for this patient volume, the Health Plan has already hired nearly 300 care coordinators.

“It is the strong partnership between the care coordinators and the families that will make this feel different even for the families already in the system,” said Texas Children’s Vice President Diane Scardino. “These care coordinators are registered nurses and certified social workers who will bring much needed support to families who are managing care for their children in what can sometimes be an incredibly complex system.

“They will visit with families, assess their children’s needs and develop care plans to address those needs. Texas Children’s will provide the resources around care coordination and home based services, creating a much more robust system of care for them.”

STAR Kids’ new care model is a huge step in supporting the unique needs of patients and their families, and improving their access to health care services, while also reducing preventable events or unnecessary visits to the hospital or care provider. There are about 180,000 children across Texas eligible for the STAR Kids program, with about 40,000 expected to be enrolled in Texas Children’s Health Plan.

“Texas Children’s is proud to be a part of this program that will mean so much to help so many families throughout Texas,” Wallace said. “This program and the work we will do to help ensure these families’ needs are met and that their children receive the best possible care speaks to our mission. This is what Texas Children’s has always done.”

Information about STAR Kids

FAQs about STAR Kids and Texas Children’s involvement
STAR Kids information on Texas Children’s Health Plan website
Texas Health and Human Services website

July 7, 2016

This week a year ago – July 6 to be exact – Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark Wallace kicked off his One Amazing Team tour, visiting Texas Children’s team members at all of our locations throughout Greater Houston. The whirlwind, 73-stop tour took more than three-and-a-half months, covered about 750 miles and touched nearly 1,800 Texas Children’s staff and employees.

In case you missed it, here’s an awesome video capturing all the excitement of last year’s One Amazing Team tour!

 

June 21, 2016

62216TCHPquilt640Debbie Spence, LVN, recently designed a colorful signature quilt to honor the nurses from the Texas Children’s Health Plan (TCHP) where she works as a medical compliance auditor.

“I’ve made special quilts in the past, but most, if not all, were for a specific person or to honor someone who was going through a difficult time,” Spence said. “I felt in my heart that making a quilt would honor the nurses I work with and making a signature quilt would be the best way to accomplish this honor.”

Designed with various combinations of fabrics to represent the uniqueness of our nurses, the individual quilt squares contain the name, nursing school and the year of graduation for each TCHP nurse including the nurses from The Centers for Women and Children in Greenspoint and Southwest.

“Everyone was very supportive of this project,” Spence said. ”It was such a joy to create this quilt to represent us – the Texas Children’s Health Plan.”

Spence’s quilt will be displayed in the TCHP’s new offices at 6330 West Loop South and will serve as a constant reminder of how special and dynamic our nurses are at the TCHP.