April 21, 2015

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Nearly 800 guests attending Texas Children’s Hospital’s The Forum Luncheon in The Woodlands on April 14 were treated to the very first look into what will be the only dedicated pediatric hospital serving communities north of Houston when the doors fully open in 2017.

Attendees previewed a virtual, behind-the-scenes tour of the Emergency Center, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), operating rooms, inpatient rooms and the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinic through the eyes of three Texas Children’s patient families: Bennett Rhymes, Skylin Parker and Noah and Sammy Folloder. Each of the first-hand accounts highlighted the expert care Texas Children’s provided to them, which will soon be available closer to home for these families and the 380,000 children in the area.

42215WoodlandsForuminside640“Our new hospital is being designed, top to bottom, with children and families in mind,” said Michelle Riley-Brown, president of Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands. “I am really excited about all that Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands will have to offer when we open our doors.”

Ground was broken on the new community hospital 15 months ago and progress is being made on the structure every day. Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands building project is part of the Promise campaign. The goal of the comprehensive $475 million fundraising effort is to help ensure the future of Texas Children’s as a leader in pediatric and women’s health.

To date, $26 million has been raised for Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands. The following donors were recognized at last week’s forum for their significant gifts:

  • Anadarko
  • The Howard Hughes Corporation
  • Woodforest National Bank
  • Dawn and Richard Rawson

“Through the Promise campaign, each of you in this audience will have a unique chance to see the amazing work that has resulted from your philanthropy every time you drive by this new hospital,” Dawn Rawson said at the forum. “Every time you see a child walking through those doors, you will know that you helped make that child’s care possible.”

March 17, 2015

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To prepare for the opening of Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, Texas Children’s has leased space on Lake Robbins Drive for human resources, development and marketing.

The new office, located at 1501 Lake Robbins Drive Suite 130, opened March 2 and is being used to recruit future employees, on-board staff and educate donors, said Jill Pearsall, assistant vice president of facilities, planning and development. The space will not be used for clinical services.

“We are very excited to have this new office in The Woodlands,” said President of Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands Michelle Riley-Brown. “It will allow us to have greater visibility in the community and to share information about the new hospital, which is scheduled to open and be fully operational in 2017.”

Once completed, The Woodlands facility will be a 560,000-square-foot complex and will offer inpatient and outpatient specialty pediatric care. Facilities will include 18 emergency center rooms, 85 outpatient rooms, five radiology rooms, four operating rooms and 32 acute-care and 12 PICU beds with future expansion plans for up to 200 beds.

Along with serving families throughout The Woodlands Area, Texas Children’s anticipates serving families in counties throughout Greater North Houston, including Montgomery, Walker, Grimes, Liberty, Harris, Polk, San Jacinto and Hardin.

In November, Riley-Brown was named president of the hospital and Dr. Charles Hankins was named chief medical officer of the institution. Riley-Brown and Hankins assumed their positions as The Woodlands leadership team in January.

November 25, 2014

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112614woodlandsadmininside175Two seasoned Texas Children’s leaders have been charged with heading the organization’s second community hospital – Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands.

Michelle Riley-Brown will become president of the new hospital and Dr. Charles Hankins will become chief medical officer of the institution, which will open its doors to outpatient care in the fall of 2016 and inpatient services the following year. Riley-Brown and Hankins will assume their new roles in January.

The leadership announcement was made November 20 to about 500 guests at The Forum Luncheon in The Woodlands, an event hosted by the Development Department.

“It’s amazing what we are allowed to do here at Texas Children’s,” CEO Mark A. Wallace said at the forum after talking to the audience about The Woodlands Campus and its leadership. “We are going to start out with the A team and then build from there.”

Riley-Brown and Hankins will come to The Woodlands with a wealth of experience in running a community hospital since both helped open and are currently leading Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus.

Riley-Brown, who joined Texas Children’s 15 years ago and has a Masters of Health Administration from Washington University, is the current president of West Campus, which opened in 2011 and has become a staple in pediatric health care for those who live in the area. Hankins, who has been with Texas Children’s for 11 years and specializes in neonatology, is the current chief medical officer at the hospital.

In addition to their experience in leading a community hospital, both Riley-Brown and Hankins will come to The Woodlands with a good understanding of the community, which sits about 30 miles north of Houston. Riley-Brown helped open and managed Texas Children’s Health Center – The Woodlands in 2003, and Hankins lives in The Woodlands community.

“I feel like I’m coming home,” Hankins said, adding that he is extremely excited to be heading up the medical team at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands.

Riley-Brown said she, too, is excited about coming to The Woodlands.

“I am looking forward to working with Dr. Hankins to ensure the success of Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands,” Riley-Brown said. “As we expand our services in this community, we will continue to bring high-quality care closer to our patients.”

Leadership at West Campus

Taking Riley-Brown and Hankins’ places at West Campus will be Chanda Cashen Chacón as president and Dr. Jeanine Graf as chief medical officer.

Chacón has been with Texas Children’s Hospital for more than a decade in leadership roles in ambulatory operations, pharmacy, the Heart Center and the Fetal Center. Currently, she is the vice president for Women’s Services at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women. Chacón has a Master’s Degree in Public Health Administration from Yale University.

Graf, who was recently named a 2015 Catalyst Leadership Award recipient and president of the medical staff at Texas Children’s, is currently the medical director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Main Campus and of Pediatric Transport and Respiratory Care. She also is an associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, where she did her residency after earning her medical degree from Ohio State University College of Medicine.

“I am more than pleased to be taking on this new role at Texas Children’s,” Graf said. “I believe we have an obligation to support all children in the community and that this is a great new avenue through which I can accomplish that goal.”

Chacón said she is honored to have been chosen to lead West Campus.

“The hospital is a wonderful asset to Texas Children’s and to Houston’s pediatric community,” Chacón said. “I want to continue to grow and nurture that asset so it can benefit the patients and families we are honored to serve.”

About the community campuses

West Campus employs about 650 full and part-time workers and is home to a comprehensive array of pediatric specialty services including cardiology, gastroenterology, pediatric surgery, as well as occupational, physical and speech therapies.

Last year, the hospital saw more than 1,500 admissions and 37,000 emergency room visits. In addition, almost 4,000 inpatient and outpatient surgeries were conducted at the West Campus.

Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands will open with 500 employees and will include 24 emergency room beds, 74 outpatient exam rooms, four operating rooms, 30 acute care beds, 12 intensive care beds, five radiology rooms and a helipad.

Ample free parking will be available with 1,000 spaces planned. Along with serving families throughout The Woodlands Area, Texas Children’s anticipates serving families in counties throughout Greater North Houston, including Montgomery, Walker, Grimes, Liberty, Harris, Polk, San Jacinto and Hardin.

“You will never hear us refer to the West Campus or The Woodlands as satellites, because that’s not the way we look at them,” Wallace said during a 2013 interview about the announcement of The Woodlands campus. “We have one standard of care at Texas Children’s Hospital, whether it’s here or at the West Campus, it’s all the same.”

September 9, 2014

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On September 3, 1,500 guests sipped champagne and cocktails, savored dinner and dessert and shopped the season’s best looks at Nordstrom at The Woodlands Opening Gala. The sold out event’s ticket proceeds and generous donations raised more than $200,000 for Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands. The state-of-the-art hospital, slated to open in 2017, is being designed specifically to serve children and families. Guests were the first to preview the new 138,000 square-foot Nordstrom store, which officially opened September 5. The gala was co-chaired by Carol and Phil Garner, and Judy and Glenn Smith. Notable guests included Mark A. Wallace, president and CEO of Texas Children’s and fourth-generation family members Blake, Pete, Erik and Jamie Nordstrom.

June 10, 2014

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FFirst, it was the construction of Texas Children’s new pediatric community hospital in The Woodlands slated to open in 2017. Now, a new David Clinic will be built at The Woodlands campus, which means children affected by immune deficiencies will receive world class care and diagnosis in their own community.

On June 4, David Elementary School presented Texas Children’s with a donation of more than $38,000 raised by students and families that will be used to construct the new facility.

The facility will serve as an extension of the already established David Center at Texas Children’s main campus, which provides care and research for primary immune deficiencies, which are inborn diseases of the immune system that make children susceptible to auto immunity and infectious diseases.

“With the growing city of Houston and Texas Children’s Hospital facilities, it makes sense to put an extension of the David Center in David’s own community and in our new hospital in The Woodlands to increase awareness and provide greater access to patient care and treatment,” said Dr. Jordan Orange, chief of Immunology, Allergy and Rheumatology at Texas Children’s.

The David Clinic and the David Center are named in honor of David Vetter, the Texas Children’s Hospital patient from the 1970s known as the “Bubble Boy,” who suffered from Severe Combined Immune Deficiency (SCID), which required him to live in a plastic bubble to protect him from germs and bacteria.

“This rare illness that David succumbed to affects about 1 in 50,000 babies,” said Dr. Orange. “Due to remarkable advances in immunology research and treatment, this immune deficiency is almost 100 percent curable if identified within the first three months of life.”

Since December 2012, every baby born in Texas is screened for SCID to ensure prompt diagnosis and best outcomes.

Besides the generous gift from David Elementary School, which is also named after Vetter, the school hosted David’s Dream Run last month. This annual event has raised more than $350,000 since its inception and all proceeds support The David Center and its research. All funds from the run through 2016 will support construction of the David Clinic in The Woodlands.

To learn more about David, visit the artifacts exhibit on the third floor of the Feigin Center in the Allergy and Immunology department. The David Center Wall on the ninth floor of the Clinical Care Center features a collection of photos highlighting David’s long-term association with Texas Children’s.

February 5, 2014

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Texas Children’s is going North. Or more specifically, we’re headed to The Woodlands. In fall 2017, Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands will begin providing specialized care to children and families in a world-class, 548,000-square-foot facility.

“We stand at the forefront of an exciting new time in pediatric health care as we continue to grow, save more lives and create better futures for children everywhere,” said Texas Children’s President and CEO Mark A. Wallace at Friday’s groundbreaking ceremonies for the new hospital. “Our next 60 years start today – here in The Woodlands – with a Texas Children’s community hospital built right on this spot.”

More than 700 Texas Children’s supporters, including many residents, leaders and donors from The Woodlands area, joined Friday’s groundbreaking events to help celebrate both the new hospital and Texas Children’s 60th birthday. Along with the ceremonial turning of the first shovels of dirt, the festivities included presentation of a birthday cake: local children, all former patients of the hospital, helped Wallace sing happy birthday and blow out the candles.

A video commemorating Texas Children’s 60 years of history was shown, and guests heard remarks from Wallace, long-time hospital supporter and Woodlands resident, Carol Garner, and from Carol Ann Demaret, mother of David Vetter, known widely as the “Bubble Boy.”

A peek inside
Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands will offer specialty pediatric care in cancer, cardiology, neurology, orthopedics, diabetes and endocrinology, urology, sports medicine, gastroenterology and nutrition, plastic surgery, otolaryngology, allergy and immunology, dermatology, adolescent medicine and physician rehabilitation.

Hospital facilities will include 24 emergency center rooms, 74 outpatient rooms, five radiology rooms, four operating rooms and 30 acute care beds at opening with plans of up to 200 beds. Ample free parking will be available with 1,000 spaces planned. Along with serving families throughout The Woodlands area, Texas Children’s anticipates serving families in counties throughout Greater North Houston including Montgomery, Walker, Grimes, Liberty, Harris, Polk, San Jacinto and Hardin.

Partnering with Nordstrom, The Woodlands
On the heels of the birthday and groundbreaking was another big announcement of Texas Children’s newest partnership. Wallace announced that national retailer Nordstrom has chosen the new pediatric hospital in The Woodlands as the beneficiary for the opening gala of its much-anticipated new Woodlands store.

“Houston has been a great home for us and we can’t wait to open our second full-line store at The Woodlands,” said Nora Cummings, vice president and regional manager for Nordstrom. “We’re honored to partner with Texas Children’s Hospital and through our opening gala support their new Pediatric Hospital in The Woodlands.”

All proceeds from the pre-opening event, slated for Wednesday, September 3, 2014, will go toward the new hospital. The new Nordstrom at The Woodlands opens Friday, September 5, 2014. Ticket information will be shared on Connect closer to the event.