November 2, 2020

Halloween came early for several patients, their families and employees at Texas Children’s. While the COVID-19 pandemic changed this year’s Halloween celebrations, Child Life teams at our three hospital campuses organized several spooktacular activities while keeping safety and social distance in mind.

At Texas Children’s Medical Center Campus, the festivities began on October 10 in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) where our hospital’s tiniest patients celebrated their first Halloween dressed up in costumes that ranged from lady bugs, butterflies and fruit, to super heroes and Disney characters.

Texas Children’s NICU Child Life and Music Therapy team organized the Halloween celebrations with support from the Newborn Center Social Work team and NICU leadership. Due to COVID-19, this year’s celebrations were organized differently to maintain social distancing. Instead of hosting costume decorating parties where parents gathered in a room to make their babies’ costumes, kits were distributed to families so they could make their own Halloween costumes individually.

“We provided materials to create felt layover costumes so that all NICU patients, no matter their medical needs, could participate,” said Child Life Specialist Teaghan Robinson. “Several families used the kits to create costumes for their babies, while other families purchased their own costumes for the occasion. Since the hospital environment can be a difficult place for NICU patients and their families, our team wanted to normalize their experience as they celebrated their baby’s first Halloween.”

For siblings who were unable to visit their newborn brother or sister in the NICU due to hospital visitation restrictions, the NICU Child Life and Music Therapy Team provided Halloween themed picture frame decoration kits for parents to take home with them so their children could also join in on the fun.

Video: Halloween highlights at Texas Children’s

The Halloween festivities didn’t stop there. There were plenty of other Spooktacular events in October:

Child Life Zone Halloween Party: Spirit of Halloween donated costumes to patients and their families for this special occasion. Activities included pumpkin painting, witches slime making, a photo booth, and games. Patients from each floor came up to the Child Life Zone on their designated day to allow for social distancing. Staff from other departments volunteered the event and dressed up in their Halloween best.

Reverse Trick or Treating: Complete with music, games, a photo booth, and COVID-19 friendly trick or treating, a decorated cart filled with Halloween goodies made its way to each patient floor in West Tower. Patients, dressed up in their costumes as they waited eagerly in their room to trick or treat with staff.

Halloween at West Campus: Patients received Disney-themed bags filled with fun activities based on the individual’s age/developmental level. These bags included stuffed animals, Halloween/Autumn coloring or sticker activities, Disney pen and journal, Disney playing cards and books to read.

Halloween at The Woodlands: The Woodlands Campus celebrated Fall Fun Day where staff handed out over 400 bags of fall themed toys and activities to our inpatients and outpatients. Inpatients were able to participate in socially distanced pumpkin painting. The NICU patients were also able to have their First Halloween pumpkin pictures by the Child Life team with the support of First Memories Texas equipment and supplies. The bags and items were generously donated by community partners including: Clariant Oil Services, Junior League of The Woodlands, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. The Woodlands Fire Department, Klein Cain Mu Alpha Theta, Modern Woodmen of America, National Charity League – Woodlands Chapter, Chick-Fil-A College Park and 501st Legion – South Texas Squad of Star Garrison.

View the photo gallery to get a glimpse of the fun everyone had at these unforgettable events.

August 17, 2020

For patients like 5-year-old Legend Pruitt, a visit to the doctor’s office can be a scary place for a child, especially if they don’t know what to expect when they come in for a medical procedure. A few months ago, when Legend had his MRI at Texas Children’s, his mother was surprised by how well he did, and how calm he was during the scan.

“He didn’t move at all because he knew he had to stay still for the MRI,” said Legend’s mother Niayeshua Joseph. “When my son had MRI scans before, he would have to be placed under anesthesia, because he could not stop moving. He is now more comfortable and the noises from the MRI machine don’t bother him.”

In an innovative effort to decrease the need for anesthesia in our MRI patients, Texas Children’s Radiology team bought the organization’s first mock MRI scanner last year thanks to a generous donation from one of our patient families. The mock MRI scanner provides a realistic simulation of what patients can expect before the real exam.

“This innovation allows patients to practice their scan before they enter the real scanner so they can understand their role (to lie still) and are more comfortable with something that is unfamiliar to them,” said Texas Children’s Radiologist-in-Chief Dr. Thierry Huisman. “Mock MR scanner training and familiarity with the MR imaging procedure enhances patient experience, reduces patient and family anxiety, and optimizes patient cooperation which can improve image quality or may allow for imaging without the need for patient sedation or general anesthesia.”

The mock MRI scanner on the fifth floor of Texas Children’s Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower, looks and sounds like a real MRI scanner. It has a bed that patients can lie on and travel into a tunnel similar to a real MRI scanner. The MRI scanner makes loud noises while the pictures are being taken. The mock MRI scanner simulates those noises and prepares a child for what to expect before they are scanned using the real machine. One additional advantage is that the mock MRI scanner does not include the “big magnet” and allows patients and families to attend without limitations. Furthermore, the mock MRI scanner does not use costly time as the real MRI unit.

Patients can get prepped with the mock MRI scanner in two ways. If the radiology pre-call nurse identifies a patient through their screening, they can schedule an appointment with a child life specialist several days before their procedure. Patients can also test out the mock MRI scanner immediately before their MRI appointment.

After introducing the mock scanner in July 2019, Radiology has seen amazing conversion results. Since June of this year, 67 patients have used the mock MRI scanner and 39 MRI patients scheduled for general anesthesia were converted to non-sedate procedures.

“We are really excited about our initial success,” Dr. Huisman said. “We are grateful to have this resource available to our patient families, and incredibly grateful to the Cook family’s philanthropic donation to make this all possible.”

A generous gift to help others

Brady and Nancy Cook know first-hand the challenges patient families face when a young child has to undergo an MRI especially for the first time. When their daughter, Alyssa, was in kindergarten, she started having complex partial seizures and was later diagnosed with a brain tumor. The brain tumor was believed to be in the area of the brain where speech is generated but doctors didn’t know for sure unless they performed a functional MRI on her.

“With a functional MRI, the patient has to be awake in the MRI machine and respond to images that flash up on the screen inside the MRI without moving because it would distort the quality,” said Brady Cook. “For that reason, it’s typically not done on 5-year-olds, because they are unable to hold still for an hour and follow instructions like that.”

But everything changed when the couple came across a research study on the use of mock MRI scanners that taught kids how to be more comfortable around the MRI machine to the point where young children could endure it. Out of desperation, they got creative and built a mock scanner in their garage. They used a big refrigerator box, a dolly that you lay on to get underneath a car, a softball mask to simulate the cage that goes over the patient’s head, a school locker sized mirror, age appropriate flash cards, and downloadable sound effects mimicking an MRI machine.

“We practiced this on our daughter so she could get comfortable with the MRI machine,” said Cook. “Soon after, she was able to successfully complete a functional MRI without moving. Her MRI scans showed us that the tumor was nowhere near the area of her brain that generates speech, and therefore the tumor could be removed safely.”

Since the mock MRI scanner helped their daughter, the Cook family wanted Texas Children’s to have the capability of helping patients become more comfortable with the MRI machine. Through their generous donation to Texas Children’s, the family is grateful that the mock MRI scanner is making a positive impact on patients and families.

“As parents who have been through this before and the desperation we felt at the time, we would do anything to ensure patients are comfortable during this process leading up to surgery,” Nancy Cook said. “Now that we have a mock scanner here, we hope that it will continue to give parents and children added comfort and reassurance.”

August 4, 2020

Five years ago, Texas Children’s Special Isolation Unit (SIU) opened at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus to provide safe, effective care to patients with highly contagious infectious diseases. The decision to build the SIU came shortly after an unprecedented Ebola outbreak, resulting in the realization that Texas Children’s must always be prepared as an organization to handle any emerging infections that come our way.

Texas Children’s Special Isolation Unit at West Campus – the only one of its kind in Texas and among only a few in the United States – allows our teams to treat pediatric patients who are infected with highly contagious diseases in a state-of-the-art environment. The SIU is fully equipped with all of the latest scientific and technological approaches to biocontainment to assure the safety of the health care team, other patients and their families. The types of highly contagious pathogens that can be treated in the SIU include Ebola, influenza, measles and respiratory illnesses like MERS, SARS and RSV. Today, as many health care organizations face another global health pandemic, the SIU team at West Campus has been busy over the last several months providing care to COVID-19 adult and pediatric patients.

“As a virologist, I always thought in the back of my mind that we would possibly face a pandemic one day whether it be avian influenza or another coronavirus like SARS or MERS,” said Dr. Amy Arrington, medical director of the SIU at West Campus. “But I think until you’re really in that moment, it’s hard to imagine what responding to a pandemic like COVID-19 would be like for our team and the organization.”

Housed on the fifth floor of West Campus, the SIU has eight dedicated beds and up to 18 overflow beds on the fourth and fifth floors to care for COVID-19 patients, with the potential of expanding bed capacity as the need arises. The SIU is activated when patients meet a specific criteria, and in this case, are COVID-19 positive.

“We have nurses and doctors embedded in many clinical areas across our campuses who serve as clinician reservists on standby,” said Denise Tanner-Brown, Assistant Vice President of Nursing of Community and Ambulatory Nursing. “Once we activate them, they are pulled out of their home clinical areas to support the SIU.”

Since the pandemic began in early March, the West Campus SIU has been activated 12 times. The last time the SIU was activated was on May 30 and has remained open since then. As of July 31, 184 patients have been admitted to the SIU and 75 of those patients were admitted in June. West Campus has had 13 COVID-19 positive adult patients admitted to the SIU since it started taking care of adult COVID-19 patients on June 24. In May and June, the SIU saw a 48 percent increase in the average daily census.

Tanner-Brown says the SIU is on the downswing compared to previous months. Texas Children’s has seen a recent decline in COVID-19 admissions which demonstrate that masking protocols are working to curb the spread of the virus. However, the SIU team remains ready to care for increased patient volumes if warranted.

“When we began accepting adult patients in our SIU on June 24, we were a little worried about how they would perceive us as they came into a pediatric hospital setting for care,” Tanner-Brown said. “They have been more than grateful and extremely appreciative of our willingness to take good care of them.”

Since many of the adults who have COVID-19 or who required admission had some underlying disease presence, the SIU team collaborated with education coordinators from Houston Methodist West who provided guidance on general and COVID-19 specific care to ensure the best outcomes for these patients.

View a photo gallery of inside the SIU at West Campus below.

Preparing for a potential second wave

While some school districts are reopening campuses and others are sticking to virtual learning at least for the time being, Texas Children’s is ready and prepared to respond if the Houston area experiences another surge in COVID-19 cases after school starts and into the fall months during flu season.

“We are always in a constant state of readiness and we are not letting our guard down especially with the mounting uncertainty surrounding this unprecedented pandemic,” said Tanner-Brown. “As patient volumes decrease, we have a deactivation strategy where we can temporarily close down units. But we also have an activation strategy in place where we can turn it back on really quickly should the situation change. In general, many people are getting COVID fatigue, and may not feel the need to continue practicing social distancing or taking other safety precautions, so I anticipate that we may see more new cases emerge.”

For the 70 days and counting that the SIU at West Campus has been activated, the recent milestones achieved would not have been possible without the 100 percent collaboration from our team members across the system.

“I think as an organization, we have just really stepped up to the plate to provide good quality and safe care for these patients and our staff,” said Arrington. “It takes a huge village to put this together and to carry this out day after day. And it’s exhausting work, but it is work that is incredibly rewarding too.”

July 27, 2020

So many teams at Texas Children’s have stepped up in remarkable ways since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The Section of Palliative Care (Pediatric Advanced Care Team) is no different. In fact, this often unsung group has proven its value like never before as families desire more connection, enhanced communication and extended conversation.

The multidisciplinary team of 23 serves Medical Center Campus, West Campus and The Woodlands hospitals.

“We provide an extra layer of support for families and patients who are going through an illness,” said Claire Crawford, palliative care social worker. “We help with non-verbal expressions of compassion in the absence of touch, which has been in exceptionally high demand since the pandemic began.”

Crawford adds that with new visitation guidelines, parents are often alone when they receive news that’s hard to hear. Therefore, there is a need for even more support. “On top of that, our nurses and doctors are often delivering this news while wearing masks, goggles and other protective equipment so it is even more challenging for them to convey their empathy. This is where we come in.”

Crawford says the team can consult with other health care workers to ensure that dialogue with families is compassionate and connective.

In addition, the goals of the department are to:

  • Provide emotional support for children and families
  • Provide support for difficult hospitalizations
  • Manage distressing symptoms
  • Engage social work resources
  • Help families make difficult decisions
  • Refer to supportive therapies (psychology, music therapy, art therapy, and Pawsitive Play) for patients
  • Enhance quality of life
  • Utilize integrative medicine techniques
Doesn’t palliative care mean “end of life?”

One of the department’s main goals is to educate our patient population on their role and to debunk the myth that palliative care always means that a child may die. “It is true that our services in an adult setting often do mean that the end of life is near, but that is far less the case in a pediatric setting,” said Crawford. “Of course, there are times when we do need do have those discussions, but we are working hard to make sure that when parents hear our name they don’t automatically assume the worst.”

A Texas Children’s dream team

This all-star team is led by Dr. Tammy Kang, section chief of Palliative Care and consists of palliative care specialists, including:

  • Doctors
  • Nurses and nurse practitioners
  • Social workers
  • Chaplain
  • Grief and bereavement specialist
  • Administrators
  • Psychologist
  • Researchers

Crawford said the success of the team is built on respect for one another, friendship and an unyielding dedication to provide the best care to patients.

June 22, 2020

While the COVID-19 global pandemic continues to take center stage around the world, the community and staff at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus held a special tribute to salute our heroes on the frontlines of this crisis. It was their turn to shine and be recognized for their hard work and sacrifice.

“Once the sirens went off, it was just this heart-warming experience to see everybody coming together,” said Lia Hales from Harris County ESD No. 48 Fire-EMS-Rescue, who collaborated with Texas Children’s to bring this event to West Campus. “We are all one, and we are all helping our community.”

On June 17, a parade of police and emergency vehicles representing several agencies – Harris County No. 48 Fire-EMS-Rescue, Katy Police, Harris County Sheriffs Office, and Community Volunteer Fire – made their way to West Campus. With flashing lights and sirens blaring, first responders waved to a cheering crowd of health care workers to show their appreciation and support for everything they do.

Ashston Tiney, a patient care assistant in the Nursing Operations Float Pool at West Campus, and her colleagues watched the parade as it passed the front entrance of West Campus and circled around the hospital where first responders thanked more frontline staff gathered outside the Emergency Center.

“I think it is amazing for our first responders to come out and take their time to show us their support,” Tiney said. “We love our community so much and we’re here to take care of them and their families.”

While some West Campus staff stood outside to watch the parade, others watched the celebration from their windows, including patient families. Staff say they were grateful and humbled by this experience.

“Many of the people who came out to support us are also on the frontlines themselves,” said Mary Reddick, Child Life activity coordinator at West Campus, who helped organize this event. “To see people wanting to give back to us in a time where we typically give back to them is very humbling.”

Texas Children’s West Campus leaders are grateful to our community partners for helping to plan and organize this celebratory event to honor our frontline heroes especially during these challenging times.

“I appreciate all of the time and effort committed to making this tribute successful,” said Gbolahan Harris, assistant director of Clinical Support Services at West Campus. “It was remarkable to see all the planning involved culminate into an uplifting experience for our frontline staff who enjoyed this shining moment.”

June 8, 2020

Texas Children’s is excited to announce that the trauma centers at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus and Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands have been designated Level IV trauma centers by the Department of State Health Services.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment that will officially put our community hospitals on the map in terms of places trauma patients can go to receive care,” said Dr. Sohail Shah, West Campus’ chief surgical officer. “It’s a move that will ensure patients receive the right care, at the right place at the right time.”

Dr. Jeffrey Shilt, chief of community surgery, agreed, and said this tremendous effort really highlighted the collaboration between both community campuses and Texas Children’s Hospital Medical Center Campus leadership.

“Every planning meeting was the epitome of system coordination between the departments of nursing, surgery, emergency medicine, and the executives,” Shilt said. “We had a goal in mind and everyone came together to accomplish it for the greater good of our patients and their families.”

A Level IV trauma center is capable of stabilizing any trauma patient it receives, handling onsite single-system orthopedic injuries and superficial lacerations. More complex cases are stabilized and then transferred to a higher level trauma center such as our Level I trauma center in the Medical Center.

The Level IV designation sends a clear signal to first responders that our community hospitals are equipped to handle such trauma patients. West Campus and The Woodlands have been caring for such patients since the hospitals opened their doors, however the designation formalizes that process and holds the centers to certain quality and process improvement standards.

Preparation for the designation process took a little over a year and was a collaborative effort between Nursing, the Department of Surgery, Emergency Medicine and leaders at the community hospitals. During the designation process, trauma medical directors and nursing coordinators were named at each campus.

Dr. Ruben Rodriquez is the trauma medical director in The Woodlands and Shah serves as the trauma medical director, in addition to his role as chief surgical officer, at West Campus. Julie Hollan is the trauma nursing coordinator in The Woodlands and John Coley is the trauma nursing coordinator at West Campus.

“Trauma care demands committed teamwork, beginning in the Emergency Center with the physicians and staff playing a critical role in receiving trauma patients and working with the surgeons in managing their care,” said Dr. Bindi Naik-Mathuria, medical director of our Level I Trauma Center at Texas Children’s Hospital Medical Center Campus. “The teams at West Campus and The Woodlands are equipped and ready to serve our Greater Houston community in this very important way.”

May 20, 2020

After months of planning and renovating, the Department of Radiology is excited to announce that it has installed a brand new state-of-the art 3 Tesla MRI unit at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus. The Siemens 3T unit is one of now two MRIs at West Campus.

The ultra-high magnetic field strength of 3 Tesla will allow for:

  • Higher resolution imaging with optimized contrast
  • Bio-matrix guided imaging for faster scanning
  • Improved and expanded functional MRI capabilities

In addition, the modern design and high-end technology has multiple additional advantages including:

  • Wide Bore to accommodate a better fit and enhanced accessibility to the patient
  • Virtual Cockpit – Siemens scanner access from other locations Texas Children’s locations.

“This is a very exciting step toward broadening the scope of highly specialized care we can offer our patients in the West Houston area,” said Radiologist-in-Chief Dr. Thierry A. Huisman. “One of our main goals in the Department of Radiology, and across the Texas Children’s system, is to provide the right care, at the right time at the right place. The addition of the Siemens 3T helps us do that more so than ever.”

The room where the new MRI unit is housed was designed specifically for children. Covered in an aquatic-themed mural, the soothing ambiance helps reduce anxiety and decrease the need for sedation.

“We also use MRI- safe video goggles designed specifically to assist patients in MRI with minimizing claustrophobia and anxiety,” Huisman said, adding that children can pick a movie to watch during their procedure. “These goggles create a 3D virtual entertainment environment while reducing MRI noise.”

Due to the use of this entertainment environment and child-friendly atmosphere, 70 percent of MRI exams are now performed without sedation.

The addition of the Siemens 3T MRI adds to what is already a comprehensive suite of radiology services offered at West Campus. What is now offered at the community hospital is:

  • MRI (1.5 T and 3T)
  • CT
  • Ultrasound
  • X-ray and Fluoroscopy
  • Interventional Radiology
  • Multiple subspecialty pediatric radiology expertise including Musculoskeletal Radiology, Neuroradiology, Cardiac Imaging and much more.

“I’m very excited about what this new addition will bring to the hospital, our medical staff, and most importantly, our patients,” Huisman said.