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For members of the Texas Children's Hospital medical staff
From the physician-in-chief
Unannounced mock survey showcases excellence
and opportunities to raise the bar
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Dr. Ralph D. Feigin |
By Ralph D. Feigin, M.D.
On Jan.17, 2007, the Joint Commission Resources group visited Texas Children’s Hospital in an unannounced mock survey. The survey period lasted through Jan. 20, 2007. I am pleased to say that Texas Children’s Hospital performed exceedingly well. Specifically, the hospital and its medical staff, as well as all of its employees, were given entirely positive accolades for each of the following areas:
Knowledge and confidence of the staff; Environment of care, including the cleanliness of the facility; Security measures in place; Sedation monitoring; The non-use of abbreviations (special accolades should go to the medical staff for their extraordinary efforts in this area); Home care dialysis; TCH Home Health, including infection control; and Medication management.
As always, and particularly given the unannounced nature of the survey, there were some areas in which there are opportunities for improvement. In particular, appropriate patient identification in the ambulatory and home care services was an area to which additional care and attention will be provided. Within the hospital, there are continuing problems with ensuring legibility of all written notes in hospital charts and in assuring specific individualized nursing plans of care for each patient. Two areas were identified in which major opportunity for improvement must occur prior to any formal unannounced official survey of the Joint Commission. These included the area of medication reconciliation and the area of postoperative notes.
Immediate action plans are in place for all the areas of
improvement identified by the mock survey.
I would like to congratulate everyone on the medical staff and all of the other hospital employees for their performance and recognize that with increased diligence we should be well prepared for the formal Joint Commission surveys.
Special staff awards and honors
I am pleased to note that Dr. Paul Sirbaugh, assistant professor of Pediatrics and a member of the Emergency Medicine Service, has been highlighted during the past month by the Houston-based television station KPRC-TV. This occurred in connection with his selection as the local Jefferson Award winner for the month of January. Dr. Sirbaugh was selected by an independent community panel of citizens for the award, which honors an individual for outstanding, unique and heroic personal acts that have made a positive impact on the community, helping hundreds of others in the spirit of public service. Dr. Sirbaugh specifically was commended for his work in putting together the pediatric clinic in Reliant Park following Hurricane Katrina. I know you all will join me in congratulating him for this recognition.
We also must congratulate Dr. Dennis Bier, professor of Pediatrics and a member of the Endocrine-Metabolism Service and director of the Children’s Nutrition Research Center. Dr. Bier recently was chosen to be the next editor of the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. This is the research nutrition journal with the highest impact factor in its field. Dr. Bier currently also serves as associate editor of the
Annual Review of Nutrition, which has the highest impact factor in its field.
Accolades also are due to Dr. John Lynn Jefferies, assistant professor of Pediatrics and a member of the Cardiology Service, on his selection by the American College of Cardiology Research Fellowship Awards Committee as the recipient of the 2007 Pfizer Research Award. This award will be presented to Dr. Jefferies at the American College of Cardiology annual scientific meeting in New Orleans on March 26, 2007, and the award carries a stipend of $65,000 per year to support his research.
Vision 2010 initiative moves forward
Plans for the continued growth and development of Texas Children’s Hospital previously announced are being pursued vigorously. The only overt signs of this activity can be seen at the Feigin Center building where construction for an additional eight floors already is under way. Although planning for the Maternity Center, the West Houston hospital, and the Neurological Research Institute may not be visible, there is an extraordinary amount of work going on behind the scenes to develop appropriate space plans and to begin to recruit the individuals to both staff these facilities and to engage in their clinical activities. Efforts in the maternity area will be moving forward at a dramatic clip, given the recent identification of a candidate to serve the new chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine. Although this candidate has not yet accepted the position officially, we believe that acceptance will occur in the next several weeks and that an immediate influx of additional members to the full-time faculty of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology will follow quickly.
Ralph D. Feigin, M.D., is physician-in-chief at Texas Children’s Hospital and professor and chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine.
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