DCH News

Healthcare Professionals

Carr promoted to assistant vice president at Driscoll

November 21, 2011
Patricia Carr
Patricia Carr
CORPUS CHRISTI - Patricia Carr has been promoted to assistant vice president of Patient Care Services at Driscoll Children's Hospital. Carr has been a nursing leader at Driscoll as the director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Transport Team. She has been at the hospital since 1993 and in a NICU leadership position for 16 years. Carr has been instrumental in developing a family-centered and developmental care approach within the organization. She is currently working toward a doctorate at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

Driscoll gains child abuse pediatrician

November 18, 2011
Ada Booth, MD
Ada Booth, MD
CORPUS CHRISTI - Ada Booth, MD, has joined Driscoll Children's Hospital as a pediatrician specializing in child abuse. She most recently graduated from a child abuse pediatrics fellowship at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Previously she was a pediatrics resident at University Hospitals and Clinics in Columbia, Mo. Dr. Booth received her medical degree in 2006 from Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. She is certified in pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics.

Driscoll bilingual employees receive national designation

November 11, 2011
(Standing, from left) Evelyn Ferrer, course instructor and director of Interpretation Services at Driscoll Children's Hospital; Maria Gonzalez, Sonia Chapa, Ellen Carruthers, Gricelda Cantu, Lizette Saenz, director of Volunteer Services at Driscoll and Peniel Martinez, course instructor and Patient Relations representative; (sitting, from left) Dora Renteria, Rebecca Garza and Nora Garcia.
(Standing, from left) Evelyn Ferrer, course instructor and director of Interpretation Services at Driscoll Children's Hospital; Maria Gonzalez, Sonia Chapa, Ellen Carruthers, Gricelda Cantu, Lizette Saenz, director of Volunteer Services at Driscoll and Peniel Martinez, course instructor and Patient Relations representative; (sitting, from left) Dora Renteria, Rebecca Garza and Nora Garcia.
McALLEN - A handful of employees and volunteers at Driscoll Children's Medical Plaza - McAllen were recently designated Spanish Bilingual Assistants (SBA) by the National Medical Interpreter Project. The project, dedicated to supporting language access for non-English-speaking families, is designed to provide a bilingual individual with the basic tools for providing interpretation.

Evelyn Ferrer, director of Interpretation Services at Driscoll Children's Hospital and one of the class instructors, began providing the course for hospital employees in 2008. This is the second class offered to Rio Grande Valley employees.

"Our commitment is to facilitate communication between patients and families with limited English proficiency and their healthcare providers in an accurate, complete, professional and confidential manner," Ferrer said.

Three employees and four members of the Auxiliary to Driscoll Children's Hospital were chosen for the 60-hour curriculum, which covered topics such as introduction to medical interpreting, culture and medicine, legal issues and ethics, basic anatomy and physiology, diseases and conditions and tests and procedures.

Specially trained interpreters are in high demand at Driscoll. Just last month, Driscoll's interpreters logged more than 500 interpretation encounters.

Newly designated SBAs are:

  • Gricelda Cantu, volunteer

  • Ellen Carruthers, volunteer

  • Sonia Chapa, volunteer

  • Nora Garcia, volunteer

  • Rebecca Garza, RN, Driscoll Children's Quick Care - McAllen

  • Maria Gonzalez, LVN, Driscoll Children's Quick Care - McAllen

  • Dora Renteria, Certified Medical Assistant, Driscoll Children's Medical Plaza -  McAllen

Stratton joins Driscoll as geneticist

November 11, 2011
Robert F. Stratton, Jr., MD
Robert F. Stratton, Jr., MD
CORPUS CHRISTI - Robert F. Stratton, Jr., MD, has joined Driscoll Children's Hospital as a geneticist. He was formerly an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Dr. Stratton earned his medical degree in 1975 at the University of Pittsburgh. He completed his residency in pediatrics in 1978 at Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and performed a post-doctoral fellowship in clinical genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Stratton is certified by the American Board of Medical Genetics and the American Board of Pediatrics.

Fergie recognized by American Academy of Pediatrics

November 02, 2011
Jaime Fergie, MD, FAAP, FIDSA
Jaime Fergie, MD, FAAP, FIDSA
CORPUS CHRISTI - Jaime Fergie, MD, FAAP, FIDSA, director of Infectious Diseases at Driscoll Children's Hospital, recently received an award from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in Boston in recognition of the distinguished service he rendered as an elected member of the executive committee of the Section on Infectious Diseases from 2005 to 2011. Members of the Section on Infectious Diseases, founded in 1990, meet to develop ideas and generate educational forums that will improve the care of infants, children and adolescents. They also serve in a liaison capacity to the AAP board of directors. Dr. Fergie has been a member of the AAP for 20 years and has practiced at Driscoll Children's Hospital since 1994.

Tilley joins Driscoll Children's Hospital as neonatologist

October 18, 2011
Melissa Tilley, MD
Melissa Tilley, MD
CORPUS CHRISTI - Melissa M. Tilley, MD, has joined Driscoll Children's Hospital as a neonatologist in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She most recently completed a neonatology fellowship at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

Dr. Tilley earned a bachelor's degree in nursing at Corpus Christi State University in 1993, a master's degree in nursing at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in 1995 and a doctorate in medicine at Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico in 2004. She completed her residency at Driscoll Children's Hospital. Dr. Tilley is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics.

Driscoll team recognized for conducting clinical trials that improve life for cancer patients

October 17, 2011
Driscoll's oncology team, led by Dr. Cris Johnson, includes physicians, nurses, child life specialists, social workers, chaplains, rehab therapists, lab workers and a host of other specialists.
Driscoll's oncology team, led by Dr. Cris Johnson, includes physicians, nurses, child life specialists, social workers, chaplains, rehab therapists, lab workers and a host of other specialists.
CORPUS CHRISTI - There's a battle going on to cure childhood cancer and hematologist/oncologist Cris Johnson, MD and her team at Driscoll Children's Hospital are in the trenches. Part of the battle involves clinical trials in which new medications are tested that could reduce unpleasant side effects caused by chemotherapy and radiation treatment. In that effort, Dr. Johnson and her team have earned a certificate of recognition for significantly contributing to enrollments in National Cancer Institute-sponsored clinical trials.

"We're participating in an international effort to cure childhood cancer," said Dr. Johnson, director of hematology/oncology at Driscoll's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. "We enroll patients in research trials with the goal of improving survival rates while decreasing side effects and late effects of treatment."

Dr. Johnson and her team were recognized by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Community Clinical Oncology Program/Minority-Based Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP/MB-CCOP). The CCOP is a network for testing and validating medical interventions against cancer and delivering the benefits of scientific discovery to the public. The Minority-Based CCOP program is a companion group to reach areas with large minority populations, which includes Corpus Christi and the 31 counties that Driscoll serves.

"A great number of our patients are minorities," Dr. Johnson said. "This population is often underserved and their response to treatment can vary from non-minorities. It's important to include all ages and races in clinical trials."

This is the first time the CCOP/MB-CCOP and NCI have recognized physicians for their enrollment efforts, according to Anne-Marie Langevin, MD, professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and principal investigator of the South Texas Pediatric MB-CCOP (STP MB-CCOP), a consortium of four pediatric oncology programs that includes Driscoll Children's Hospital.

As a consortium, the STP MB-CCOP ranks second in the state of Texas in terms of enrollment of children with cancer in NCI-sponsored clinical trials. Dr. Johnson and her team contributed more than 35 percent of those enrollments in the past year. In 2010, they had 119 enrollments.

"This is a fantastic achievement considering that (Driscoll) is competing with adult oncologists who see a lot more patients," Dr. Langevin said.

An example of a clinical trial that is underway at Driscoll involves a new drug that counteracts hearing loss caused by a chemotherapy medication used to treat tumors.

"We are hoping that this new drug decreases the incidence of hearing loss after chemotherapy," Dr. Johnson said. "To know if the drug is effective, an organized clinical trial needs to be performed."

Results of clinical trials like this are submitted to the Children's Oncology Group, a worldwide clinical trial cooperative group supported by the NCI and dedicated to studying childhood cancers, Dr. Johnson said.

Dr. Johnson said she's honored to receive the recognition from the CCOP/MB-CCOP and NCI, but she's quick to credit her team of fellow physicians, nurses, child life specialists, social workers, chaplains, rehab therapists, lab workers and a host of others.

"Without this team we wouldn't be able to take care of the children the way they need to be taken care of," she said.

Reunion brings once-fragile babies back to see their caregivers

October 14, 2011
CORPUS CHRISTI - Oftentimes, infants who are brought to Driscoll Children's Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are there during the most fragile time in their lives. Patients and their families can spend several months in the hospital, day in and day out, so it's no surprise that strong bonds are formed with the physicians, nurses and other members of the healthcare team who not only care for a child, but offer support to a child's family as well.

Because of the relationship that forms between patient and caregiver, Driscoll Children's Hospital holds the NICU Reunion each fall to give patients and families a chance to reconnect with their healthcare team and to celebrate the lives of those babies who have grown to be healthy children.

Trish Carr, assistant vice president of Patient Care Services says, "The reunion is a great way for our staff to keep in contact with the patients they care for. They are always so excited to see the progress the children have made. It's a great thing, being able to watch [our patients] grow up."

During the fall festival-themed celebration, staff who have cared for Driscoll patients over the years will be on hand to meet with the more than 200 families who are eager to share stories of what their children have been doing since their stay at Driscoll - some possibly many years ago. In addition to dressing up in their Halloween costumes, patients will enjoy games, prizes, pizza and other goodies at the annual event.

Driscoll Children's Hospital's level III NICU cares for newborns and infants for a variety of reasons, including prematurity (carried less than 37 weeks), respiratory distress, infections, birth defects and other illnesses. Staffed by neonatologists 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the 41-bed NICU has cared for more than 20,000 premature and critical infants in South Texas, offering the highest level of care in 31 counties.

  • What: Driscoll Children's Hospital's annual NICU Reunion

  • When: 2 - 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15

  • Where: Driscoll Children's Hospital, Rehabilitation Services parking lot, 3533 S. Alameda St.

Chavez is new Radiology Services director at Driscoll

October 11, 2011
Ernest Chavez
Ernest Chavez
CORPUS CHRISTI - Ernest Chavez has joined Driscoll Children's Hospital as director of Radiology Services. He was formerly the director for medical imaging services, diagnostic imaging outpatient center, radiation oncology and transportation at Danville Regional Medical Center in Danville, Va. Chavez earned a degree in radiologic technology in 1975 at Odessa College and a master's degree in hospital administration in 1987 at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview.

President of American Academy of Pediatrics to give insights into profession

October 06, 2011
WHAT: James Stockman, MD, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, will appear for a Grand Rounds session for pediatricians and healthcare providers in the community. He will give a presentation titled, "Best Articles of the Last Decade." Dr. Stockman will review recent articles and studies of interest to pediatricians, particularly articles that have changed the way they practice medicine. He will also discuss trends that will impact the pediatric workforce in this century and assess how education methodologies can be integrated into cost-effective care.

WHEN: 12:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7

WHERE: Driscoll Children's Hospital auditorium, 3533 S. Alameda St.