Project Overview
Dell Children’s Medical Center is helping families access high-quality, life-saving specialty care in Central Texas.
Increasing Central Texas Families’ Access to Quality Care
Every parent wants to provide their child with the best quality of health care. By leveraging the University of Texas at Austin and Dell Medical School, as well as strong community partnerships, Dell Children’s Medical Center is ensuring Central Texas families can access advanced care from best-in-class clinicians without leaving their metro area and local support systems.
We are interested in providing a destination for people so they can get care here they can’t get elsewhere.
Dr. Elizabeth Tyler-Kabara, the co-chief of pediatric neuroscience and chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Dell Children’s
Expanding Specialized Services to Accommodate a Fast-Growing Population
Since Dell Children’s opened its doors in 2007, it’s been the leader in pediatric health care in the Central Texas region. But as the local population has rapidly grown, the hospital recognized the need to expand its facilities and specialty care programs and to ensure families could get specialized care in Austin, no matter the diagnosis.
Here are a few ways Dell Children’s has grown its offerings to support families in Central Texas and beyond:
- Increased Visits for Quality Local Care: In April 2021, the Dell Children’s Specialty Pavilion opened adjacent to Dell Children’s to house centers of excellence in Cardiovascular Surgery, Neurosciences, Hematology/Oncology, and Fetal Care. In just 18 months of operation, the Specialty Pavilion provided more than 13,000 clinic visits to patients and families in need. Dell Children’s has seen a drop in patients leaving Central Texas for care across these programs. In 2021, Pediatric heart and neurosciences patients spent approximately 68% less time away from home than they did in 2020. Between July 2021 and June 2022, the Comprehensive Fetal Care Center delivered 80 babies across 75 deliveries and completed eight intrauterine transfusions, eight twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome corrections, and one intrauterine tumor reduction. Prior to opening, 100% of these cases would have had to seek care across town or across Texas.
- World Class Heart Care: In 2018, Dell Children’s recruited Dr. Charles D. Fraser Jr., a world-renowned pediatric heart surgeon, who launched the Texas Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease. In October 2020, the Texas Center performed the first pediatric heart transplant in Central Texas. In just two years, the program performed 17 heart transplants and more than 1,000 other operations including highly-complex procedures such as an arterial switch and implantation of a ventricular assist device. As of 2022, the Texas Center has the best outcomes of any pediatric heart program in the country.
- Specialized Care for Brain and Spine: In 2020, UT Health Austin Pediatric Neurosciences at Dell Children’s launched specialized programs including Concussion & Traumatic Brain Injury, Muscular Dystrophy, and an epilepsy clinic in Spanish, among many others.
- Comprehensive Fetal Care: In December 2021, the Comprehensive Fetal Care Center performed its first fetal surgery. The successful operation, performed by the center’s co-director Dr. Michael Bebbington, saved the lives of two babies with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome in utero. The babies were later born in the Dell Children’s Special Delivery Unit and received specialized care in the same building.
- Abdominal Transplant Center: In April 2022, Dell Children’s opened the first and only Pediatric Abdominal Transplant Center in Central Texas, which provides specialized renal care for children from birth through young adulthood.
- Cancer Center of Excellence: Dell Children’s is in the process of launching its Stem Cell Transplant program to ensure children in need of this lifesaving treatment no longer have to seek care away from home. Their inpatient hematology/oncology unit will move to the new fourth bedtower, which has dedicated space for this patient population.
Ensuring Top-Quality Care for Generations to Come
Dell Children’s efforts to treat more families with specialized care have already generated extraordinary results, and there’s still more to come.
Dell Children’s is in the process of opening additional facilities and a second campus in central Texas.
