Houston's Texas Children's Hospital Goes High-Tech

Exciting news came from Texas Children's Hospital (TCH) this week regarding the opening of a state-of-the-art Simulation Center on Wednesday. This Simulation Center utilizes high-tech mannequins and live actors to play a key role in training health care professionals. The center will be used to train health care teams how to manage rare and complex patient care in a simulated clinic environment.

The 8,000-square-foot facility has three high-fidelity simulation theaters, five standardized patient training rooms, a flexible clinical skills room and two debriefing rooms. High-tech equipment including mannequins that, among other things, can bleed and turn blue, innovative software and audio/visual systems will simulate critical medical events ranging from a patient experiencing cardiac arrest to a fire in the operating room, while trained actors will play the roles of family members.

“The experience of simulation allows for such an advanced level of training and helps ensure that we are truly prepared to work together as a highly-coordinated team for every patient who needs our help,” said Dr. Jennifer Arnold, medical director of the simulation center. The TCH simulation center is the only such facility in Texas and one of only 12 in the country. As well as training hospital staff, the center will also be made available to local, national and, ultimately, international health care providers.