Executive VP for Health Systems
Greetings! I am Jessica Rangel. While I am a nurse by profession, I have the privilege of serving as the executive vice president for Health Systems. I’ve been in the health care field most of my life and have a passion for innovative, visionary ideas and tactics that improve the well-being of our community. Health care in my mind should never be episodic; rather, it’s a sacred, life-long journey with humanity. The challenge is how to provide expert, unprecedented care and access in a world where so many are lacking: herein lies the challenge for the innovators!
Department Details: Health Systems is comprised of several departments.
i. Institute for Patient Safety known as SaferCare Texas. Their mission is to challenge traditional thinking to eliminate preventable harm. It also houses the first Patient Safety Organization for ambulatory care in Texas and is “listed” with the Federal Government AHRQ. Patient safety science not only examines what is, but seeks to improve processes to make it more difficult to create a patient safety error in the pre-hospital setting.
Asthma 411 is a program within SaferCare that covers more than 250,000 school-aged children who have asthma-related incidents This program educates and provides children with rescue medication. See our website for additional information from the most recent legislative session. Health literacy is another area of strength with the State’s health literacy expert leading the team.
ii. HSC Health is the clinical arm of the campus that has both an academic mission (interprofessional medical students) and a clinical mission that provides medical care to HSC and the community. These include pediatrics, family medicine, center for older adults, osteopathic manipulative medicine, metabolic & longevity and several others.
iii. The Regional Simulation Center is our new center providing learning experiences in various modalities including augmented and virtual reality.
iv. HSC’s Correctional Medicine includes the care for those incarcerated in both the men and women’s federal correctional facilities.
v. Interprofessional Education & Practice intersects all schools across our campus.
vi. Whole Health is our new approach to empowering people to discover, receive and participate in care for their body, mind, spirit and environment within and through their communities. We are all impacted by the seven pillars of whole health that lead to whole person, whole health. They are community, self-care, spiritual health, physical health, financial health, mental health and environmental health. Any of these components can and do impact you.
What’s the best way to work with your department? The best way to work with our teams is to reach out to the department leaders. Know that connecting with you is very important to us. That noted, sometimes we may not be able to accommodate requests for information and evaluations in an abbreviated time frame as patient care and students needs take priority.
Who are the best POC’s in your department? SaferCare Texas - Dr. Teresa Wagner, HSC Health – Dr. Janice Knebl, chief medical officer; Vicki Cannon, chief nursing officer, A.J. Randolph chief operating and financial officer
IPE – Cynthia Carroll, Correctional Medicine – Stephen Robertson, Regional Simulation Center – Karen Meadows
Additional Resources: Whole Health Livestream, Whole Health Initiative, Published Research, Workforce Enhancement
