Stephen Langley, MD, chief of pediatric cardiac surgery and director of Driscoll Children’s Heart Center in Corpus Christi, Texas, believes his team is quietly building something extraordinary.
Since 2019, Dr. Langley has led Driscoll Children’s Heart Center, which he describes as “the best pediatric cardiac care institution you’ve never heard of” — and with a rapidly growing surgical program, expanded regional footprint and a $100 million state-of-the-art expansion, he says that’s about to change.
In the last five years, Driscoll’s Heart Center has tripled its surgical volume, strengthened a program that flies providers across 32 counties to reach patients in their own communities, and completed a 50,000-square-foot expansion with two new operating rooms, advanced catheterization labs and a 35-bed cardiac ICU. For families across South Texas — many of whom live hours from Corpus Christi in historically underserved areas — these changes mean access to advanced pediatric heart care that was once far out of reach.
Dr. Langley recently joined the “Becker’s Healthcare Podcast” to discuss the challenges of delivering complex pediatric care in rural and underserved communities, the lessons other hospitals can learn from Driscoll’s model and why he believes the heart center’s best days are still ahead.
Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from the podcast. Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity. Click here to listen to the full episode.
Question: Driscoll serves a vast and often underserved region in South Texas. What are some of the unique challenges your team faces in delivering complex pediatric cardiac care in these communities — and how have you adapted to meet those needs?
Dr. Stephen Langley: I think there are a variety of challenges. As you mentioned, Texas is both a very large and very diverse geographical area. Many of our patients travel hours to see us. To put it in context, we cover 32 counties, an area about the size of South Carolina — roughly 34,000 square miles — and we care predominantly for indigent and Medicaid patients. A large portion of our population is Hispanic, so we face language barriers in both directions. Historically, this region has been known as a medical desert because it has been so underserved.
How have we adapted? What have we done to deliver complex care like pediatric cardiac surgery in this setting? We’ve gone to the patients. We’ve expanded our footprint and coverage on the ground. Last year, we opened the first freestanding children’s hospital in the Rio Grande Valley. We also opened the Driscoll Training Center, a state-of-the-art facility with advanced simulation labs that allows hands-on training for Driscoll healthcare staff.
We’ve established several quick care centers not only in Corpus Christi but also in towns further afield — Edinburg, McAllen and Victoria, which sits between Corpus Christi and Houston. We also run multiple specialty and general clinics in the largest cities in our area, including Brownsville, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Laredo, McAllen and Victoria. Finally, we have our own health plan, with members in Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Laredo, McAllen and Victoria.
Q: Many hospital leaders are looking to replicate models of success in rural or underserved areas. What lessons from Driscoll’s approach do you think are most transferable to other regions or institutions? How?
I would answer that in two ways, because some of what we’ve done can be replicated anywhere, while other strategies are specific to our rural and underserved patient population.
What would I recommend anywhere? Two things: first, put strong programmatic elements in place, and second, recruit and retain the right people. You can’t succeed with one without the other.
On the programmatic side, you need a rigorous quality process. Quality is often discussed, but what most organizations consider quality — such as routine morbidity and mortality meetings — is not enough to set you apart. We’ve gone further. We have a dedicated Quality Committee that meets weekly for in-depth reviews of our data, outcomes, and opportunities for improvement. On top of that, we developed the DISCOVER team, which stands for a deep investigation into serious cardiac or vascular events. Within 24 hours of any major event — whether a cardiac arrest, a drug error or another complication — we convene a select team to review it in real time and immediately implement changes to improve care.
This supports our culture of continuous improvement. We don’t say we’ve “arrived” — far from it. We’re in constant pursuit of perfection.
On the people side, we recruit creative, resourceful, mission-driven staff who hold themselves and others accountable. It’s important to build a supportive, mission-aligned environment where administration backs the physicians and everyone shares a commitment to improvement.
In our rural region, where patients can’t always come to us, we go to them. Driscoll operates a fleet of six planes that fly across our region daily, bringing specialists to rural clinics and hospitals so patients can be seen close to home. We’ve also built a network of specialty centers and quick care facilities across our large service area, ensuring patients receive the same quality of care whether they live five hours away by car or two hours away by plane.
Q: We often hear health systems use the catch-all phrase “meet patients where they are,” but that usually doesn’t involve a fleet of six planes flying across the state to literally do just that — bringing providers directly to patients. Could you go a bit deeper into how that program works in practice, and whether there are future plans to grow the fleet or expand the program?
SL: Every day, one, two, sometimes three planes leave Corpus Christi with 10 to 12 providers — physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants — to see patients closer to their homes at one of our quick care facilities or specialty clinics. For many of these patients, traveling to us is very difficult, so we feel fortunate to have built the network and have the resources to go to them. It’s a well-scripted operation with a tremendous flight team, and it happens daily. This is not an occasional program: it’s part of our routine care delivery.
Q: Workforce is a challenge across healthcare — particularly in rural and underserved areas — and isn’t going away any time soon. How do you build and sustain a high-performing surgical and clinical team in such a demanding specialty like pediatric cardiology?
SL: It’s certainly not easy, but it is doable with a clear strategy and a defined goal. Five years ago, we set a vision for what the Driscoll Heart Center could be, and without that goal, much of what we’ve achieved would not have been possible. It’s equally important to inspire people around you to share that vision. You can’t build it alone or with just a handful of people — the entire team must feel valued, included and part of the momentum.
Recruitment also plays a critical role. You need people who want to help create and grow an institution that will forever change care in the region. Driscoll Children’s Hospital — and especially the Heart Center — is an exciting place to join because every single person here has the opportunity to make a difference for patients who historically have not had access to this level of care. For some, that uncertainty feels risky, but for others, it’s exhilarating, and they can’t wait to be part of the journey.
Sustaining that team requires a strong culture. At Driscoll, we call it “the Driscoll way.” It’s not written down; it’s more of a feeling in how we work together. It’s defined by nimble collaboration between administration and clinicians, shrewd resourcefulness in how we use our resources, and a relentless pursuit of perfection in every clinical area.
Q: What are you most excited about when you think about the future of Driscoll?
SL: It’s hard to pick just one thing I’m most excited about for the future. But, as I told someone recently, I believe Driscoll Children’s Heart Center is the best pediatric cardiac care institution you’ve never heard of. But that’s about to change because word is getting out. We now have the fastest-growing heart center in the U.S., having tripled our surgical volume in the past five years. We’ve just completed a $100 million expansion that added 50,000 square feet of dedicated cardiac care space that allows us to expand pediatric care across South Texas and and beyond. It includes two new state-of-the-art operating rooms, two advanced catheterization labs and a 35-bed dedicated cardiac ICU.
I’m excited about innovations like mobile ECMO. Instead of waiting for critically ill patients to be transferred here, we can travel to them and initiate ECMO in their own hospital. That’s transformative for care.
I’m also excited about our new single ventricle center, designed for the highest-risk patients who often have only one pumping chamber. These children undergo procedures like the Norwood operation, among the most complex in cardiac surgery. According to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons database, Driscoll is one of only five programs in North America with outcomes statistically better than the national average for these patients. Our survival rates are high, and our average length of stay after a Norwood procedure is just 19 days, compared to 59 nationally. Some would say that gives us a moral responsibility to expand access for these patients far beyond South Texas, and I believe we will.
As our volume continues to grow, it also allows us to expand subspecialty services, potentially including heart transplantation. I’m especially passionate about treating children with Down syndrome, many of whom are born with atrioventricular septal defects. I’ve dedicated much of my career to refining repairs for that condition, striving for the best possible outcomes so these children can avoid repeat surgeries. Every child deserves that same level of excellence.
Finally, I’m excited that our growth in cardiac care allows us to support other pediatric specialties that aren’t as well reimbursed. In that way, the success of the Heart Center strengthens Driscoll’s mission overall. And on a personal note, I’m excited to continue this work here for as long as Driscoll will have me. It’s my intention to see this mission through for the long term.
Leave a Reply