Cook Children's Health Care System

About Cook Children's Health Care System Cook Children's strives to be an extension of your family, growing with your child from baby steps to adulthood. We keep our Promise - to improve the well-being of every child in our communities - by instilling kindness, imagination and respect into everything we do. We make it our mission to connect the dots. Between primary and specialty. Between home and medical home. Between short-term care and long-term health. Based in Fort Worth, Texas, we're 10,000+ dedicated team members strong, passionately caring for over 2 million patient encounters each year. Our integrated, not-for-profit organization spans two medical centers, three surgery centers, a physician network, home health services and a health plan. It also includes the Child Study Center, Cook Children's Health Services Inc., and Cook Children's Health Foundation. Ninety-four primary, specialty and urgent care locations provide access to lifesaving pediatric care that's family-centered and built on leading technology, collaboration, safety and a best-in-class patient experience. And our impact extends beyond the borders of Texas. We're proud to treat children from every state in the nation and 32 countries. By seeing the world through the eyes of children and their families from all backgrounds, we're able to shape health care suited to them ... with an extra dose of magical wonder. Keeping our Promise Cook Children's has strived since its beginnings in 1918 to combine the art of caring with leading-edge technology and practices. The System has earned a strong and wide reputation for outstanding efforts and outcomes in pediatric health care. Six core values form the bedrock for Cook Children's culture platform: kindness, collaboration, imagination, generosity, respect and safety. Those values inspire our Promise to do everything for the child. Decisions and action at every level of the organization integrate our culture platform and core values. As a result, employees and visitors alike feel like family. Employees in all of Cook Children's companies connect the dots to create moments of magic and the best patient experience possible during treatment for injury and illness. With an 87% patient experience rating of lihood to recommend" in FY24, eligible employees were awarded a CareShare bonus. Expanding to Meet Community Needs As the population of North Texas increases, Cook Children's continues to widen its reach. Cook Children's Medical Center - Prosper opened in 2023 to serve children and families on the northeast side of the Metroplex and beyond. Also, the recently expanded Dodson Specialty Clinics building on the Fort Worth campus created a centralized location for patients who receive care from multiple specialties. The Dodson expansion brought 40 clinics under one roof to provide easily accessible and comprehensive care, along with a new retail pharmacy and a sibling support center. Construction was underway throughout 2024 on a first-of-its-kind collaboration to bring critical health care and other resources to the Las Vegas Trail area of west Fort Worth. The future Las Vegas Trail Neighborhood Health Center will include medical services, social services and a police storefront. Cook Children's and the other partners aim to transform the struggling neighborhood into a safe and healthy community. Cook Children's will provide pediatric health care at the center when it opens in late 2025. In West Texas, a new partnership in FY24 boosted the options for pediatric neurology thanks to an innovative approach to medical education. Two Cook Children's neurologists in Amarillo serve as teaching physicians at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in an arrangement that educates future physicians while bringing specialty care closer to home for patients in the region. Four years of collaborative planning went into implementing this unique model, which can be adapted to other specialties. Supporting a Workplace of Excellence Forbes named CCHCS No. 1 in the health care and social industry category of its list of America's Best Large Employers 2024. Evaluation criteria included gender pay equity, opportunities for training and promotion, workload expectations and parental leave benefits. Another national honor came when Newsweek ranked Cook Children's on its list of America's Greatest Workplaces 2024. The selection process included surveys on key drivers of employee satisfaction such as corporate culture, work-life balance and career opportunities. The importance of self-care was spotlighted in August 2024 during Cook Children's first Well-being Month, which promoted activities and resources such as fitness challenges and classes on stress management. Well-being Month reminded employees that taking time for themselves helps recharge their energy on the job. The Employee Resource Groups (ERG) program branched out in FY24. ERGs welcome anyone who wants to join their goal of embracing togetherness in the workplace. They're geared to help colleagues see the world through one another's eyes. A series of "Lunch and Learn" conversations in 2024, led by the four current ERGs and other groups, explored the topics of respect and kindness from diverse perspectives. The Nursing Inclusion, Diversity & Equity (IDE) Council was launched in 2024 in response to feedback from employee surveys. Goals include education, advocacy and review of policies. Awards and Research CCHCS in January 2024 earned the Press Ganey Guardian of Excellence Award for outstanding dedication to patient experience, placing our medical center in the top 5% of health care providers nationwide. Locally, Cook Children's in May 2024 received the Exchange Club of Fort Worth's prestigious Golden Deeds Award, given annually to the person or organization deemed the most outstanding citizen. And the Public Relations and Internal Communications team brought home 11 awards from the Greater Fort Worth Public Relations Society of America in 2024. Cook Children's took top honors in crisis communications, brand management, newsletter and other categories. The Cook Children's Cleft, Craniofacial and Plastic Surgery Department won approval in 2024 by the American Cleft Palate Craniofacial Association for exceeding the highest standard of care for patients with cleft lip and palate differences. The department specializes in plastic and reconstructive surgery for children with face, head and neck conditions. A site tour hosted by Cook Children's in February 2024 connected staff and research partners with a new federal agency created to drive innovation in health care. That meeting on the Fort Worth campus attracted regional collaborators as well as national representatives from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). Cook Children's is a spoke in the ARPA-H strategy for quicker access to funds that finance clinical trials, prototypes and other groundbreaking work. Joining forces with ARPA-H opens up new opportunities to find solutions that improve the health of children and adolescents. The System's national profile was further raised in June 2024 when Christos Papadelis, Ph.D., who leads the Neuroscience Research Center at Cook Children's, spoke to Congress members and staff on Capitol Hill. Dr. Papadelis was invited to the platform based on his expertise and leadership in brain mapping. His presentation appealed for policies and funding to support research like the breakthroughs Cook Children's is making to control seizures.