America's Best-In-State Employers 2024 have been identified in an independent survey from a sample of over 160,000 employees working for companies with at least 500 people within the U.S. The survey was open to companies from all industry sectors and over 4.4 million employee evaluations were analyzed.
The final score was determined on a state-by-state basis and is based on two types of employee evaluations. They are: Personal evaluations that reflected employees' willingness to recommend their own employers to friends and family, and public evaluations, recommendations from friends and family members of employees, or members of the public who work in the same industry.
The title America's Best-In-State Employers 2024 reinforces our commitment to providing exceptional workplace environment and employment opportunities.
Heads Up! Lights Out!
We’ll be performing essential electrical updates that will require a temporary shutdown of critical power and lighting in the Emergency Department and in certain areas of Medical Center-Fort Worth. Please be advised that the power will be out from 9:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 23, to 3:30 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 24. It will be a little darker than usual, but all normal power and lighting, as well as life safety lighting, will stay on.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding as we work to enhance your experience. Please call the Command Center if you have issues to report during this period: 682-885-1791.
News from Occupational Health
New Employee Medical Records System Will Go Live on Aug. 27
Occupational Health will be moving to a new medical record system called Enterprise Health on Aug. 27. Enterprise Health is a certified Electronic Health Record which will be used for securely retaining pertinent occupational health records for reporting and compliance purposes. Additionally, Enterprise Health hosts an employee and a supervisor portal.
Flu Vaccines 2024: Onsite Flu Fairs Start on Sept. 17
You must get your flu vaccine by the Oct. 18 deadline. Employees are required to receive the influenza vaccine each year to help protect our patient families, fellow employees, and our community, against this serious disease. Some departments will perform vaccinations for employees in their areas. We will also be offering several Flu Vaccine Fairs, where employees can drop in without an appointment for their vaccine. Employees may also supply proof of vaccination from an outside provider. To get the process started, employees will need to complete an electronic consent form, available on the new Enterprise Health portal starting on Aug. 27.
Annual Flu Compliance and Respiratory Mask Fitting Compliance
Cook Children’s Health Care System is committed to providing a safe and healthy environment for our employees, patients and visitors. In keeping with our Promise, we are doing everything we can to protect those in our care while respecting your individual rights.
Employees must maintain compliance with Cook Children's influenza vaccination requirements each year, as well as respiratory mask fit testing, which is required for certain employees by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
ICYMI: Open Enrollment for Employee Benefits is Underway
Open enrollment for the 2024-2025 benefits year runs through Aug. 23, giving you the chance to update your benefit elections, change your participation in medical plans and more.
The array of options reflects Cook Children’s priority in supporting the health and well-being of our employees and families. Elections and/or changes will go into effect on Oct. 1, 2024.
The 2024-2025 Benefits Guide, found on CookNet, highlights several changes for the coming year.We streamlined our selection of medical plans to two -- a health reimbursement account (HRA) and a health savings account (HSA). We also consolidated our dental plans into a single PPO option. We have three salary bands now instead of four, and the ranges of the bands have changed.
Visit Workday to enroll or make changes, or call the Benefits Center at 833-938-4154, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Friday.
Benefits vendors will be on hand at two Benefits Fairs to answer your questions. You’re also invited to attend one of the in-person Open Enrollment meetings.
We’re recognizing August as Well-being Month and have a variety of classes, events and activities planned for you - there’s still time to participate! Visit the Well-being Month page on CookNet for class schedules and your Well-Bingo card for a chance to win a gift card.
Then, be sure to take a look at the many ways you can connect at Cook Children’s and click on the links to learn more about each.
Photos of Beat the Heat Treat Events
Employees are gathering for a tasty break from busy schedules. The events are aimed at fostering a sense of community and joy among the staff, serving as a reminder to everyone of the importance of taking a moment to enjoy the little things together. View photos here and on Connect here.
Performance & Development Digest
Please read this week’s edition of the Performance & Development Digest, with all the latest about our new system for employee evaluation and career growth.
This week, you'll find:
Tips for Providing Peer Feedback in Workday
Information on Signing Up for In-person or Virtual P&D Training
Self-assessment Gives Employees Input On Their Job Performance
More Opportunities for Inclusion, Diversity & Health Equity Training
Hundreds of employees across the system have participated in Inclusion, Diversity & Health Equity online training in the spring. We took a pause for the summer, but the workshops are back this fall. You can sign up now for this 90-munite virtual course.
Continuing education credits are available!
These workshops equip us with the knowledge and skills to:
• Recognize implicit bias and its effects on ourselves and others. • Understand how implicit bias and social determinants of health contribute to disparities in health care. • Develop strategies to mitigate implicit bias. • Identify tactics to promote equity for both patients and colleagues.
August Proclaimed Gun Safety Awareness Month by 3 North Texas Cities
August is proclaimed Gun Safety Awareness Month by three North Texas cities: Arlington, Prosper and Alvarado. The Aim for Safety program at Cook Children’s led this effort to spread awareness and education about proper gun storage and safety.
“We’re so thankful that Prosper, Arlington and Alvarado recognized August as Gun Safety Awareness Month. This helps us so much in getting this important message of safe gun storage out to the communities and families that we serve and helps us highlight that safety is our number one priority,” said Eric Gonzalez, Program Coordinator for the Center for Community Health at Cook Children’s Medical Center – Fort Worth.
Cook Children's Aim for Safety program is designed to help reduce the number of injuries we see every year among children through gun safety education.
Zechariah Sudolcan is one of the more than 8,000 medically fragile children covered under Texas’ STAR Kids program by Cook Children’s Health Plan. But his safety net is at risk to a recent decision by Texas’ Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC). Despite having a 20-year record of excellence serving children and families in Tarrant County and surrounding areas, HHSC denied the renewal of Cook Children’s Health Plan’s contract for managing Texas’ STAR Medicaid and CHIP programs in its service area, starting in Sept. 2025.
“This decision won’t hurt Cook Children’s as much as it will hurt our members we serve, many like Zechariah and his family,” said Karen Love, president of Cook Children’s Health Plan. “The families and children covered by Cook Children’s Health Plan deserve the ability to choose us.”
Newsweek has named Cook Children's one of America's Greatest Workplaces for Women 2024. We're introducing you to some of the women who make Cook Children's such an amazing place.
For Suzanne Seider, Director, Talent Acquisition, it’s the thrill of the hunt. The search for the right fit for an open position. The satisfaction of helping someone land the job they want.
And, at Cook Children’s, the stakes are high. Suzanne’s job isn’t just about filling a position, but about fulfilling the organization’s Promise of “Everything for the child.”
“I want our recruiters and perspective employees to love what they do, because especially in health care, there's a patient at the end of that hiring process and job,” she said. “So make sure that this job is something that's going to feed your soul and help the patient.”
Family Engagement: New Name, Same Commitment to Patient Families
If you’ve seen fliers around Cook Children’s facilities advertising parent coffee meet-ups, you already know one way in which the Family Engagement Department provides support and outreach for Cook Children’s families. The team does much more in its mission to connect and collaborate with families.
The Family Engagement Department was formerly known as Family Services and is now part of Cook Children’s Experience.
“Family Engagement defines what our department is all about: family voice, participation, support and partnership.” said Vicki Kelley, the Director of the Family Engagement Department. “The name change is meant to emphasize the team’s efforts to connect, collaborate and elevate experiences through customer service, supportive programs, and opportunities to hear parent perspectives and provide opportunities for parent expert volunteers to be involved whenever possible.”
New: Emergency Response Needs Immediate Evaluation Social Workers
Beginning in early 2024, a dedicated team began to investigate the rollout of depression screening within our Dodson specialty clinics.Suicide is the number two cause of death for our patients ages 10 – 24. With additional literature showing higher levels of depression within our patients dealing with chronic or life-threatening disease, the need to screen for this risk is evident.
After discussions with early adopter teams already performing this screen on patients, the need for system level supports to assist in this workflow was identified. This request resulted in the creation of two Licensed Clinical Social Worker full time equivalent positions to provide that support.
The ERNIE LCSWs will provide critical mental health triage of identified high-risk patients. The pilot initiative launched on Aug. 19 in the Infectious Disease and Rheumatology clinics. Soon to join this pilot team include Pulmonary and Immunology. Our hope is to better identify depression and increased suicide risk in a timely fashion while avoiding Emergency Department visits when possible.
What is ERNIE – the Emergency Response Needs Immediate Evaluation LCSW:
Pair social workers – LCSW
Dodson specialty Clinics Pilot Programs only
Responds to results of high PHQ 9M
Security called separately for acute behavioral event
What ERNIE is NOT: BERT the Behavioral Emergency Response Team for CCMC inpatient.This team responds to inpatient emergency alerts only.
Over the next few months, we will be gathering data on the utilization and timing of this new workflow and will share this information with you as we gather it.We have many groups engaged and are actively looking to future pilot members.
Thank you to the many individuals working on the Suicide Task Force who helped to make this initiative possible.If you have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Project Manager Noelia Echols at Noelia.echols@cookchildrens.org or Alice Phillips at alice.phillipsmd@cookchildrens.org.
Events and Education
Employee Safety: Slips, Trips, & Falls
We have seen an increase in employee injuries from slips, trips, and falls. Team members from Occupational Health, Quality, Risk, Environmental Services, and Facilities compiled some information to remind staff on how they can be safe and report potential hazards. Click here.
Trek 100 Texas
Join us on Sept. 14 for the Trek 100 Texas, a charity bike ride benefiting Cook Children’s Hematology and Oncology Center. Formerly held in Wisconsin, we’re thrilled to give Trek a warm, Cook Children’s welcome to the Lone Star State. This one-of-a-kind bike ride features legendary rest stops with fun themes, games, snacks and meet-and-greets with our patients. Best of all, funds raised through Trek 100 Texas will benefit patients fighting cancer at our medical centers.
We invite you to learn about this team by visiting our recently-launched Pain Management site on New CookNet or come learn from the greatest in the galaxy, and experience an out-of-this-world pain management awareness fair.
Patient family event 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19 Medical Center-Fort Worth, atrium
Employee-only event 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20 Medical Center Fort Worth, atrium
VIDEO: Five Moments of Hand Hygiene
The Nursing Evidence-Based Practice and Research (NEBPR) shared governance council worked on an evidence-based practice project to improve staff knowledge of the World Health Organization’s five moments of hand hygiene. Cleaning your hands can prevent the spread of germs, including those that are resistant to antibiotics, and protect health care personnel and patients.
It takes just five moments to protect yourself and others! Using the five moments of hand hygiene, we should all clean our hands and change our gloves: 1. Before touching a patient 2. Before clean/aseptic procedures 3. After body fluid exposures 4. After touching a patient 5. After touching the patient’s surroundings
This just in: Another award to be proud of! 
Heads Up! Lights Out!
Flu Vaccines 2024: Onsite Flu Fairs Start on Sept. 17 
Open enrollment for the 2024-2025 benefits year runs through Aug. 23, giving you the chance to update your benefit elections, change your participation in medical plans and more. 
We’re recognizing August as Well-being Month and have a variety of classes, events and activities planned for you - there’s still time to participate! 
Photos of Beat the Heat Treat Events
August is proclaimed Gun Safety Awareness Month by three North Texas cities: Arlington, Prosper and Alvarado. The Aim for Safety program at Cook Children’s led this effort to spread awareness and education about proper gun storage and safety. 
hildren in Jeopardy: Zechariah's Story
Congratulations July 2024 Peak Performers
Exploring the Universe of Pain Management 