Connect Newsletter (Aug. 7, 2025)

Watch Now for More Information on Benefits Changes

Take a minute to watch a video to learn all about benefit changes and open enrollment for next year with

• Merridth Simpson, Vice President of Human Resources
• James Cuva, Assistant Vice President of Benefits 
• Jill Suda, Director of Benefits 

Click here to watch the video. 

The Benefits Team is hosting in-person Q&A sessions at Medical Center - Fort Worth in the Family Support Meeting Room A during these times: 

• 10:30 a.m. – 1 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 13 
• 10 a.m. – Noon, Thursday, Aug. 14 
• 9 a.m. –12:30 p.m., Monday, Aug. 18 

You can also contact the Benefits team at AskBenefits@cookchildrens.org with questions.

To learn more and to see this year's Benefits Guide, click here.

An End to Measles Screening at Cook Children’s

We have some good news to share. The spring measles outbreak associated with West Texas has concluded. The last reported case was on July 1, and the Lamar County Health Department has confirmed that the exposure period for all contacts is expired.

Although the Texas Department of State Health Services will not officially declare the outbreak over until Aug. 15, Cook Children's is ending measles screening at registration effective immediately.

Thank you to everyone for your help and cooperation during the screening process.

ServiceNow Employee Center is Coming: Faster Help, Smarter Self-Service, All in One Place

Information Services is excited to share a new digital intranet portal that provides Cook Children’s employees with a single point of access to request hardware/software, report issues, request optimizations, assess system status and see updates on their tickets. 

This portal will also be home to an extensive library of tip sheets on topics from software tips to Epic and Workday guides. The system even uses AI to recommend helpful tip sheets to provide self-service-and avoid the need for a service ticket. 

Additionally, we are excited to be one of the first health care systems to integrate this portal into Epic, allowing staff to report issues directly from inside Epic. With a few clicks, staff can auto-pull workstation and patient data into a service ticket to expedite issue reporting-all without leaving Epic. Staff can even live chat with an IS staff member in this Epic integrated window.

Continue to watch internal communications for more information as we get closer to this August go live of ServiceNow Employee Center. Information Services is excited to improve your technology experiences.

Ready to learn more? For more information visit their CookNet site and view their intro videos here: ServiceNow. 

New Cook Children's Online Store Goes Live Aug. 12

Get ready, Cook Children's fans. Our new online store goes live on Aug. 12.

The online store is where you will find all your favorite Cook Children's gear just a few clicks aways. Whether you're hunting for cozy apparel, awesome gifts, team uniforms or even Peaks the Dragon^® merch, your orders will deliver straight to your home or office. How cool is that?

Our goal? To make Peaks and Cook Children’s logoed gear available for everyone – staff, patients and families alike.

Stay tuned as we get closer to the launch!

Heather Minton earns a Top Ten Teacher award from Fort Worth Magazine

Every year, Fort Worth Magazine requests nominations from Fort Worth-area students, parents, and school faculty members to honor the city’s best educators. With over 600 nominations, Heather Minton, from the Jane Justin School, was selected for the Top Ten Teacher award.

You can read more about the coveted award and about Heather on page 59 of the Fort Worth Magazine. 

Congratulations to our Third Quarter Peak Performers

Congratulations to our Third Quarter Peak Performers, who were selected for their above and beyond work in quality, safety and service. We are celebrating recipients from April to June 2025.

To see the full list of Peak Performers, click here. 

Do you have a peer you wish to nominate? See our Peak Performer CookNet site for more information.

Coming Soon: Microsoft 365 (M365) Rollout – Go Live Aug. 11

We’re excited to announce the upcoming rollout of Microsoft 365 (M365) across the organization, scheduled to go live next week.

As part of this transition, we will be moving from Exchange 2016 to cloud-based M365. This change will bring enhanced access to Microsoft Office tools online, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, along with limited access to OneDrive for file creation, sharing, and collaboration.

In addition to email and calendar services in the cloud, the M365 team will be rolling out:

New Microsoft 365 desktop applications

Options for accessing email on mobile devices

Following successful pilot testing, this rollout will begin Aug. 11.  Additional details, training resources, and support information will be shared in an email when your group is going to be moved. Estimated dates of the groups moving will be communicated after the first group next week. Please watch your email. 

Thank you for your continued support as we modernize our tools to better support collaboration and productivity.

Take This Safety Quiz

The Occupational Health and Safety team wants you to practice spotting workplace hazards. Take their safety quiz and put your knowledge to the test.

At the end of the quiz, you may enter your information to have a chance to win a prize.

Click here to take the quiz.

Don't Miss Events in August 

This August we have lots of fun events happening across our system. Please view our list of events happening this week, below. To view more events coming up visit the calendar on CookNet. 

• Aug. 8 - Benefits Fair at Prosper Medical Center*
• Aug. 8 – Beat the Heat Treat at Child Study Center*
• Aug. 12 - Speaker Series: Brain Health & Integrating Well-being into a Fast-paced Work Environment with Jennifer Zientz, Director of Programs at Center for BrainHealth® (In-person and livestream)*
• Aug. 13 – Beat the Heat Treat at Fort Worth Medical Center Fort Worth, Dodson Specialty Clinics, 901, 750 and the Rosedale Office Building.*
• Aug. 14 - Speaker Series: Sandwich Generation: Not in My Bucket presented by Sarah Bentz, MA, LPC-S (in-person and livestream)*

* These events are put on by Team Experience to celebrate Well-being Month. For more information and to view future speakers visit the Team Experience page on CookNet. 

Share Your Content with Us

Do you have any tips, ideas or content you'd like us to know about? We want to hear from you. Please view our site on CookNet or email us at InternalCommunications@cookchildrens.org. 

Check the calendar on the CookNet home page for more system-wide events, and to stay updated on what's happening with employees, and news you need to know, bookmark the Connect Newsroom website.