Excellence in Employment: Celebrating Our Award-Winning Workplace
We are thrilled to announce that Cook Children's has once again been recognized as a top employer on the national level!
As we previously celebrated earlier this year, our health care system was named to Forbes's America's Best Large Employers for 2024 and Newsweek's America's Greatest Workplaces for Women 2024. We are excited to share that we have recently been named to two more lists: 2024 Healthiest Employers of Texas and Newsweek's America's Greatest Workplaces 2024.
Our commitment to a healthy and happy workforce is reflected in initiatives aimed at reducing stress and supporting well-being, fostering a culture of belonging, and encouraging empathy. Through programs such as CareATC, comprehensive benefits including mental health counseling, tuition reimbursement, and the Healthy Me Wellness Program, we strive to ensure our employees feel supported both on and off the job.
Thank you to each and every one of you for making Cook Children's a great place to work!
New Signage Emphasizes Respect and Kindness
Our values are not just words on a page. They are the cornerstone of who we are at Cook Children’s and they matter.
We want to make sure you all are treated well by our patient families and we are taking steps to make sure that happens.
You will soon notice new signage around Cook Children’s. These signs will be placed throughout our Fort Worth campus at all major entrances to the facility at the ED, main drive, Pruitt entrance, both sides of the link to Dodson and the Dodson entrance near registration. Signs will also be placed in Prosper, all Urgent Care locations and Home Health.
The signs were created after meeting with nursing leaders in the organization and approved through our Workplace Violence committee.
The signs read:
Kindness Matters
We’re all in this together
“At Cook Children’s, respect and kindness are at the heart of what we do. We provide better care for our patients and each other when we work together in a healing environment. We expect that everyone – patients, families, visitors and staff – protect the safety of each other by being respectful and kind.
We don’t allow:
Swearing or yelling
Verbal or physical threats
Bullying or harassment
Photos, videos or live streams of staff or other patients and visitors
We’re here for you
Our staff can calm stressful situations to make sure everyone feels safe. If you hear or see any concerning behavior, please let a staff member know right away.
Those unable to comply may be asked to leave property and/or have law enforcement notified.
Thank you for keeping Cook Children’s a safe, healing place for every child.
Peer Feedback For Year-End Performance
As we prepare for year-end performance evaluations and discussions, employees will be encouraged to give one another candid and constructive input through Peer Feedback, a feature of our new Performance & Development (P&D) platform in Workday.
Peer Feedback for the year-end performance cycle runs from July 15-Aug. 26. Feedback for each employee will be requested from the co-workers best able to provide insights into the employee’s strengths and areas for improvement. Each employee is required to select at least three and up to seven feedback providers.
Merridth Simpson, AVP Human Resources Operations, said a summary of the feedback will be shared with the employee as a job coaching tool. But it won’t affect anyone’s performance evaluation.
“This feedback will not be part of the merit calculation, but rather a developmental input to help employees continue to grow,” Merridth said. “We want to foster a culture of honest and open feedback as an opportunity to improve your performance and growth.”
On-demand, role-based training is available, complete with job aids and clickviews (step-by-step instructions). Click here to access these resources. NOTE: Performance & Development information is item No. 4 under Workday Resources Hub.
New Employee Medical Records System Coming in August
Occupational Health will soon unveil a new employee portal where Cook Children’s staff will have access to all their medical records in one place.
Enterprise Health will go live in August as a replacement for OHM. The system will be a one-stop-shop for employee health, said Bridget Page, Director of Occupational Health, and Karen Mahoney, Manager of Occupational Health.
The Occupational Health Department will use Enterprise to maintain electronic medical records, and employees will have access to all of their own information through the portal. Employees’ shot records, mask fit information, injury reports and all other medical-related information will be accessible through the portal.
With the portal, employees can fill out their own injury reports, upload their own medical documentation and track their next mask fit appointment. Supervisors will have access to some of those records, such as staff’s vaccine records and upcoming mask fit requirements.
“In a nutshell, it helps to better integrate our system with Workday and makes occupational health information more accessible to the staff,” said Randal Price, Safety Manager of Occupational Health.
New hires will receive an email to register for the employee portal and have access to medical questionnaires and vaccine records.
Occupational Health will send out additional information on how to use the new system in the next few weeks.
Update on Microsoft 365 Modern Workplace
We are continuing our journey to upgrade the technology we use to connect, communicate, and collaborate. Starting on July 24, the New CookNet homepage will be the default home page, meaning it will be the first page your browser opens when you log in. Departments have been working over the past several months to transfer their content from Legacy CookNet to the modern, more user-friendly version
In addition, full time employees will be able to access Microsoft Teams and Outlook email on personal mobile devices. Starting on Wednesday, July 3, the Classic version of Teams will no longer be available; everyone will be using the New Teams version going forward.
We will keep you up-to-date on these upgrades in future issues of the Connect Newsletter.
Congrats to the 2024 Presidential Scholarship Recipients
The Presidents’ Scholarship program was created in 2008 to establish a legacy for healthcare through academic advancement and to create a vehicle that recognized our employees' families. The selection committee is represented by a variety of jobs and levels from five Cook Children’s companies.
Through the Presidents’ Scholarship program Cook Children’s hopes to support your child’s efforts as they continue their personal and professional growth through higher education and ultimately a career in the health care field.
On June 27, Cook Children’s awarded the 2024 Presidents’ Scholarships during a special awards luncheon with recipients and their families. Twelve children of Cook Children’s employees earned scholarships of $5,000 each.
Meet Tara Bradshaw, MHA, Director of Retail and Administrative Projects
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.
There was a time when Tara Bradshaw, MHA, wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a physician. But he wisely told her to walk a day in those shoes before she started down the medical school path. After shadowing her father’s fellow emergency department physicians in her hometown of Longview, Texas, Tara realized her true calling.
“I came home, and I started telling him all the things I was thinking about during my day,” Tara said. “Did the doctor like his computer? Was the patient comfortable in their room? Were the patients getting through each step of the process well? He paused after and said, ‘You sound like a hospital administrator!’”
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Fresh out of graduate school where she earned her master of science in health care administration from Trinity University, Bradshaw became a Cook Children’s Administrative Resident in January 2021. A year later, she was promoted to Director of Administrative Projects where she participated in the transition planning for the new Cook Children’s Medical Center - Prosper.
“I never thought I would be lucky enough to watch a hospital start from the ground up, and I learned so much about each department at Cook Children’s in the year of transition planning,” she said. “It was a great experience to meet different people in every corner of the organization and understand what each person and department needs to function.”
In addition to administrative projects, Tara also now oversees Cook Children’s retail spaces, like Build-a-Bear and Under The Peaks. She couldn’t be happier with her career path, or more proud to be spreading her health care administration wings at Cook Children’s.
“The Cook Children’s culture is like the Texas humidity—you can’t see it, but it hits you when you walk outside or, in our case, through the doors,” she said. “From the front desk, in the elevators, on the floor, in the basement, and on your way out, everyone wearing a badge will greet you with a smile, give you directions to Starbucks, and would be more than happy to tell you about their role in the organization. I don’t think anyone here would pretend they could do their job alone, and the acknowledgement that we need each other makes this place special.”
Using Cook Children’s Logo and Brand
It’s important that we all work together to both elevate and protect Cook Children’s culture and recognizable brand. That’s why we have an updated Cook Children’s Logo and Brand Identity policy. If you want to create something that reflects our brand or uses our logo, please refer to the policy first.
Also, there’s a new one-stop-shop for your marketing needs that you’ll find helpful. Be sure to dig into the Cook Children’s Culture Center, an online platform that offers info about our culture platform, as well as our visual and verbal identity. It shares our system standards, design elements, color palette, templates and more. Questions? Reach out to culture@cookchildrens.org.
Our values are not just words on a page. They are the cornerstone of who we are at Cook Children’s and they matter.
As we prepare for year-end performance evaluations and discussions, employees will be encouraged to give one another candid and constructive input through Peer Feedback, a feature of our new Performance & Development (P&D) platform in Workday. 
We are continuing our journey to upgrade the technology we use to connect, communicate, and collaborate. Starting on July 24, the New CookNet homepage will be the default home page, meaning it will be the first page your browser opens when you log in. Departments have been working over the past several months to transfer their content from Legacy CookNet to the modern, more user-friendly version
The Presidents’ Scholarship program was created in 2008 to establish a legacy for healthcare through academic advancement and to create a vehicle that recognized our employees' families. The selection committee is represented by a variety of jobs and levels from five Cook Children’s companies. 
