Please take a few moments to watch this informative video from Megan Chavez, VP, Cook Children's Experience, with the latest CareShare update.As a reminder, the majority of the system, CareShare data is based on patient survey answers to the question of how likely they are to recommend Cook Children’s to a friend or family member. The Health Plan’s CareShare is based on their member experience survey, which is done toward the end of the fiscal year.
The New CookNet has Arrived!
The New CookNet homepage is now the default home page, meaning it is the first page your browser opens when you log in. A huge thank you to the many departments that have worked over the past several months to transfer their content from Legacy CookNet to the modern, more user-friendly version.
Open Enrollment for 2024–2025 Benefits is Aug. 5 to 23
It’s time to talk about benefit changes, look at your benefit needs and get ready to enroll. As we approach a new benefit year, our priority remains offering you rich, competitive benefit choices while enhancing your overall health and managing our collective health plan costs.
Click here to learn more about upcoming benefits fairs and in-person meetings. For more information and full plan details, see our 2024–2025 Benefits Guide, coming to your home soon.
Annual Education Due Thursday, Aug. 1
Have you completed your assigned annual competencies in ULearn? The deadline to complete them is Thursday, Aug. 1.
#ICYMI Performance & Development Peer Feedback
Employees are 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.
Last week we sent out the first edition of a new employee newsletter that will focus on all you need to know about our new Performance & Development system. We will continue to send regular updates as we aim to create a simpler and more consistent process for employee reviews, career planning, goal setting and more. We retired PACE after almost 30 years and are now using Workday to enable the components of P&D.
The Performance & Development Digest will be emailed every other Thursday. It will alternate weeks with the main Connect Newsletter, which is being sent biweekly on Thursdays. Please take a look at the new newsletter.
Mark Your Calendars: Well-being Month + Beat the Heat Treat Events in August
We’re recognizing August as Well-being Month and have a variety of classes, events and activities planned for you! You’ll also have the opportunity to participate in a number of self-care activities across the month for the chance to win a gift card by participating in Well-Bingo. Be sure to watch for more details about Well-being Month coming soon on Cook Children’s Internal Communication channels as well as the Team Experience CookNet Site.
Beat the Heat Treat
Let's get together for a moment of magic and connection to enjoy a treat in August! A number of in-person events are planned at several locations around the System in early August. Teams at off-site locations and fully remote teams are invited to hold a treat event on a date that works best for their teams. To support off-site and fully remote teams, leaders are able to use a special inter-department transfer of funds. See the link below for more details.
Share your treat with the system! Snap a photo of your or your team with your treat and submit toTeamExperience@cookchildrens.orgin August to be featured on CookNet. Questions about Beat the Heat Treat events? Email amy.smith@cookchildrens.org.
New Employee Medical Records System Coming Soon
Occupational Health will soon be moving to a new medical record system called Enterprise Health. The new system will replace the Occupational Health Management (OHM) system in coming weeks. Enterprise Health will be a more efficient tool and allow seamless collaboration between Occupational Health and our employees.
Staffwill be granted access to an employee portal, protected by single sign on, which will allow them to: • Review past immunization records. • Fill out Occupational Health-related questionnaires. • Schedule appointments (limited). • Submit injury reports. • Submit forms for return to work. • Review secure messages coming from Occupational Health.
Read more in the Connect Newsroom. Occupational Health will send out additional information, such as FAQs and educational materials to support use of the new system, in coming weeks.
Comfort Menu: Easing Pain, Fear and Anxiety for Our Young Patients
Getting a shot or experiencing a procedure that involves pain or discomfort isn’t any fun, especially for kids. But at Cook Children’s, we have resources to help reduce the pain and anxiety for both patients and families.
The Comfort Menu was developed to lessen pain and fear and make healthcare experiences such as shots, enema or NG tube placements less scary for both the patient and the family. The pain management tool includes several options available to help manage pain, such as offering a child an item for distraction, providing sugar water to infants, or using a Buzzy device, which uses ice and vibration to block pain signals to the brain.
Every Step Counts Toward Equity - Small Grants for the Journey to Equitable Care
Health care equity happens when everyday small moments come together and support families in big ways. We see this every day from our teams who work tirelessly, alongside families who trust us with our care. Sometimes, we come across bumps in the road and think, “With a little help, we could make this experience easier for all families.”
Every Step Counts Toward Equity is a new grant program for just that - to remove a barrier or break ground for a path toward equitable care. We hope you’ll consider applying for our inaugural grant-making cycle. The grants honor the spirit of local and international advocate, activist, and educator, Opal Lee. The power of her steps to Washington D.C. brought about big change, establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday, affecting the lives of millions of people.
Every Step Counts Toward Equity grants provide $500 - $2,500 mini-grants to cost centers for up to seven teams to support a project toward equitable care. The best ideas come from staff and families who support children every day! We know many of you have ideas that need just a lift to tackle a process change or support patients. Every Step Counts is a chance to fund your team idea!
Please feel free to reach out to Anu Partap, M.D., MPH, Physician Director, Health Equity Integration, or Paige Brown, CVA, Health Equity Integration Coordinator,via email at healthequity@cookchildrens.org with any questions. Applications are accepted via email on a rolling basis from August 9 to 16.
Due to the recent global technology outage, our EPIC upgrade rollout has been rescheduled to Aug. 2.
New Clinical Pathways
Three new clinical pathways have been approved this month and added to the Clinical Pathways website. Two additional clinical pathways with new interactive versions have also been renewed. Clinical pathways are essentially roadmaps for patient care. Each pathway is created by a team of experts who thoroughly research the latest medical evidence. They then outline a step-by-step approach to treating specific conditions that's tailored to the practices and equipment available at Cook Children's.
VIDEO: Thanks to Information Services for Acing Global Tech Outage
Employees across the System were so grateful for the incredible work by our Information Services team, who swung into action in the middle of the night to respond to the global technology outage on July 19.
Their knowledge and skills helped ensure that we could continue to serve our patient families, and employees, without major interruption. We asked leaders to provide some facts and figures that tell the story of their impact that day. We are so impressed!
Cheryl Petersen, CNO, Named Inaugural Member of the State’s Healthcare Workforce Task Force
Our own Cheryl Petersen, RN, MBA, NEA-BC, made history as one of the inaugural members of the “Healthcare Workforce Task Force” for the state of Texas.
Cheryl is the Chief Nursing Officer and Senior Vice President for Patient Services at Cook Children’s.
“I feel very honored to selected to be a part of this task force, but more than anything I look forward to making real change for our state’s nurses and healthcare workers,” Cheryl said. “We know how the shortage of the healthcare workforce places a real strain on the people who are providing the best care available to our patients and their families. We understand the need to address this shortage and identify strategies to address this issue.”
Meet Kaysey Pollan, MBA, CHSP, Director of Environmental Safety and Emergency Management
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.
If there is one thing Kaysey Pollan knows, it’s how to weather a storm. As the Director of Environmental Safety and Emergency Management at Cook Children’s, her phone is the first to ring when disaster strikes. Since 2008, she’s coordinated the emergency response operations of various municipalities and health care organizations. She joined Cook Children’s in 2013 as the Emergency Management Coordinator and rose through the ranks to a leadership role in 2017.
Volunteers Sew Comforting Pillows for Our Patients
Volunteers Dennis O'Reillyand Ray Bronner make special pillows for our patients as part of the Stitch-A-Wish program, in which supporters sew, crochet or knit gifts for patients.
They are meticulous about choosing fabrics that they think will brighten a child’s day and provide comfort. Unicorns, race cars, tigers and colorful llamas make their way across the assembly line as Dennis pins the fabric and Ray sews it all together.
The pillows can be a huge comfort to kids as they carry them around the hospital to testing and treatments. At the end of their stay, the children are able to take the pillows home with them.
Photos: Medical Center-Prosper's Fourth Floor is Now Open
Drumroll, please! We are excited to announce the opening of the new fourth floor at the Medical Center-Prosper. On July 1, we unveiled a brand-new space complete with 24 cozy beds, a fun-filled playroom for our young patients and their siblings, and a large staff lounge where our amazing team can recharge.
Congratulations to Cook Children's Peak Performers for June. These employees live our values at work, connecting and collaborating with one another to make a difference in the lives of our patient families. Thank you for all you do.
The Olympic Games get underway in Paris with the Opening Ceremony on July 26, and you are invited to wear red, white and blue, or your country's colors, to work from July 26 to 28. Also, we are all on Team Peaks, right? The Under the Peaks retail store has a special Olympics shirt available. It is located in the Dodson Specialty Building, by Registration, and is open from 9 a.m.– 5 p.m.
PHOTOS: Safety Preparation and Education
Prosper Holds Successful Disaster Drill
Cook Children’s Medical Center - Prosper conducted a drill to prepare to respond to the worst-case scenario – a mass casualty disaster. The drill involved participation of staff from across the medical center, local emergency responders, and volunteers wearing mock injuries. Drills like these are critical to ensuring that when the unexpected happens, we are ready to go.
CareShare Update for July 2024
The New CookNet homepage is now the default home page, meaning it is the first page your browser opens when you log in. A huge thank you to the many departments that have worked over the past several months to transfer their content from Legacy CookNet to the modern, more user-friendly version. 
Mark Your Calendars: Well-being Month + Beat the Heat Treat Events in August
Occupational Health will soon be moving to a new medical record system called Enterprise Health. The new system will replace the Occupational Health Management (OHM) system in coming weeks. Enterprise Health will be a more efficient tool and allow seamless collaboration between Occupational Health and our employees. 
Getting a shot or experiencing a procedure that involves pain or discomfort isn’t any fun, especially for kids. But at Cook Children’s, we have resources to help reduce the pain and anxiety for both patients and families. 
Epic Upgrade Rescheduled
VIDEO: Thanks to Information Services for Acing Global Tech Outage
Cheryl Petersen, CNO, Named Inaugural Member of the State’s Healthcare Workforce Task Force
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.
Photos: Medical Center-Prosper's Fourth Floor is Now Open
Celebrating Together: 2024 Olympic Games
