Connect Newsletter (March 6, 2025)

Your Voice Matters! Listening to You Through the Employee Survey

This April, we invite you to share your feedback about your work experience through the 2025 Employee Voice Survey. The system survey will be open for the entire month of April to give everyone plenty of time to complete it.

Bringing everyone together

For the first time ever, the patient, safety and quality, nursing excellence, physician and APPs, and team experience groups will work together on a combined system survey. By surveying our system, we can connect the dots between what we are doing well, and what we can improve upon. Your feedback on previous surveys has helped us to focus in on system priorities and update policies and benefits to improve your work experience.

Sharing is caring, but confidentiality is key

Sharing your feedback on the survey helps us understand what’s most important to you and how we can support you so you can be your best self. Your feedback is confidential. Our third party survey vendor, Press Ganey, collects and aggregates your feedback through the survey but they only share information that helps us learn more about your experience. They don’t share data that we can track to specific individuals. This helps us find opportunities to take targeted action to improve your work experience as well as how we care for patients, members and families.

Survey runs April 1 to April 30

On April 1 you’ll receive an email from Press Ganey inviting you to take the survey. With the combined survey it will take approximately 10-12 minutes to share your feedback. You’ll have the whole month of April to complete the survey. You can start and stop, then return to finish and submit it.

Our system survey response rate goal is 65% but we hope to hear from all of you. We’ll keep you updated regularly on the CookNet scroll about survey participation and share reminders in the Connect Newsletter. Press Ganey will also send a reminder. Don’t forget - your voice matters!

Measles Resource For You

Important Information for Cook Children's Employees, Physicians, Clinicians and our Patient Families:

We want to provide you with the latest, most updated information on measles. You can find helpful materials on our resource page.

For the Clinical Education page, please click here. We ask that all clinical staff read this important section that includes important Isolation Precautions from Policy Number IN 16.

Thank you for all you do to keep our Promise and to be there for our patients, their families and each other. 

NOTE: This is an ever-evolving situation. As information changes, we will update you here and on our website at cookchildrens.org.

Watch Now: An Interview with Mr. Merrill

We covered a lot of ground in our most recent System Collaboration and Virtual Town Hall Meeting, filmed on Feb. 13, 2025, at Cook Children’s Medical Center – Prosper. 

A true highlight of the day was a conversation with Rick Merrill, Cook Children's President and CEO. We appreciate the time that Mr. Merrill gave us during this historic milestone in Prosper. Mr. Merrill covers a variety of topics during this 20-minute conversation including our Health Plan, Cook Children's expansion plans, our emphasis on research, our culture and much more.  Please take some time to watch this in-depth interview conducted by Laura Van Hoosier, VP, Public Relations and Corporate Communications.

Important Note: This confidential communication is for Cook Children's employees only and should not be shared outside of our organization. 

Happy Employee Appreciation Day

Friday March 7, is national Employee Appreciation Day. We want to thank you for all you do to embody our values and to elevate the patient, safety, and team experiences at Cook Children’s. For that, we express our utmost gratitude to you – we value your effort, dedication and the unique contribution you make in service of our Promise.

At Cook Children’s, we believe in the power of recognition to lift us up and help us to feel seen, heard, respected, and valued. Recognition fosters personal and professional well-being. We encourage you to mark your calendars for March 7 to recognize your colleagues and leaders who make a difference in your work each day and share some appreciation with them. Let’s spread a positive wave of appreciation across the System.           

Want some help expressing yourself? Here’s a great guide: Recognition Tips and Tools to Acknowledge Others and Express Appreciation.pdf (cookchildrens.org)

Share our Cook Children’s Values

• Message of appreciation: Extend thanks, warm wishes and gratitude to your team, colleagues and leaders
• Get together: schedule some time that day or week to connect during rounding, huddles, or virtual coffee break
• Get creative on a token of appreciation or an activity for the team: healthy snacks or a favorite team treat, dress up day, bulletin board to share appreciation notes

Team Shout-Outs

We love to see your team shout-outs and photos. Last year we received more than two dozen heartfelt messages from around the System. Email your recognition messages and photos to teamexperience@cookchildrens.org now through March 10. Those will be collected and shared on in the Connect Newsletter and Team Experience site the following week.

Stay Connected

Please make plans to participate in our special events throughout 2025 -- to celebrate each other and the amazing teamwork of the more than10,000 people who serve our Pinky Promise every day across Cook Children’s, from the medical centers in Fort Worth and Prosper to the neighborhood clinics, home health services, the health plan and beyond.

• Upcoming highlights include:
• Service awards program & dinner in April
• Employee appreciation month in May: campus cookouts & Texas Rangers games
• Well-being month in August
• Discounted tickets to the State Fair of Texas in September
• Halloween Hoopla in October
• Family day at Six Flags in November
• Jingle Mingle in December

Visit the Team Experience site to learn more about all the upcoming events and awards programs planned for 2025. On the main page is the 2025 Events Calendar (scroll down to the bottom). This calendar includes national holidays, professional recognition days/weeks, system employee events & more. Be sure to bookmark the page as we’ll continue to update the calendar as more 2025 event dates are finalized.

Happy Employee Appreciation Day!

Great 10 Nurse: Nominate Someone Today 

Save the date for Nurses' Week, May 5-9. During Nurses' Week, we will announce our Great 10 nurses. The Cook Children's Great 10 Nurses celebration is a way to recognize nurses for being role models, leaders, community servants, compassionate caregivers and significant contributors to the nursing profession. Every year we celebrate 10 of our nurses who demonstrate excellence in the art and science of nursing. 

To nominate a nurse for the Cook Children's Great 10, please click the QR Code below and submit the nomination form by Friday, April 5. Find out more about the nomination process including the five categories the nomination letters should contain. 

Untold: Scott Perry, M.D.

In this episode of Untold: The Stories of Cook Children's, we dive into the fascinating world of pediatric neurology with the Head of Neurosciences, M. Scott Perry, M.D. From childhood dreams of becoming an astronaut to unraveling the mysteries of the brain, Dr. Perry shares his personal journey into medicine, his passion for understanding epilepsy, and how storytelling plays a crucial role in diagnosing and treating patients.

Discover how rare genetic epilepsies led him to international recognition, why Cook Children's stood out as his perfect home, and how his dedication to research is transforming the future of neurological care. Plus, we explore how art and neuroscience intersect in a way that heals, inspires, and brings the community together.

Join us for a powerful conversation about innovation, perseverance, and the human connection behind medicine.

Click here to watch the interview or listen wherever you get your favorite Podcasts.

Remembering Kitty: The Death of One of our Beloved Facility Dogs

It is with heavy hearts that we share the sad news of the death of our beloved Kitty.  She died peacefully at home on Saturday, surrounded by her family. Kitty was 11 years old and began her career at Cook Children's on April 27, 2015, alongside her cousin Journey. 

Kitty worked on the Child Advocacy Resource and Evaluation (CARE) team with Jamye Coffman, M.D., Elizabeth Peeler, D.O., Stacy Starkes, and Lorie Palacios. Although she retired from working with patients a few months ago, Kitty continued to provide unwavering support to her CARE team colleagues.

Kitty was known for her loyalty, nurturing spirit, and grounded nature. She had an incredible ability to connect with people, always knowing who needed her attention, whether child or adult. Kitty's favorite things included cuddling in the laps of her loved ones, morning walks with her mom, receiving attention from anyone and everyone, and, of course, squirrels. She was affectionately known as the "squirrel stalker" and amassed a collection of squirrel stuffies over the years. Kitty's disdain for dressing up for photo shoots was evident in the hilarious facial expressions she often made while in costume.

Kitty Sue, you will be deeply missed. You left an amazing legacy through your work and the impact you had on everyone you met. Thank you for always being true to yourself and loving us as much as we loved you.

COVID-19 Heroes and Memorial Day

Beginning in 2024, every March 4 in Texas will be observed as “COVID-19 Heroes and Memorial Day.” This day establishes a uniform statewide date to honor and recognize the contributions and sacrifices of Texans who played crucial roles during the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes health care professionals, first responders, essential workers, and others who worked tirelessly to support their communities during these challenging times. It is also a time to memorialize the almost 95,000 people in Texas who have lost their lives to COVID-19 since March 4, 2020 – the date the disease was first diagnosed in Texas.

Five years later, we reflect on all that has occurred and changed since March 4, 2020. We asked Cook Children’s employees to reflect on their experiences during the COVID-19 lockdown and how they experienced growth, loss, and change.

Sign Up for The Blast Today

We hope to see you at The Blast on March 29. at Panther Island Pavilion.

The Blast is Cook Children’s annual walk benefiting the Hematology and Oncology Center. But The Blast is more than just a walk. It is a chance to show every child battling cancer that their friends, neighbors, and the whole team at Cook Children’s are right beside them every step of the way.

Join teams like More Than Four, 5 North Tower’s night shift team. They believe that the patients they care for deserve more than the4% of federal research funding allocated for childhood cancer and are joining forces to raise essentials funds for more research, treatments and clinical trials right here at Cook Children’s.

Will your department walk alongside our patients too?

Sign up now at www.blastwalk.org and use code CCHCS10 to save $10 off your registration. Employees are also invited to join our System-wide walk team.

Participate in Patient Safety Awareness Week Activities March 10-14

Championed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), Patient Safety Awareness Week (PSAW)is a worldwide annual event meant to promote education and awareness around patient safety in the health care field. Though much work has been done to improve health care outcomes throughout the world, medical harm unfortunately remains a leading cause of death worldwide. Because of this reality, IHI continues its work to prevent harm in this setting while also recognizing the progress already made. The Center for Patient Safety (CPS) echoes this recognition in their chosen theme for PSAW 2025: “Moving the Needle.” Click HERE to read more about their focus on transforming awareness into action for all members of the health care team. 

What about Cook Children’s? Here, our Promise is our “why.” Patient Safety Awareness Week activities remind us of one of our core values and our own call to action: “Safety first, every time.” You can expect a special Pediatric Grand Rounds presentation, a Quality Quick Topic presentation, a virtual contest, and more. We not only want the week to be educational, but as IHI reminds us, a way to celebrate the work you already do to ensure a safe experience. You can click HERE to view the 2025 PSAW page on CookNet to stay up-to-date with all the activities that are planned.