Connect Newsletter (May 22, 2025)

Thank you to all of our employees for engaging with our Connect Newsletter.  We know you're busy, so we're trying something new next month! We're moving to a twice-a-week newsletter format with shorter content and links you can read at your convenience. We are hopeful this will allow us to spread even more news across our system.

Have a story idea or news to share? Please view our SharePoint site for more information on how to send an Internal Communications request. We will continue to engage, inform and connect with you, and, as always, we welcome your feedback! 

Use Your Voice to Help Us #SaveCookChildrensHealthPlan

You may have noticed something new on our Fort Worth medical campus - 125 life-sized child cutouts located outside the Dodson Specialty building on the green space near the roundabout and Peaks. Each cutout represents 1,000 Cook Children’s Health Plan Members who may be forced to switch their health plan if the Texas Legislature doesn’t act soon. Lawmakers have until June 2, to take action and allow Cook Children’s to remain a Medicaid provider in Texas.

ACTION! You can show your support by sharing a photo of the display on your social media pages by tagging Cook Children's and sharing the hashtags #savecookchildrenshealthplan or #SaveCCHP. 

To learn more, click here. 

Care Around the Corner: Cook Children's Opens New Neighborhood Health Center

This week, we opened the Cook Children's Neighborhood Health Center, provided by the Happy Davis Foundation and the Texas Rangers at 6828 Manhattan Boulevard in east Fort Worth. It is Cook Children's eighth Neighborhood Health Center (NHC), and all of them are located in areas throughout Tarrant County where access to care is most needed. 

These centers provide primary health care, well-being services and more to families living in areas where residents are met with multiple barriers to accessing care, including limited transportation, food insecurity, language or literacy barriers, and a lack of awareness of available resources. 

Plese click here to read our full report. 

Welcoming the New Las Vegas Trail Neighborhood Health Center

Take a sneak peek at the new Las Vegas Trail Neighborhood Health Center, a space designed with the emotional safety and well-being of our patients and families at its heart. The center will open in July!

Click here to view photos of the new artwork on the campus. 

This mural was created and sketched out by artist Calina Mishay, and area children and neighbors painted it and made it a reality! 

IMPORTANT: Construction Updates

As we begin building the new West Tower, impacts on local roads and thoroughfares are to be expected. To ensure a smooth journey, it is highly recommended to plan ahead for your commute and allow extra time to reach your destination and report for your shift.

To ensure you are up-to-date on the most current traffic updates, please bookmark this page. It will be updated often and will include major street closures, pedestrian sidewalk closures and any potential reroutes.

For more general information on the growth and development across the system, visit our "We're Growing” page.

IV Fluid Supply Update: Return to Normal Operations

We have an important update regarding our IV fluid supply: Both Supply Chain and Pharmacy confirm we are no longer in a critical state with the majority of our fluids post-hurricane.

This means we can now remove the disaster status designation for IV fluids and return to line and fluid changes per policy.

While Dianeal remains a concern, its management will continue outside of our usual conservation strategies.

Remember, while we're in a much better place, always consider the best fluid conservation strategy for our patients.

Employee Relations POPUP!!

Get Ready, Get Ready, Get Ready to meet your Employee Relations Team!

POPUPs are designed to IMPACT (Interactive Meetings Promoting Accountability, Communication and Trust) between “YOU” and human resources. We know your demanding schedules don’t always allow you to give us a call or send an email to ask your questions, therefore, we’re coming to you! This is your opportunity to engage in 1-on-1 private conversations with human resources, ask questions and spin the wheel to win Cook Children's giveaways! Below is a list of our upcoming POPUPs. Don’t worry if you don’t see your location, we are working with your leaders to confirm a date. See you soon!

• Southlake Urgent Care – June 4
• Dodson – June 25
• Medical Center - Fort Worth – July 9
• Burleson Primary Care – Aug. 28

Update on Attendance Point Expiration

We have an important update regarding how attendance points expire. This change aims to provide more clarity and consistency.

Here's what you need to know:

• Any attendance points you received prior to May 18, 2025, will still be forgiven at their original 6-month expiration date.
• For attendance points received on or after May 18, 2025, they will now be forgiven on a 12-month rolling calendar year basis. This means these points will expire 12 months from the date they were incurred.

Join us for an Employees Care Event

Temperatures are rising and a treat is headed your way!  Join us for an Employees Care Coke float thank you event. We want to celebrate and express our gratitude to YOU, our current Employees Care donors. Find dates and locations below:

Wednesday, June 4
12-1:30 p.m.
Prosper Medical Center
Classroom 1621 & 1622

Wednesday, June 11
2 - 3:30 p.m.
Fort Worth Medical Center – Atrium

Friday, June 13
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Child Study Center – Maddox Room

Wednesday, June 18
12 - 1:30 p.m.
Calmont – 3rd Floor Break Room

Tuesday, June 24
7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
Night shift
Fort Worth Medical Center – Atrium

Haven't signed up to be an Employees Care donor yet? Come be a part of something big! 

Donors who haven't received your t-shirt? We'll have it ready for you

Cook Children's PR Team Wins Prestigious Silver Anvil Award of Excellence for Health Plan Campaign

Cook Children’s Public Relations team, the storytellers behind sharing your moments of magic and the countless connections with our patients and families, brought home a Silver Anvil Award of Excellence from the Public Relations Society of America last week.

The award was in the Public Affairs category for our "Saving Cook Children's Health Plan" campaign. The award represents the highest standards in public relations. 

To read more about the campaign and how you can continue sharing our Health Plan content, click here. 

New Badges: What You Need to Know

Get ready for a fresh look and improved functionality with our exciting new employee badges! This isn't just a cosmetic update; it's a thoughtful redesign driven by your feedback and a commitment to making things clearer and more secure for everyone – especially for our patients and their families. More information to come about when we will transition to our new badges. 

For more information visit our Connect Newsroom page. 

May is the Month We Celebrate You!

May is Employee Appreciation Month, and we’re excited to celebrate the incredible connection we share no matter where you are located. Throughout the month, we encourage you to take part in campus cookouts, enjoy special discount offers, and join in the spirit of appreciation!

Take a second to view your photos celebrating Employee Appreciation Month!

Please send other photos of your celebrations to teamexperience@cookchildrens.org. We’ll feature them on CookNet to help us all stay connected and inspired.

Thank you for the vital role you play every day. We look forward to seeing your celebrations and continuing to build connections across Cook Children’s!

Celebrate National Medical Coder Day

May 23 is dedicated to recognizing the hard work, dedication and expertise of medical coders. These professionals play a vital role in the health care system by analyzing and classifying medical data, ensuring accurate documentation for billing, compliance, and research. Their work supports health care providers, insurance companies, and government agencies in improving the health care management system. Please join us in celebrating each of these individuals and the integral role they play at Cook Children’s!

Cook Children's Patients Putt Like Pros at Bed Pan Open 2025

Playful themes brought smiles to patients' faces at the Bed Pan Open miniature golf tournament held May 20 in the Atrium of Cook Children's Medical Center - Fort Worth.

Patients and families putted their way through four whimsical courses designed by teams from Volunteer Services, Child Life, the Linbeck Group and the PGA TOUR Superstore. 

Adding to the excitement were four professional golfers from the Charles Schwab Challenge, which is happening this week at The Colonial Country Club. PGA players Tom Hoge, Matt Wallace, Dylan Wu and Jackson Suber were on hand to meet patients and bring some cheering to the competition.

Click here to view our video and photo gallery of this tee-rific event! 

Celebrating Hospital Week at Cook Children's - Prosper

What an incredible Hospital Week in Prosper! We want to extend a massive thank you to every single one of our dedicated employees for your hard work, commitment, and compassionate care. 

Your unwavering dedication to our patients and families, day in and day out, does not go unnoticed. Thank you for your tireless efforts, your positive attitudes, and for making Prosper such a special place to work and to heal. We are so grateful for each and every one of you!

To see how everyone celebrated, click here!

Fidelity Provides Tips for Repaying Student Loans

Join the experts from Fidelity for a webinar called “Get a Handle on Your Current Student Loan Debt” at 11am on Thursday, June 5. The webinar will offer information about different approaches to paying off your student loans.

Register Here

You’ll earn 100 Personify Health Points as an added benefit of participating. Points may be cashed in for gift cards through the Cook Children’s employee wellness program.

Share Your Content with Us!

Do you have any tips, ideas or content you would like us to know about? We want to hear from you! Please view our SharePoint site and email us at InternalCommunications@cookchildrens.org. 

To find more content about our employees and news you need to know, bookmark our Connect Newsroom website. 

We hope everyone has a safe Memorial Day Weekend.