Awards and honors

Throughout its continual change, robust growth and almost 100 years of service one thing has remained constant – the promise of Cook Children's to improve the health of every child in our region.

To live up to this promise, Cook Children’s combines the art of caring with strong collaboration between multiple medical specialties, a commitment to evidence-based practice, providing leading clinical research and using the best available technology.

For its commitment to excellence, Cook Children’s has been recognized in many ways through awards, lists, certifications and honors including:

• In December, Cook Children's Medical Center is one of 65 hospitals from around the country named to The Leapfrog Group's Top Hospitals. We are one of seven children's hospitals and the only hospital in Texas on this prestigious list.
• In November, for the second year in a row, Cook Children's is named to The Dallas Morning News' "Top 100 Places to Work for 2010", making us the top healthcare employer in the DFW Metroplex. Out of the large companies on the list, we are the only non-profit in the top ten, the highest ranked Fort Worth-based company and ranked number 7 out of the twenty top large companies.
• In September, for the first time, Cook Children's is named to Modern Healthcare magazine's list of "Best Places to Work in Healthcare". Ranked number 83 on this national list of 100 outstanding healthcare employers, Cook Children's is the only exclusively pediatric health care system, one of six employers from Texas and ranked number 27 out of 38 large employers.
• The Cook Children’s Pediatric Surgery Center in Plano, Texas, was among only 22 winners nationwide to receive the 2010 APEX (Attributes for Patient Excellence) Quality Award, which is given by CTQ Solutions.
• The American Nurses Credentialing Center has honored Cook Children’s Medical Center with Magnet designation, a coveted award of excellence in nursing care. The recognition means Cook Children’s nursing services ranks in the top 5 percent of the nation’s hospitals.
• The medical center is home to the Cook Children’s Emergency Department and Urgent Care Center, the only EMS-designated pediatric trauma center in Tarrant County, Texas. More than 100,000 patients visit the Emergency Department and Urgent Care Center for treatment each year.
• Cook Children’s Medical Center has achieved Level II Trauma designation from the American College of Surgeons and the Department of State Health Services. With this distinction, Cook Children’s Medical Center is now only one of nine such facilities in the state of Texas.
• Cook Children’s has been named as the Best Local Medical Center by the readers of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in its annual Reader’s Choice Awards, published on Friday, July 30, 2010.
• Cook Children’s Medical Center is supported by one of the country’s largest pediatric transport programs, which brings more than 2,200 children to the medical center annually, primarily for critical care. Services include ambulance, helicopter and fixed-wing airplane transportation. Cook Children’s pediatric/neonatal transport team is one of only a few children’s transport teams in the world that is certified by the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Services (CAMTS).
• Cook Children’s was the only free-standing pediatric health care network in the country to make the 2010 Top 100 Integrated Healthcare Networks (IHN), which ranks the most highly integrated health care networks. Cook Children’s ranked No. 74.
• Cook Children’s Medical Center and Cook Children’s Home Health complies with the highest national standards for safety and quality of care to repeatedly receive the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval.
• In 2009, Medical Center President Nancy Cychol was named Regional Champion and Cook Children’s was named a Gold Medal Hospital for organ donation advocacy and program by the Department of Health and Human Services.
• Cook Children’s is the first independent pediatric hospital in the United States, and the only children’s hospital in Texas, to offer a comprehensive movement disorder program that includes deep brain stimulation (DBS).
• Cook Children’s houses the first dual intraoperative MRI (using the IMRIS technology) in the world. This innovative suite opened in February 2007 and increases the accuracy in complex neurosurgical procedures, such as brain tumors and epilepsy cases.
• Cook Children's Epilepsy Program, one of the leading and most comprehensive pediatric epilepsy programs in the country, is a dedicated Level 4 pediatric epilepsy center, the highest level defined by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers, and is capable of performing the most complex epilepsy related surgical procedures.
• The Cook Children’s Bone Marrow and Stem Cell Transplant and Apheresis Center is designated as a Foundation for Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) institution. At the time of the designation, Cook Children’s was one of 150 facilities in the United States and Canada that holds this accreditation.
• The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation selected Cook Children’s Medical Center as a 2009 Quality Care Award recipient.
• On Feb. 16, 2009, an 18- year- old girl received the 700th bone marrow transplant at Cook Children’s.
• In 2009, The Dallas Morning News' Top Places to Work list ranked Cook Children’s No. 23 overall and is the top ranked Fort Worth-based company, the only health care system listed in the top 40 and the highest ranked not-for-profit on the list.
• Cook Children’s records approximately one million patient encounters each year through its medical center, specialty clinics, neighborhood clinics, physician offices, outpatient settings and home care.
• Cook Children’s was the first pediatric hospital in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to offer whole-body hypothermia treatment.

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