Cook Children's Health Foundation

Cook Children's is more than a health care system: we strive to be an extension of your family, growing with your child from their first steps to adulthood. By collaborating to deliver on our Promise-to improve the well-being of every child in our care and our communities, we connect the dots for our patients. Between primary and specialty. Between home and medical home. Between short-term care and long-term health. Based in Fort Worth, Texas, we're 8,000+ dedicated team members strong, passionately caring for over 1.5 million patient encounters each year. Our integrated, not-for-profit organization spans two medical centers, two surgery centers, a physician network, home health services and a health plan. It also includes the Child Study Center at Cook Children's, Cook Children's Health Services Inc., and Cook Children's Health Foundation. Seventy five primary, specialty and urgent care locations provide numerous access points to life-saving pediatric care that's family-centered and built on leading technology, collaboration, safety and a best-in-class patient experience. And our impact extends beyond the borders of Texas. We proudly treat children from virtually every state in the nation and 32 countries. By seeing the world through the eyes of children and their families from all backgrounds, we're able to shape health care suited to them: connected by kindness, imagination and respect-with an extra dose of magical wonder. Cook Children's Health Foundation Donations to Cook Children's Health Foundation allow us to care for our families when and how they need us. Sometimes that's by providing new technology or equipment, funding research trials, helping a family with prescription medication costs or by giving a parent a clean change of clothes during an unexpected stay. Our Health Foundation helps connect the dots between those who want to help and the needs of our patients. Many gifts fund a number of vital programs each year, these three areas highlight perfectly how the support we receive from our communities helps create the magical experiences that Cook Children's is known for. Funding Care Close to Home Cook Children's believes all children deserve access to health care, no matter their zip code. Seven community-based Neighborhood Health Centers (NHC) give families a home for primary medical care close to where they live, work and attend school. The free-standing pediatric clinics are located in low-income neighborhoods identified as having inadequate access to primary care for children. About 91% of NHC patients are Medicaid beneficiaries. Neighborhood Health Centers are staffed with doctors and other clinical support staff that provide at-risk children high-quality, comprehensive and culturally sensitive medical services from birth through their teen years, including well-child exams, vaccines, sick visits, nutrition, counseling, speech language intake services, and behavioral health evaluations. If a child has a chronic illness, the NHC provides a medical home that will coordinate complex care among other Cook Children's providers. If not for the NHCs, many of these families would turn to the emergency department (ED) for primary care at a cost much higher than a typical clinic visit. Neighborhood Health Centers are helping kids all across Cook Children's service area lead healthier, more productive lives. In FY23, the NHCs conducted 118,358 patient visits. Each year the clinics lose a combined $8.9 million due to the high number of Medicaid beneficiaries. Philanthropic funds through the Health Foundation help fill these financial gaps so that Cook Children's can deliver on its Promise to improve the well-being of every child regardless of their family's ability to pay. The generosity of Health Foundation donors helps sustain NHC services and gives all children the health care they deserve. Connected Care Thanks to a generous gift in 2022 from the Jane and John Justin Foundation, children diagnosed with disorders of the nervous system have an easier journey through the health care system at the new Jane and John Justin Institute for Mind Health, which opened in October 2023. Disorders of the brain, spinal cord and nerves often require a child to visit a number of different specialists. Coordinating multiple appointments with multiple providers can be difficult and take a significant amount of time, creating a barrier to treatment for some families. The Justin Institute combines nine commonly overlapping neuro-related specialties under one roof to provide easily accessible, well-coordinated and comprehensive care for children with nervous system disorders. The combination of specialties is about more than convenience. A central location and structure fosters increased communication and collaboration across departments. For patients, this translates to better care. In FY23, additional donor funding was received to support the Justin Institute and the many programs and services it delivers to children in North Texas and beyond. Supporting New Discoveries Cook Children's is home to many of the best and brightest minds in pediatric health care. In addition to patient care, a number of our physicians conduct research that leads to new discoveries in medicine and advancements in patient care. The Endowed Chair program recognizes the great work of our innovative physicians who are advancing pediatric care along with Cook Children's research reputation. It allows physicians to be compensated for their time as they develop programs, participate in clinical research, write for national publications, make presentations on a national level and further elevate the regional, national and global prominence of their work. More importantly, it connects Cook Children's patients with groundbreaking research, novel therapies and state-of-the-art technologies that could significantly impact their care and health outcomes. Thanks to a generous gift in FY23 to our Endowed Chair program, our physicians are poised to provide significant research for the health and well-being of not only our patients, but children all across the globe.