Only the - Cook Children's

from the desk of rick w. merrill, president and ceo
A message to our donors
Community and family are two words that are at the core of our promise to improve the health of every child in our
region. As such, we continue to look for ways to expand our services to respond to the ever-changing, ever-growing needs
in the community.
Through the addition of a fifth neighborhood clinic, we are offering yet another medical home option to reach more
underserved children. And with the dedication of the new Joe K. Pace Hangar at Meacham Airport, we celebrated a
family’s deep commitment to Cook Children’s by providing our Teddy Bear Transport team with a new base of operations;
augmenting their ability to respond to emergent calls for help from around the region. And we are bringing Cook Children’s
services close to home for the families of Southlake, Grapevine and Colleyville with our urgent care and pediatric specialties
center now located in Southlake.
As for our medical center campus, it is with great anticipation that we look forward to the opening of our new North
inpatient tower later this summer. We are eager to unveil the many important family-friendly amenities such as the 106
private single rooms in our neonatal intensive care unit, 26 transitional care and rehabilitation rooms, a new cancer center
and heliport. As you read this issue, you’ll also learn about the exciting new Woman’s Board Learning Center that was
generously funded to help meet the broad educational needs of our
patients and about the wonderful new addition of our Build-A-Bear
Workshop ® that will no doubt bring comfort and a special new friend
to so many of our patients.
When you visit our campus, we hope you will recognize that
it was designed with our families in mind. One example is our
families and patients from our Youth Advisory Council. Their
unique insights have helped us to continue to add programs and
services to serve our patient families and our community now and
for years to come.
Of course, none of this could happen without the support of
our family of donors. Thank you for sharing our commitment to
making our community the best place in the country to raise a
child.
Sincerely,
Rick W. Merrill
President and CEO,
Cook Children’s Health Care System
2 Children’s Promise | The magazine of Cook Children’s