OUR PROMISE: Knowing that every child’s life is sacred, it is the promise of Cook Children’s to improve the health of every child in our region through the prevention and treatment of illness, disease and injury.

June 2010 | Issue 154

Who are our ‘Peak Performers’?This spring Cook Children’s launched Peak Performer, an exciting new system-wide recognition

program, with one purpose – to celebrate monthly those amongst us that embody excellence in quality, safety and service.

Based upon the hundreds of nominees submitted by peers and leaders, Cook Children’s has a wealth of Peak Performers working side-by-side with us every day and using our Promise and values as the foundation for decisions and care. Join us in congratulating the following Peak Performer winners:

fo us

These deserving winners have shown they are what is great about Cook Children’s and will be honored at a special reception in June for their accomplishment. As a reminder, nominees for Peak Performer are always being accepted. Visit CookNet today to nominate the Peak Performers around you.

Medical Center (April)Sharon Evans, Injury Prevention Outreach

Coordinator, Trauma ServicesStephanie Soto, Diet Office Associate, Food &

Nutrition ServicesKimberly Williams, Nurse Manager, 4 Pavilion

Medical Center (May)Archer Perry, Dietary AidLan Dao, Pharmacist

Cook Children’s Physician Network (April)Kara Webb, Forest Park Pediatric ClinicEmma Price, Clinical Coordinator, CCPN

HurstDeanna Guay, LVN/Clinic Coordinator,

Neighborhood Clinic

Cook Children’s Physician Network (May)Jinny Millican, Multi-Specialty LVN

Health Plan (May)Beatriz Ruiz, Member Service Manager Kathy Roman, Manager Regulatory

Compliance

Health Care System (April)Suzanne Seider, Recruiter, Human ResourcesApollo Harden, Webmaster, Marketing &

CommunicationsMelinda Meacham, Sr. Clinical Research

Coordinator, Research Operations

Health Care System (May) Jackie Gingerich, Manager Concierge/Travel

Services

Home Health (April)John Guzman, Orthotics & Prosthetics

TechnicianLori Geary, Clinical and Safety Educator

Congratulations to Cook Children’s Pulmonology For the third year in a row, Cook Children’s Pulmonology has ranked on the U.S.News & World

Report’s list of the “Best Children’s Hospitals,” earning its spot at number 29. Congratulations to all who make this department an indespensable and caring place for our patients.

Just like the excellence in quality heralded for our Peak Performers, one particular department at Cook Children’s is a prime example of how quality matters here – NICU. At right, you can see the stellar performance of this patient care area.

As you can see, the Cook Children’s employees caring for our smallest patients, who are very medically fragile, have worked hard to reduce the number of Blood Stream Infections in the NICU. Not only have the numbers dropped dramatically, our NICU is currently with zero infections per 1,000

central line days as of February and below the Child Health Corporation of America (CHCA) median.

This type of performance and adherence to putting our patients’ safety first is a testament to this strong team’s shared commitment to how it works together.

Thank you to the dedicated NICU staff that puts our promise into action and leads by example.

You can also review the latest information on Cook Children’s current performance in a wide range of patient safety initiatives on the Quality Matters site on CookNet. These figures have been updated to reflect the latest numbers (as of April 2010). See how you and your peers are doing.

‘Quality matters’ in our NICU

It is the pleasure of Cook Children’s to recognize the twelve students selected as this year’s Presidents’ Scholarship awardees.

On Thursday, June 3, these exceptional students were the guests of honor at a special ceremony and reception hosted by Presidents Rick Merrill, Nancy Cychol, Britt Nelson, M.D., Mike Simmons and David Lamkin and the Presidents’ Scholarship Selection Committee.

Join us in one more round of applause for these students, their accomplishments and their bright futures.

Introducing the 2010 Presidents’ Scholarship winners

One such bonding experience is the annual NICU reunion: (l to r) Tiffany Chambers, Samantha Crissey, Brandon Hoff, Denis Greer, Kyle Hoff, Tammy Hoff, Roger Alphin, Taylor

Spencer, Candi Alphin, Sheralyn Hartline, Jace Walker, Cathe Wooley and Barbara Greer

From l to r: Steven Owens, John Cocjin, Jennifer Schmidt, Zoe Champagne, Joel Russell, Alex Schmidt, Carissa Kelley, Molly Pearson and Madison Webb. Not pictured: Emily Martin, Margaret Martin and

Emily Williams

The next Employee Blood and Bone Marrow Drive will be held Thursday, June 10, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Decker Board Room.

Please plan ahead to stop by and help give life-saving blood.