Cook Childrens Physician Network

Programs: Cook children's physician network (ccpn) is the largest pediatric multi-specialty physician group in north texas. The network includes more than 404 physicians and 265 mid-level providers in addition to thousands of other caring employees. During 2017, the provider count grew by 53, including 17 new net physicians. Patient families have access to 15 specialties via telemedicine: cardiology, care team, endocrinology, genetics/metabolic genetics, hematology/oncology, infectious diseases, neonatology, nephrology, neurology, neuropsychology, pediatric intensivists, psychology, rheumatology and urology. These specialists hosted 2,000 visits via telemedicine in 2017 offering immediate care and patient monitoring and saving many hours of travel for patient families. The network's physicians and specialists have offices in tarrant, denton and hood counties and provide a primary care home in economically disadvantaged areas where access to pediatric health care is difficult to obtain. The physician network has increased access to pediatric specialty care through outreach clinics in many communities in north, west, east and central texas. Each month, physicians travel to provide services in several markets that are not large enough to support full-time specialty care. Cook children's offers seven neighborhood clinics (five in fort worth, one in arlington and also one in richland hills) that offer well- and sick-child visits, dental care and provide vaccines. Staff speaks both english and spanish, and clinics accept most chip, medicaid and commercial insurance plans. The clinical staff is led by 23 total physicians, two dentists, and five advance practice providers. During 2017 ccpn increased telemedicine support to school based nurses in five local independent school districts (isd). Currently this encompasses 69 campuses. Sixty percent of children seen via telemedicine were able to remain in school. Ccpn anticipates it will support several more isd's in the upcoming fiscal year. A new electronic medical record system was implemented this year to allow patient families improved access to prior visit summaries, medication lists, lab results and appointment requests.