Cook Children Hospital

Interview with Ms. Cynthia Gonzales

As  Excutive Director of Cook Children Hospital Health care, tell us about a typical day?

On a typical day, it is very busy. We have a wonderful international team. We meet every morning and talk about the patients coming and the ones in the hospital. Every day is unique with its adventures; we never know what will happen each day, which make this job exiting.

What are your functions and responsibilities?

I deal with the work processes and follow up policies to accomplish like internal policies. Also I get to meet the families, working with my team to make sure that the families are happy that they understand what is going on with their procedures. It has been a busy period; the hospital was full for the last 3 months.

How old is the hospital?

The hospital is 102 years old.

How many rooms you have in this hospital and how many patients you can accommodate?

We have 455 beds and we are still growing by adding one more building and another parking garage.

It is the only pediatric hospital in North Texas in US. We’ve built 2 more clinics so we have over 60 clinics now.

What is the most common medical problem you deal with in the hospital?

From the ME, we deal mainly with neurology cases and also diabetes. Diabetes is a serious condition that may lead with time to several health problems like cardiac issues. From the US, we deal also with endocrinology cases.

What is the common age of the patients?

We see children of all ages. The hospital and the medical center take children from infants to 18 years old. From a neurology perspective, it just really depends, we meet epilepsy and final disorders cases and so it can be only from very small kids to teenagers. We had a 10 years old patient from the ME with some neurology problems and he undergone a deep brain stimulation surgery so he could walk again.

Do patients accept to do some kind of testimonials?

Yes they do. Our marketing department has a lot of testimonials.

So you deal with serious health problems?

Yes very serious and severe cases. And they come all the way from the ME, where they have one problem and we discover other ones.

What kind of decisions do you take in your position?

Our main goal as an international department is to make sure that the patients don’t have to worry about anything other than their child. We provide a very close arrangement and everyone is assigned with an international coordinator that speaks their language. We try to make the experience as smooth as possible for them.

What about the project of telemedicine?

In US, we’ve set the telemedicine platform. Our reach between the main campus and the farthest one is 8 hours away. But we have clinics all over north Texas so what we try to do is providing helicopters and airplanes in case of serious accident. The family has no need to drive and we use telemedicine and follow up on their appointments and they get home counseling. We are trying to bring that technology to the ME. I believe there are lots of regulations and policies in each country here before it can be fully embraced.

Do you facilitate the transportation inside USA?

We have contacted some air ambulances in case it is necessary. We work with the family’s insurance or the ministry of health for the fees.

What about your prices for inpatients, surgeries, outpatient …?

Prices are very competitive compared to other children’s hospital.

What are your future plans for Cook Hospital?

We are working with the ministries on telemedicine and we are also continuing our investment here in the Gulf. We are continuing  to grow here.

Do you have any marketing plans for the Gulf region in 2020?

We have to work with the ministry and hospitals first. There are a couple of pediatric conferences that we are going to participate in. we are also focusing on a digital marketing campaign. Everything we do in Texas, we are trying to extend here.

There is a newsletter that we want to publish that comes out once per month and it has the latest updates on everything.

Do you accept insurance?

Yes, we do and we work also with ministries.

Would you like to add anything?

For the population in the gulf, I would like to say sorry for everyone that cook hospital is a great destination hospital when needed. We want to make sure that the child is the center of everything; we believe a child’s life is sacred.