Global Health Services: Help and Hope at Cook Children’s for Families Worldwide
Cook Children’s Global Health Services (GHS) steps in to make the journey easier when an international family seeks care for their child’s complex medical condition.
That assistance includes help with insurance approval, scheduling appointments, language translation and lodging in Fort Worth. It’s practical support for tasks such as retrieving and sending medical records and navigating transportation.
Leading specialties that attract international patients to Cook Children’s include cardiovascular surgery, endocrinology, gastroenterology, hematology and oncology, neurology and neurosurgery, and orthopedics.
Awareness of Cook Children’s has grown in part due to events organized by Monica Martina, M.D. and Ana Paula Cuevas-Rivas, M.D. in their role as liaisons for Cook Children’s business development in Latin American countries. Several specialists from Cook Children’s have presented their work in medical conferences around the world, offering their expertise and support.
Relationships are also being built in the Middle East. A representative based in Dubai works in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Oman on behalf of Cook Children’s. Bassima Dalle facilitates conferences, meetings and speaker engagements between dignitaries in the Middle East and Cook Children’s specialists. Patients have come to Cook Children’s from Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Kuwait and Pakistan.
Patients have also traveled to Cook Children’s from European countries -- Germany, Greece, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Romania and Hungary – as well as many countries in Latin America.
In Fort Worth, meanwhile, pediatricians from Mexico travel to Cook Children’s for an immersive academic experience sponsored by HiPP Organic, an infant formula company. These gatherings give small groups of Mexican pediatricians a chance to form trusted relationships with their counterparts at Cook Children’s.
Cook Children’s pediatric gastroenterologist Clifton Huang, M.D. is one of what the GHS staff calls their champion physicians. Dr. Huang has tremendous respect for his colleagues abroad and appreciation for their collaboration. Before accepting an international patient, GHS works to ensure that Cook Children’s can offer a solution that isn’t available in their own country.
Access to molecular imaging puts Cook Children’s at the forefront of technology, Dr. Huang said. Advantages include fewer procedures, quicker answers and personalized therapy. “These are the things we are doing at Cook Children’s.”
What to Expect
Sometimes the first contact starts when a physician refers their patient to Cook Children’s. Sometimes the parents reach out directly. After the case is reviewed by GHS and accepted by a Cook Children’s physician, the family receives a plan of care.
The GHS team works to overcome barriers. They handle the approvals from the insurance or embassy, and if neither is involved, GHS provides a cost estimate to the family. GHS also provides guidance on visas when needed.
Here’s what else international families can expect from GHS:
Information, resources and a checklist of items to bring, such as a list of prescriptions
A clinical coordinator assigned to your family as a main point of contact
Appointments with all specialties your child needs
Translation services available in Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, Portuguese, Italian and French
Communication with your primary physician for seamless continuation of care
As a clinical coordinator for GHS, Eliza Head serves as a dedicated patient advocate – a vital bridge between international families and our clinical teams – and coordinates operational logistics. Clinical coordinators manage the entire continuum of care for international families, not only for Cook Children’s, but with their home country providers too.
“It’s a full VIP concierge service for our international patients,” Eliza said. “We take them under our wing.”
Eliza accompanies her families to their appointments at the Fort Worth medical center. Because she is bilingual and a certified medical interpreter, Spanish-speaking families can rely on her for accurate translation. She shows families around the medical center, including the Family Health Library.
Eliza also prepares continuing education materials to send home after the visit. With parental consent, GHS shares the child’s records with the referring physician in their home country.
Hospitality matters too. International patients visit Build-a-Bear, courtesy of GHS, to create a special keepsake. GHS also recommends a list of area attractions to see.
It’s rewarding, Eliza says, to help handle logistics so that parents can focus on their child. She pointed out the joy of seeing a patient with cerebral palsy take their first steps with a gait trainer. “We’re changing lives, and that’s what’s awesome.”
At Cook Children’s, we understand you want the best for your child, and we’re here to help. As a leader in specialized pediatric care and innovative therapies, we host children with complex needs from around the United States and the world. We designed our Global Health Services program to make international visits as easy and stress-free as possible. To learn more, please call 01-682-303-1376.
