FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas pediatric health system’s 10-year expansion plan includes building a new 700,000-square-foot tower at its flagship campus in Fort Worth.
Cook Children’s Health System said the new tower, which will reportedly be built at the intersection of Eighth Avenue and Cooper Street, will add 37 beds to Cook Children’s neonatal intensive care unit.
The new tower also allows for an expansion and redesign of the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and increased capacity for hematology/oncology services and research, as well as more operating rooms and imaging services.
“We have capacity issues in these areas we’re expanding,” said Cook Children’s Medical Center President Stan Davis. “We, unfortunately, from time to time have had to divert kids to other places as far away as San Antonio, Oklahoma and Louisiana. We feel like we provide the best care possible for the kids in our community. In order to do that, we need to have the facilities and the accommodations to keep kids here and close to their home.”
The PICU, which Cook Children’s said can see between 500 and 600 patients in a single day during the peak of flu season (fall and winter), will also get more bed space.
“The medical center’s current 20-year-old ward-style PICU, where nothing more than a curtain separates patient beds, is no longer conducive to the type of experience Cook Children’s believes in giving patients and families,” plans shared by Cook Children’s stated.
The redesigned PICU will feature 56 private rooms.
“One thing that always gets asked of me is ‘Are we building for the future?’ Yes, we are,” said Spencer Seals, Cook Children’s vice president of Construction and Real Estate. “While this tower is over 700,000 square-feet, we have about 160,000 square-feet of shell space. What that means is, as we’re going through the programming of everything that has to go in this tower for this campus, we want to make sure that we have the ability to continue to expand services and continue to serve that growing population in Fort Worth.”
A spokesperson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that construction is expected to start at the end of 2025. It’s unclear how much the project will cost.
Cook Children’s is the predominant medical care provider for children in Tarrant County. More than 80% of children who need inpatient care in Tarrant County are treated at Cook Children’s, according to recent S&P global ratings.
