HCA North Texas, which opened a free-standing emergency medical department in the Alliance area just over a year ago, plans to add a $71 million hospital to the site.
The announcement continues a medical building boom in far north Fort Worth, which saw a general hospital open last fall and another specialty facility announced in December.HCA said it will break ground on a 142,000-square-foot facility this summer which should open late next year. It will have 30 licensed beds and offer surgery, imaging, labor and delivery services, an intensive care unit, neonatal intensive care unit and other support functions in addition to the emergency room now operating.The four-story building can also accommodate two additional floors in the future, said Randy Moresi, CEO of HCA's North Hills Hospital, which is building the hospital. It's at the northeast corner of Interstate 35W and North Tarrant Parkway.HCA is the nation's largest for-profit hospital operator, with 163 hospitals. It currently has three Tarrant County hospitals -- Medical Center of Arlington, Plaza Medical Center in Fort Worth and North Hills Hospital in North Richland Hills -- and 11 in all of North Texas.Moresi said HCA's free-standing emergency department sees about 1,800 patients a month and quickly topped the company's projections just months after opening. That encouraged HCA to move ahead with the hospital, which had been planned, he said.In September, Texas Health Resources opened its 50-bed Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Alliance, less than three miles north of the HCA site.And in December, Wise Regional Health System broke ground on its Parkway Surgical and Cardiovascular Hospital, a specialty surgery facility expected to open in about a year. That 29,000-square-foot facility is in the 3000 block of North Tarrant Parkway in north Fort Worth, near HCA's project. A separate company plans a 20,000-square-foot medical office building adjacent to the hospital.Moresi said HCA has not announced plans for medical offices, but said the company expects to develop a medical campus on the 73-acre site.He said approximately 225,000 people live nearby but have had to drive to Fort Worth or Grapevine for hospital services before the local facilities were built.Hillwood, developer of Alliance Town Center, which includes all the new health facilities, said it has long been part of the company's master plan "to provide the region with first-class medical facilities to meet the needs of our growing population."Jim Fuquay, 817-390-7552Twitter: @jimfuquayHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
