Healthcare shows signs of health
Fort Worth’s new growth industry is healthcare.
If more proof is needed, look no further than the newly reopened Texas Health Hospital Clearfork.
When Arlington-based Texas Health Resources paid $121 million to buy the nearly new hospital along the Chisholm Trail Parkway, the first question was what the company might do with it.
After all, Texas Health already had two full-service hospitals within 5 miles.
Texas Health officials came up with a great answer to that question. They designated Clearfork as a full-service extension of its Texas Health Southwest hospital and its successful Texas Hip and Knee Center.
With spacious patient rooms and a view of the Clear Fork of the Trinity River, Texas Health Clearfork is an excellent location for a regional joint replacement surgical center.
Orthopedic surgeries not only promote healthier residents, but also generate the highest revenue of any specialty while driving jobs and economic development for Fort Worth.
The Clearfork hospital is the latest exciting news in a year of breakthroughs for Fort Worth’s healthcare industry.
Texas Christian University’s work to develop an M.D. degree program in conjunction with the University of North Texas Health Science Center will make Fort Worth even more of a draw for young medical students and professionals.
Once, Fort Worth patients had to go to Dallas to see UT Southwestern doctors in many specialties. Soon, those doctors will practice at the new UT Southwestern Monty and Tex Moncrief Medical Center on South Main Street in Fort Worth.
And Fort Worth is a nationally recognized leader in the “Blue Zones” project toward a healthier community.
The growth of Fort Worth’s healthcare industry is not only about keeping people well. It’s also about the city’s economic health.
The healthcare industry is now No. 1 in the region for workers with typical skills, according to a recent JPMorgan Chase and Co. study.
Not only that, but healthcare also promises the fastest projected job growth in coming years.
Dallas’ and Houston’s medical centers have long made those cities major employment centers for Texas doctors, and as a result centers of economic development for healthcare and research.
The Clearfork hospital is another step toward drawing more of those dollars and jobs to Fort Worth.
This story was originally published September 29, 2016 at 6:10 PM with the headline "Healthcare shows signs of health."