Cook Children’s Looks to Expand Medical Campus to Keep Up with Unprecedented Growth in Fort Worth
One of the fastest growing cities in America, Fort Worth is experiencing a population boom, and that affects critical care services for children
In January 2024, Cook Children’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) hit its highest patient volume ever with 102 babies admitted at one time.
When it opened in 2011, the Level IV NICU was the largest all-private room NICU in the country. With 99 private rooms, 106 beds and roughly 450 employees, the department is the size of a small hospital in itself.
Yet, unprecedented growth in Fort Worth and surrounding areas have created a challenge for Cook Children’s and its Promise “to improve the well-being of every child in our care and communities.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Fort Worth’s population was 978,468 as of July 2023. With an estimated 59 people moving here every day, the city expects Fort Worth to hit the one million mark this year.
Here’s some more stats:
- Fort Worth is now the 12th largest city in the U.S.
- The population of Fort Worth trails 11th-ranked Austin by less than 2,000 people.
- Of all cities over 50,000 people, Fort Worth had the 2nd largest gain in population in the past year.
- Of the top 30 most populous cities, Fort Worth is the fastest growing, with the population increasing by 2.2% in the past year, and 6.5% since 2020.
With this kind of population growth, it’s no wonder Cook Children’s NICU neared capacity earlier this year, and it’s not the only department experiencing overload.
For the past several years, Cook Children’s has publicly addressed the record-breaking numbers of flu, RSV and COVID-19 cases that now regularly overwhelm the Urgent Care Centers and Emergency Department.
During these busy sick seasons, it’s not uncommon to see 500 to 600+ patients in Cook Children’s Fort Worth Emergency Department in a single day. These volumes result in extreme wait times for patients and create so much strain for the health care system that internal disaster procedures may be activated.
"The needs of our community are growing, and so are we,” said Rick W. Merrill, President and CEO of Cook Children’s Health Care System. “We’re committed to being there for every child, which is why we're exploring opportunities to further expand our campus to better serve the children and families across Fort Worth and the other counties we serve.”
Cook Children’s is currently evaluating several options for an expansion of its Fort Worth campus, though no final plans have been made. The health care system hopes to gain the community’s support in re-zoning efforts for nearly six acres near Pennsylvania Ave. and 8th Ave. Construction is also expected to take place on the medical center’s existing campus.
“We’re looking at what we may be able to move from our current campus to the other side of 8th Ave.,” said Spencer Seals, Vice President of Construction and Real Estate at Cook Children’s. “The goal is to make more room on our current campus for critical care services, which we direly need. While we don’t know exactly what that looks like right now, we’re evaluating our options to see what best serves the community, just as we have for the past 106 years.”
