A growing population of young North Texans is driving a 300,000-square-foot expansion to Children’s Medical Center Plano that would triple its patient capacity, Children’s Health announced Thursday.
“We were the first ones to come to this community and bring our care here to serve the kids in this community,” said Vanessa Walls, executive vice president of Children’s Health’s northern market. “And we are very excited about the opportunity to continue that part of our mission and expand to serve them better.”
The new tower planned for the Plano campus will increase the medical center’s total beds from 70 to 240 and cost several hundred million dollars to build, according to Children’s Health. The Plano campus opened in 2008.
Plans for the expansion are still in the early phases, Walls told The Dallas Morning News. The pediatric health provider and hospital firm plans to break ground on the new tower in the next 12 months, with completion expected by 2023.
The new tower will nearly double the size of the hospital facility and house expanded specialty care programs like cardiology, oncology, orthopedics and gastroenterology. The addition will also bolster the hospital’s pharmacy, lab and imaging services.
Children’s Health hopes this expansion will help provide conveniently located care to the growing population north of Interstate 635. Today, Plano has a population of roughly 288,000. But just 10 years ago, that number was 260,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. About 1 million people live in surrounding Collin County.
“To allow families to stay closer to home, we need to expand,” said Walls. "Many of our families have children with special needs and managing those things – which might include technology dependence – and getting that child ready to go to a visit, really it just further expands the time commitment.”
Children’s Health purchased 72 acres of land in Prosper last year for a planned medical center that will be part of developer Matthews Southwest’s 177-acre mixed-use development on the north side of U.S. 380 and the Dallas North Tollway.
Plans are still being finalized for the Prosper project, Walls said. That location is about 10 miles north of the Plano hospital.
