By Chris Miller, Assistant Editor, Facility Market

Two hospital projects in Texas will result in a new hospital in Austin and an expanded hospital in Houston. The total cost of the two projects is $686 million, and both are set to open by 2024.   

Construction has begun on Texas Children’s Hospital for children and women in Austin, according to the Texas Medical Center. The healthcare center is projected to be fully built by early 2024. Service plans for the 52-bed 365,500-square-foot hospital include neonatal intensive care, pediatric intensive care, operating rooms, epilepsy monitoring, sleep center, emergency room, fetal center, postpartum care, diagnostic imaging, acute care, an on-site urgent care location, and over 1,200 free parking spaces. This $485 million project will add a top tier children and women’s hospital to the city.

An additional 170,000-square-foot outpatient building will link patients and families to Texas Children’s subspecialities including cardiology, oncology, neurology, pulmonology, gastroenterology, rheumatology, fetal care, and dialysis, among many others. Texas Children’s hospital first came into Austin when it opened its Children’s Urgent Care Westgate location. The nation’s largest pediatric primary care network, Texas Children’s Pediatrics, currently has 10 locations in Austin, which provide full-service care for children. Prenatal counseling, newborn and infant care, well and sick child visits, immunizations, as well as camp, school and sports physicals are some of the services this network provides. 

In Houston, plans for a $201 million expansion of Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women have recently been announced, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph. Construction is projected to be complete in 2024. This expansion plan will enable the hospital to increase delivery volume by 30 percent and to have more space for specialized clinics and programs that help women at all stages of life. The expansion plan includes transforming the former Baylor Clinic building into part of Texas Children's campus in the Texas Medical Center, renaming it Main Tower. The building, which will be connected to the Pavilion for Women via a new sky bridge, provides Texas Children's with about 190,000 additional square feet of usable space.

This healthcare facility already includes the Texas Children’s Fetal Center, which is one of the country’s leading providers in the diagnosis and treatment of abnormalities in unborn and newborn babies. In 2019, this facility was designated a level IV maternal care facility, the highest level of care available.