When John Peter Smith deeded land in 1877 for a county hospital, he did so with one purpose.
“It was a bold and unwavering belief that he had that health care is a human right and not a privilege,” JPS Health Network CEO Dr. Karen Duncan said.
On the brink of the official start of construction for the county medical system’s new hospital, she said the mission of “caring for everyone, not just some,” continues.
Community and health leaders gathered on April 16 to celebrate the groundbreaking of JPS’s new hospital. The 1.1-million-square-foot medical center is the final building of the JPS Master Facility Plan, a $2.5 billion project set to upgrade the county’s public hospital system to keep pace with modern medical standards and the county's growing population.
The new hospital itself will cost $1.5 billion, according to a hospital spokesperson, and will be completed in 2030. Other facility additions include the construction of a new Medical Outpatient Building, which will be completed in 2029. Already-finished projects include a new parking garage, the Psychiatric Emergency Center and Medical Home Southwest Tarrant.
Located at the corner of South Main and East Morphy streets, the new hospital will significantly increase JPS’s patient capacity from 582 beds at the current hospital to more than 740, with the ability of growing to 800 beds in the future. The hospital will have two patient-room towers and will house emergency, trauma and surgical services.
The hospital will also provide modern spaces for high-level maternal and neonatal intensive care.
Official construction begins in a few weeks.
“We are building more than a hospital,” said D.T. Nguyen, chair of the JPS Board of Managers, to the hundreds who attended the hospital groundbreaking. “We are building a promise that never closes its door: a promise that every person who walks through those doors will be treated with dignity and compassion.”
The expansion project is anchored by an $800 million county bond package, which voters passed in 2018.
Eight years after the passing of the bond, JPS chief operating officer Jill Farrell attributed the delayed start of the construction of the new hospital to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is a complicated project for us,” Farrell said. “We did the projects in a step-wise fashion. We have a footprint here on this campus, so there’s a lot of logistics and moving pieces in order to get to the hospital.”
Farrell said JPS is currently evaluating what to do with the current patient tower at 1500 S. Main St.
What was first envisioned as a $1.2 billion health system renovation increased to $1.5 billion in 2022, $2.1 billion in 2024 and $2.5 billion just last year.
Hospital leadership previously pointed to inflated construction costs as the reason for the ballooned renovation budget.
Farrell confirmed that no additional taxpayer dollars were used past the original bond figure, and that the hospital is funding the rest of the renovation through the hospital operational budget.
Several planned additions to the project have been dropped over the past eight years. JPS previously planned to add four medical homes — primary care clinics that provide outpatient services — but ended up building only one.
Other projects have been added during that time, including the Health Center for Women, set to open in December 2026.
Farrell said the changes to the facility plan came from the hospital system’s reevaluation of “the needs of the community.”
The hospital executive said that, despite the major facelift, JPS will have to make sure the hospital has enough capacity for the future as the county population continues to grow.
“It’s not going to be enough — we all know that,” Farrell said. “You can look through the medical district, you see a (construction) crane at every single system, and we’re not any different than that.”
Farrell said JPS’s campus in the Medical District can add two additional medical towers to address future growth in patient demand.
Editor's note: This story was updated on April 16, 2026, to reflect the cost of the new hospital.
Ismael M. Belkoura is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. His position is supported by a grant from Texas Health Resources. Contact him at ismael.belkoura@fortworthreport.org.
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