JPS Health Network
JPS Health Network
JPS’s expansion plans come after voters approved an $800 million bond package last November, which would fund new facilities.
JPS Health Network is growing, and with an $800 million bond package and overall budget of $1.2 billion, the organization went before the Tarrant County Commissioners Court on Tuesday to discuss early proposals for new facilities.
Among JPS’s first priorities — two clinics that focus significantly on behavioral and mental health.
“[We want to] treat mental health much like we do primary care health,” JPS Health Network president and CEO Robert Earley said, speaking to the Commissioners Court. “That is, create those outlets where people can seek care on a daily basis.”
JPS is still studying city demographics in order to determine where to place these clinics. Earley said the facilities should be about 35,000 square feet and will cost about $20 million each to build.
“They are not the same old JPS-type clinics. It is a larger, more conducive environment,” Earley said. “It’s designed to be more of a one-stop that you can get all your care there.”
At the main hospital campus downtown, JPS also plans to move its Psychiatric Emergency Center from the 10th floor to ground level, next to the Trinity Springs Pavilion for Psychiatric Services, and expand it from 12,500 square feet to 28,000 square feet.
Earley said the center is “overwhelmed” at its current size and location.
“[The current location of the Psychiatric Emergency Center] is not wise,” he said. “It’s a challenge for our police officers to meander through the building and get to the 10th floor; it’s a challenge for those people who are caregivers to family members … that is not conducive to patient care.”
Additionally, JPS proposes to build a high-rise parking garage on its main campus, a new patient care center, and more operating rooms.
JPS’s expansion plans come after voters approved an $800 million bond package last November, which would fund new facilities including a new mental and behavioral health hospital, a new main hospital tower, a new cancer center, four new regional health centers, and a new ambulatory surgical center. The projects do not require a tax increase.
“We’ve never had a bond package this large,” Earley said. “We want to do what’s right.”
