the Cook Children's story
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| Fort Worth Children's Hospital, circa 1918. |
Children's health has always been a priority in the Fort Worth community.
Cook Children's Medical Center resulted from the merger in 1985 of the former Cook Children's Hospital and Fort Worth Children's Hospital. Community leaders had dreamed of this combination since the 1950s and the new facility opened in 1989 as a realization of their goal.
The former Fort Worth Children's Hospital began with the organization of the Fort Worth Free Baby Hospital on March 21, 1918, under the leadership of Mrs. Ida L. Turner, a former postmistress. The hospital was first located at 2400 Winton Terrace West, near the present campus of Texas Christian University. All of the building materials and furnishings for the hospital were donated, and in 1922, a second floor was added to the building. In 1961, under the leadership of Mrs. Nenetta Burton Carter and the Woman's Board of the Fort Worth Children's Hospital, a new facility was completed at 1400 Cooper Street, adjacent to the Harris Methodist Hospital. This facility continued to operate independently until the merger in 1985.
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| Fort Worth Children's Hospital doubled its size in the 1920s. | The roots of the former Cook Children's Hospital go back to January 29, 1929, when W. I. Cook Memorial Hospital opened at 1212 West Lancaster Street in Fort Worth. The original hospital, designed in Italian Renaissance architecture, had 55 beds. Mrs. Missouri Matilda Nail Cook dedicated the oil royalties from the Cook Ranch near Albany, Texas, to build and sustain the hospital's mission. When the polio epidemic was spreading in the United States in 1952, the board of trustees of W. I. Cook Memorial Hospital studied the special needs of children, voted to expand the facility to 72 beds with a special grant from the Tom B. Owens Trust, and changed its mission to care exclusively for the needs of children. Thus, the trustees renamed the facility Cook Children's Hospital, which continued to operate independently until the merger.
In 1980, under the leadership of Mr. I. Jon Brumley, the two children's hospitals in Fort Worth formed the Children's Hospitals Coordinating Board and began negotiations to merge their facilities. The original eight members of the Coordinating Board were M. Ward Bailey, Robert M. Bass, I. Jon Brumley, Charlie L. Hillard, J. Walton Lawrence, Jr., D.D.S., Joe K. Pace, John M. Stevenson, and Edward E. Stocker.
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| Cook Children's Hospital, circa 1950s | In April 1982, Mr. Russell K. Tolman was hired by the Children's Hospitals Coordinating Board to administer the hospitals jointly and plan for their ultimate combination. In September 1982, the medical staffs of the two hospitals, under the leadership of Hinton H. Hamilton, III, M.D., requested permission from the boards to combine into a single staff. At the same combined board meeting, the trustees discussed the need to proceed with the combination of the two hospitals. This was enthusiastically approved. After architectural and financial feasibility studies were completed in 1983, trustee Robert M. Bass served as Chairman of the Merger Committee and hired the law firm of Kelly, Hart & Hallman to bring the matter before the 141st State District Court, presided over by Judge James Wright. After several days of testimony regarding the benefits of a new pediatric hospital, Judge Wright approved the "Plan of Merger and Combination" in January 1985. On April 29, 1985, Robert M. Bass was elected the founding Chairman, with John M. Stevenson, Vice Chairman, R. Denny Alexander, Treasurer, and M. Ward Bailey, Secretary. The new 183-bed Cook Fort Worth Children's Medical Center was begun in 1987 and completed in May 1989. The Board of Trustees approved shortening the name to Cook Children's Medical Center in June 1995.
The early 1990's were a period of rapid change in the health care industry. HMO's and managed care were driving down the cost of health care insurance by contracting with hospitals and physicians. To improve the health status of our community's children and to prepare for the era of managed care, the board of trustees formed the Cook Children's Health Care System in December 1995. The system consists of the Cook Children's Medical Center, Cook Children's Physician Network of over 200 pediatricians and specialists, Cook Children's Home Health, and Cook Children's Health Plan.
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| Cook Children's Medical Center, 2004. | As the 21st Century began, Cook Children’s added more than $100 million in new facilities to serve the children of North Texas. Cook Children’s Northeast Center, offering outpatient surgery and urgent care, opened in Hurst, Texas, in 2001. Also in 2001, a child development center operated jointly with Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital, and a parking garage opened on the medical center campus.
In 2003, a $53 million addition brought a four-floor patient pavilion and critical care areas to medical center and increased bed capacity increased to 282. In 2004, a fracture clinic, urgent care center and heliport were added to the medical center campus. Construction in progress will add more heart center catheterization and heart surgery facilities to the medical center in 2005.
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