HCA to add general hospital to Alliance operations

HCA North Texas, which opened a free-standing emergency department in the Alliance area a year ago, now plans to add a $71 million hospital at the site. It said the 142,000-square-foot facility, set to open in late  2014, will add surgery, imaging, labor and delivery services, an intensive care unit and other support functions. The four-story hospital will be able to accommodate two additional floors in the future, said Randy Moresi, CEO of HCA's North Hills Hospital, which built the earlier emergency facility. HCA, the nation's largest for-profit hospital operator, said it expects to break ground this summer.

Besides the existing North Hills emergency department, Texas Health Resources last fall opened its Alliance hospital, north of the HCA site, land Wise Regional Health System broke ground in December on its Parkway Surgical and Cardiovascular Hospital, a specialty surgery facility expected to open in about a year. The 29,000-square-foot facility is in the 3000 block of North Tarrant Parkway in north Fort Worth, near HCA's project. A separate company, Office Equity Solutions, plans a 20,000-square-foot medical office building adjacent to the hospital.

-- Jim Fuquay