Cook Children’s Medical Center - Prosper is stepping on the gas to keep more seriously ill children close to home as North Texas keeps booming. The hospital opened a neonatal intensive care unit in September 2025, and leaders say they are aiming to boost local firepower for both neonatal and trauma care so families are not driving to Fort Worth or Dallas in their most stressful moments.
The Prosper NICU began seeing newborns last September and was built around family comfort and visibility. It features nine single rooms, one room for twins and 11 baby beds total, plus bedside cameras and a dedicated nutrition lab. In a news release via Cook Children’s Checkup Newsroom, system leaders said the unit is staffed by neonatologists and linked to Cook Children’s higher-level specialty teams.
Where the state stands
On paper, Prosper’s neonatal services are already well recognized. The Texas Department of State Health Services' neonatal facilities list shows Cook Children’s Medical Center - Prosper as a Level III neonatal facility, with that designation recorded through Aug. 1, 2028, a classification that signals comprehensive neonatal intensive-care capability.
Hospital leadership has told local reporters it is pressing for higher trauma and neonatal designations to keep pace with the region’s rapid growth. As reported by Community Impact, Cook Children’s Prosper President Kevin Greene said the system is seeking Level III status for both the NICU and the trauma center, warning, “In those trauma situations, every moment, every second matters.”
That push shows up in state paperwork. The Texas DSHS list of facilities in active pursuit of designation includes Cook Children’s Medical Center - Prosper as a Level III trauma applicant, with a target designation date of Oct. 26, 2027. Greene also told Community Impact the hospital has spare rooms that can be converted into additional NICU beds and that “all we have to do is buy the equipment, so that’s just a few months’ turnaround.”
How the Prosper campus has grown
Cook Children’s first broke ground on the Prosper campus in 2018 and has been adding services ever since: primary and urgent care, an outpatient surgery center and an inpatient tower that opened in 2023, all leading up to the NICU launch. The system says the Prosper site was built with expansion in mind. When more capacity is needed, the campus can convert empty rooms into extra neonatal beds, and it connects to Cook Children’s Fort Worth Level IV NICU via telehealth and its Teddy Bear Transport team for rapid transfers when necessary.
What Level III would change
Level III trauma designation requires around-the-clock capability for resuscitation, emergency surgery and intensive care, along with participation in quality-improvement programs. Many hospitals use the American College of Surgeons' Trauma Quality Improvement Program as a benchmark when they scale up trauma services.
A Level III neonatal designation tells families that infants with complex needs can be cared for locally, even as the most advanced surgical and ECMO services remain concentrated at Level IV centers.
Officials say the next steps are straightforward but resource heavy: secure equipment, staff to 24/7 standards and complete the state verification process. In the months ahead, families can watch for formal DSHS notices and any Cook Children’s announcements about expanded bed counts, additional staffing or future construction on the Prosper campus.
