Scripps Unveils $2 Billion Master Building Plan

Scripps will replace Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla with three new hospital towers to meet state earthquake safety standards and will provide research and graduate medical education facilities, an outpatient treatment center and medical offices under a 25-year master plan — estimated to cost more than $2 billion. Officials said the new facilities are designed to meet the region’s health care needs for the rest of the century.
“We are creating a full-service, regional medical campus that builds on our history, begun by Ellen Browning Scripps in 1924, who had a vision to combine high quality health care with medical research,” said Scripps President and CEO Chris Van Gorder. “Miss Ellen’s vision lives on in this bold and comprehensive plan to bring innovative, patient-centered care to San Diego while providing a destination for those outside our region who are seeking access to the most advanced, high-quality treatments.”
Scripps officials said patients will have all their health care needs met in one location, from wellness, prevention and advanced diagnostics in the medical offices and outpatient pavilion to the latest medical and surgical treatments in the new hospital. The regional campus will allow Scripps to provide greater collaboration and efficiency between its two La Jolla campuses at Scripps Memorial and Scripps Green Hospital on Torrey Pines Mesa.
Under the plan, the 43-acre campus will be developed over the next 25 years, starting with the groundbreaking event next June for the first hospital tower and continuing with two additional hospital towers, two new medical office buildings, an outpatient care pavilion and additional parking.
The existing hospital will be razed and a new hospital will be built to meet state seismic standards.  The plan is currently in review by the city of San Diego.
The plan also includes a new central energy plant, new roadway entry and on-campus roadway realignment to make maximum use of the existing area.
“This will be a regional campus dedicated to the patient as well as to fully applying the technologies of the future,” said Scripps Chief Medical Officer Brent Eastman.  “The medical care of the future – to be delivered here – incorporates wireless technology, robotic surgery, digital monitoring and record-keeping, and high-tech operating rooms, in a setting designed for and around the patient.”
The first hospital tower will be the hub of the Scripps Cardiovascular Institute, bringing together the cardiovascular programs of Scripps La Jolla, Scripps Green and Kaiser Permanente. Scripps and Kaiser recently agreed to a 10-year extension of their 30-year partnership.
The eight-story, 383,000-square-foot first hospital tower will cost $398 million and will open for patient care in 2015. It will feature 108 in-patient beds in private rooms, 60 intensive care beds, six state-of-art operating rooms, cardiac catheterization labs with the most advanced medical technology, centralized cardiovascular research labs and a center for graduate medical education.
The Scripps La Jolla master plan is part of $3 billion in improvements being made to facilities throughout the Scripps Health system.