Daily Business Report-Nov. 7, 2017
Rendering of Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego. (Photos courtesy of Scripps Health)
Scripps Health Unveils $2.6 Billion Master Plan
for 5 Hospital Campuses
Building program is largest in the history
of the San Diego County health system
Scripps Health today unveiled a $2.6 billion master plan that represents the largest building program in the health care system’s 125-year history and triggers significant construction projects at its hospital campuses across San Diego County.
“This is our vision to build the health care system of the future — starting today,” said Chris Van Gorder, Scripps president and CEO. “Our focus is on delivering the right care in the right setting that reflects the changing health care needs of the communities we serve across the San Diego region.”
The master plan accounts for changing health care trends. Flexible space designs will recognize the rapid evolution of technology so that the latest equipment and devices can be easily incorporated into patient rooms, operating rooms, laboratories and diagnostic centers.
More care is being delivered on an outpatient basis at clinics and other medical facilities, so Scripps will design its acute care hospitals to care for the most seriously ill patients.
Plans include state-of-the-art private patient rooms. Floors will be designed following best practices. Nurses will be placed closer to patients and will have more direct access to equipment and supplies, increasing their efficiency and improving their ability to deliver the highest quality care possible. Facilities will be designed to promote patient healing and comfort and will make efficient use of natural resources.
The master plan projects will be financed by operating revenues, borrowing and philanthropy.
“Community support always has been a significant part of Scripps’ history, dating back to our founders, Ellen Browning Scripps and Mother Mary Michael Cummings,” Van Gorder said. “We are thankful for that. We don’t receive government funding for these projects. It’s the generosity of grateful patients and others that has made us what we are today, and it will be that generosity that will shape us into who we become in the future.”
Scripps Mercy San Diego
Plans for Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego represent the largest project. Plans for Scripps Mercy include replacing the existing acute care building with a new 710,000-square-foot, seismically sound tower featuring 12 stories above ground and three below. Most of the rooms in the hospital will be private. Other work includes upgrades to the central energy plant. Construction of the replacement tower is expected to begin in 2022 and finish in 2027.
Scripps Mercy Chula Vista, Scripps Green Hospitals
Seismic retrofitting the acute care buildings at Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista and Scripps Green hospital campuses is part of the master plan. Retrofitting construction will begin in 2022 at Scripps Mercy Chula Vista and in 2027 at Scripps Green. All of the work will be completed prior to 2030.
Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla
Work at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla will include construction of a new seven-story, 401,000 square-foot hospital tower. The new tower will feature a women’s health center, which will include labor and delivery, postpartum beds, a nursery, an obstetrical surgery area and a neonatal intensive care unit. Other projects on the campus include upgrades to the central energy plant. Construction of the new tower is expected to begin in 2021 and conclude in 2024.
Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas
Plans for Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas include the construction of a new 185,000-square-foot, three-story acute care building. Other campus projects include the construction of a new three-story, 68,000-square-foot medical office building, upgrades to the central energy plant and seismic retrofitting of several other buildings. Construction of the new acute care building is expected to begin in 2021 and conclude in 2024.
The master plan also includes the construction of two Scripps MD Anderson outpatient cancer centers. One will be a new cancer center located at Scripps Mercy San Diego and the other will be an expansion of the Scripps Radiation Therapy Center in La Jolla. Work on the Scripps MD Anderson cancer center at Scripps Mercy will take place as part of that campus’ construction, while the timeline for the expansion work at the Scripps Radiation Therapy Center is yet to be determined.
In addition, Scripps will continue to focus on providing the right care in the right setting by increasing access to outpatient care conveniently located in neighborhoods where patients live and work. Primary and specialty care services will be offered through a planned 85,000-square-foot Scripps Clinic facility on Jefferson Street in Oceanside and a renovated Gateway 2 Building in Chula Vista.
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Navy Names New Ship Being Built
at NASSCO after Medal of Honor Winner
The U.S. Navy has named its latest Expeditionary Sea Base ship under contract with General Dynamics NASSCO shipbuilding business as USNS Miguel Keith.
Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer said the vessel designated T-ESB 5 is named after the late U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam veteran and Medal of Honor awardee Miguel Keith, the Navy said.
Keith was severely wounded on the morning of May 8, 1970, when his platoon came under a heavy-ground attack. Despite being injured in the attack and open to hostile fire, he continued to engage the enemy with heavy machine gun fire.
Keith’s efforts resulted in him killing three attackers and dispersing two remaining adversaries. Despite receiving further serious injuries caused by an enemy grenade, Keith continued to advance upon an estimated 25 enemy soldiers, killing four and dispersing the rest. He died as a result of his injuries.
The future USNS Miguel Keith is designed to aid multiple missions including air mine countermeasure, counter-piracy, maritime security, humanitarian aid, disaster relief and crisis response.
The Navy said the 784-foot-long vessel is anticipated to board 250 personnel and support MH-53 and MH-60 helicopters on its 52,000-square-foot flight deck with an upgrade option to accommodate MV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft.
T-ESB 5 will feature fuel and equipment storage and spaces for repairs and mission planning.
General Dynamics NASSCO started construction on the fifth ESB ship under the Navy’s Expedition Transfer Dock/Expeditionary Sea Base program in January and is expected to deliver the ship by 2019.
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Chamber VP Paola Avila Elected
Chair of Border Trade Alliance
The Border Trade Alliance has elected Paola Avila, vice president of international business affairs for the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, as the organization’s new chair.
Avila takes the helm of the board from Russ Jones, the chairman of RL Jones Customhouse Brokers, which maintains operations in several markets along the US-Mexico border. Jones served as chairman for the past two years.
Avila is a respected leader throughout the U.S.-Mexico border region. She focuses on advocacy of domestic and international public policies that enhance economic prosperity through trade, commerce, and robust international relationships.
BTA President Britton Clarke expressed great confidence in the new chair. “The BTA is fortunate to have Paola’s leadership during this critical time for free and open cross border trade. She will be a great champion for the BTA and play an important role in the debate over a modernized NAFTA while expanding the BTA’s influence on Capitol Hill and beyond.”
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Alaska Airlines Starts Nonstop Service
Between San Diego and Mexico City
Alaska Airlines on Monday began nonstop service between San Diego and Mexico City’s Benito Juarez International Airport. San Diego is the third West Coast city to see nonstop service to Mexico’s largest metropolitan city with Los Angeles and San Francisco added in August 2017.
“This is great news for our city,” said Mayor Kevin Faulconer. “By providing nonstop service from San Diego to Mexico City, we are creating more opportunities to promote our shared interests, attract foreign investment and increase tourism.”
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Haeggquist & Eck Acquires
Orange County’s Cooper Law Firm
Employee rights and consumer advocacy law firm Haeggquist & Eck (HAE) of San Diego has acquired The Cooper Law Firm, an employee and consumer class action firm based in Irvine.
The acquisition follows the appointment of Cooper Law Firm managing partner Scott Cooper, who founded the firm in 1999, to the Orange County Superior Court bench. The remainder of the Cooper Law Firm team will work alongside HAE to represent consumers and employees in complex class actions throughout Southern California and the nation.
“Our partnership will multiply our reach and allow us to better serve employees and consumers across San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles counties,” said HAE Managing Partner Alreen Haeggquist.
The move brings two new employees — attorney Samantha Smith and paralegal Andrea Drocco — to the HAE fold, and allows Haeggquist & Eck to have a physical presence in the greater Orange County and Los Angeles areas.
Haeggquist & Eck most recently gained national prominence as co-lead class counsel in the well-publicized class action against Donald Trump and Trump University. The firm represents employees in a broad range of cases against their employers and litigates claims relating to harassment, discrimination, retaliation, equal pay, and wage theft.
The Cooper firm’s physical office will remain in its current location at 4000 Barranca Parkway, Suite 250, in Irvine, and will be in addition to HAE’s current space in Downtown San Diego.
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Scientists Find Potential ‘Missing Link’
in Chemistry That Led to Life on Earth
Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a compound that may have been a crucial factor in the origins of life on Earth.
Origins-of-life researchers have hypothesized that a chemical reaction called phosphorylation may have been crucial for the assembly of three key ingredients in early life forms: short strands of nucleotides to store genetic information, short chains of amino acids (peptides) to do the main work of cells, and lipids to form encapsulating structures such as cell walls. Yet, no one has ever found a phosphorylating agent that was plausibly present on early Earth and could have produced these three classes of molecules side-by-side under the same realistic conditions.
TSRI chemists have now identified just such a compound: diamidophosphate (DAP). “We suggest a phosphorylation chemistry that could have given rise, all in the same place, to oligonucleotides, oligopeptides, and the cell-like structures to enclose them,” said study senior author Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, associate professor of chemistry at TSRI. “That in turn would have allowed other chemistries that were not possible before, potentially leading to the first simple, cell-based living entities.”
The study, reported in Nature Chemistry, is part of an ongoing effort by scientists around the world to find plausible routes for the epic journey from pre-biological chemistry to cell-based biochemistry.
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Cubic to Participate in Air Combat Training
Discussions at International Fighter Conference
Cubic‘s global defense business division will participate in the three-day International Fighter Conference in Berlin, Germany, to discuss multiple training platforms designed to support air combat training and mission readiness efforts.
Some Cubic Global Defense personnel will address various topics at the event such as incremental live, virtual and constructive systems as well as multidomain Joined and Combined Force training, the company said.
“We look forward to leveraging our industry expertise to address ways in which the U.S. Air Force and our allied nations can effectively train and ensure mission readiness for our warfighters” said Cubic Global Defense President Dave Buss.
Buss added the company aims to help address aircraft interoperability gaps through its air combat training service.
ICF will feature Mark Graper, senior business development director of Cubic Global Defense and a retired Air Force major general; and Kevin O’Rourke, senior business development manager of Cubic Global Defense and a retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel.
Cubic representatives will also showcase company offerings such as the P5 Combat Training System, Bandit Board, F-35 Internal Subsystem, Secure Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation and LVC training technologies.
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Naval Health Research Center
Awards Leidos a $29M Contract
Leidos, a science and technology company, was awarded a prime contract by the Naval Health Research Center to continue to provide research and development support services to the Warfighter Performance department.
The single-award cost-plus-fixed fee follow-on contract has a 10-month base period of performance, four one-year options, and a total contract ceiling of approximately $29 million if all options are exercised. Work will be performed primarily in San Diego.
