UCSD Medical Center to expand in near future

The University of California San Diego (UCSD) Medical Center has massive plans to expand its medical services in the next six years. To view renderings of the new buildings, visit http://commplan.ucsd.eduUCSDProjects.htm.

On the East Campus
The land adjacent to Thornton Hospital will see a new cardiovascular center, bed tower, parking structure and utilities plant.

UCSD Medical Group has begun building the $227.3 million Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center that will provide more
than 50 beds, four operating rooms, several laboratories, 60 offices and 20 examination rooms. At the same time, the emergency room at Thornton Hospital will be expanded.

Completion of the cardiovascular center is expected by 2011.

Behind Thornton Hospital, the medical group is in the preliminary planning phase to build a $600 million bed tower to connect to the hospital that will provide 200 beds and a rooftop helipad.

Completion of the bed tower is expected by 2015.

To accommodate the new patients, UCSD Medical Group is also planning to build an eight-story parking structure to provide 1,030 spaces at a cost of $18.8 million. Completion is expected by 2011.

UCSD Medical Group is funding these three projects through its revenue, reserves and donations.  No federal or medical grants are being provided.

“We’re making this investment because we feel that we are exceeding our capacity, and that we’re not able to accommodate the patients who want to come to our campus,” said Mona Sonnenshein of the UCSD Medical Group.

On the North Campus

Four research institutions have banded together to form a nonprofit corporation with plans to build a 135,000-square-foot research center focused on stem cell research and education at the corner of North Torrey Pines Road and North Point Drive.

The Burnham Institute for Medical Research, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the Scripps Research Institute and UCSD are forming the public corporation called the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. The collaboration will enable the group to afford equipment like robotics, disease modeling and protein and nucleic acid facilities.

The building will house research laboratories and offices. Completion is expected by June 2011.

On the West Campus

Near the Veteran’s Hospital, off Villa La Jolla, UCSD plans to build a 155,000-square-foot research building to advance research in medical genomics, pediatrics, neurosciences and reproductive medicine and surgery.

The building will cost $150.9 million, and completion is expected by 2013.

Adriane Tillman is a reporter at the La Jolla Village News, where this story was originally published.

Tags: Burnham Institute for Medical Research, East Campus, Mona Sonnenshein, North Campus, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, Scripps Research Institute, SDNN, Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, Thornton Hospital, UCSD Medical Center, Veteran's Hospital, West Campus

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 24th, 2009 at 11:28 am and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.