Expanding world

Aug 1, 2023

Irvine’s thriving health care ecosystem, which includes advanced medical research in addition to clinical care, is in the midst of a $4 billion expansion. Here are updates on two projects.

Hoag has begun a $1 billion expansion of its medical campus on Sand Canyon Avenue.

The new Sun Family Campus will add 120,000 square feet of outpatient space, 155 new hospital beds, eight new operating rooms and six new buildings, to be completed in phases by 2026.

“This expansion serves as a gateway for south Orange County residents to access Hoag’s medical excellence, unparalleled service and patient-​focused outcomes,” Hoag President and CEO Robert Braithwaite said at its groundbreaking.

The campus will include two specialty hospitals focused on women’s health, digestive illnesses and cancer, as well as urgent care services for cancer patients.

For the past six years, U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals” ranking has distinguished Hoag as the best in Orange County and the ninth-best in California.

More than 100 construction and trade workers paused alongside UC Irvine leaders last month to mark a milestone toward completion of UCI Health’s $1.3 billion medical campus.

In a topping-off ceremony, the workers watched a crane place the last structural beam atop a new acute-care hospital on the 1.2-million-​square-foot medical campus. A week earlier, scores of workers, contractors and craftspeople had signed their names on the white-painted beam.

The seven-story, 144-bed hospital is on track for completion in late 2025. Two other structures – a dedicated cancer center and a center for advanced care – should be finished next year.

UCI Health has already begun recruiting some of the more than 2,000 people, including nurses, facility engineers and food-service workers, needed to work at the new complex.