Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley is wrapping up work on a $50 million expansion.
A six-story, 162,000-square-foot tower is set to be done in late August and see patients in September, said Marcia Manker, the hospital’s chief executive.
Orange Coast is adding the tower to serve a growing number of patients who come to the hospital for procedures that don’t require extended says, Manker said.
Outpatient procedures have grown more than 300% since the hospital was acquired by Fountain Valley-based Memorial Health Services 13 years ago, according to Manker.
“This is a building strictly dedicated to outpatient services that meets the demands of the industry as it changes,” she said.
The building is set to house space for cancer, heart, neurology and orthopedics treatment services, a surgery center with four operating rooms, rehabilitation services, a pharmacy, laboratory and medical offices.
Orange Coast is the 10th largest hospital in the county with yearly revenue of about $195 million, according to the Business Journal’s February list of the largest hospitals here.
The tower is part of a wave of hospital expansions here in the past few years. Unlike others, Orange Coast isn’t putting up its tower to meet California’s earthquake safety law, which requires hospitals to remain operational after a major quake.
80% Done
Work on Orange Coast’s tower started in late 2007. It’s now about 80% done and has remained on budget, Manker said.
“The only thing still outstanding is the connector, the walkway that’s going to take it to the (main) hospital,” she said.
That part of the project still is under review by California’s Office of Hospital Planning and Development, which regulates hospitals.
“We’re working through that little challenge, but we’re still going to open it right on time,” Manker said.
Getting the tower built “is another whole full-time job for the team that’s responsible for this,” she said.
Summit Smith Healthcare Facilities, a Milwaukee-based design and construction company that is part of C.D. Smith Construction Inc., is building the tower.
The hospital plans to move outpatient services and workers to the new building in shifts.
For now, Manker said Orange Coast, which has 1,027 employees, isn’t hiring, but it has plans to as services at the tower grow.
The expansion is set to free up space for patients at the main part of the hospital, which has 224 beds.
Memorial, a nonprofit hospital operator, is paying for the expansion with its own money and some fundraising, Manker said.
Orange Coast built the center on the site of older medical buildings that were demolished at the corner of Brookhurst Street and Talbert Avenue.
The tower stands to help ease what Julie Puentes, a Garden Grove-based vice president for the Hospital Association of Southern California, said has been a lack of space for outpatient services.
A study done by the association, the county of Orange and CalOptima, which provides Medi-Cal healthcare services, cited the county’s need for more outpatient care, she said.
The tower includes a cancer center, with private and open infusion areas for chemotherapy, on the fourth floor.
The tower’s basement is devoted to radiation oncology. It includes the CyberKnife, a robotic medical device that delivers precisely targeted radiation to a tumor.
Orange Coast sought feedback on the project from neighbors, doctors and others.
The tower “was designed around all the input we received,” Manker said.
The hospital encountered some resistance two years ago, before construction started, she said.
Fountain Valley’s Planning Commission originally blocked the project on a 3-2 vote in 2007 because of traffic concerns. The City Council later overturned that decision.
The Planning Commission’s original veto of the project caught many by surprise because of what was a widespread boom in OC hospital construction at a time when the economy was stronger.
Several hospital projects that were being worked on during that time since have opened.
The UCI Medical Center, which is in Orange, opened the first phase of its $556 million expansion in March. The first phase, which cost $393 million, has 482,428 square feet of space, 236 beds and 15 operating rooms.
Orange Coast originally was part of FHP International Corp. and served only members of that health plan, which now is part of Minnesota’s UnitedHealth Group Inc.
Other Hospitals
Memorial, which also owns Saddleback Memorial Medical Center, with campuses in Laguna Hills and San Clemente, bought Orange Coast in 1996 for $87 million.
Memorial also is in the process of selling Anaheim Memorial Medical Center to AHMC Healthcare Inc. of Alhambra for $60 million. Memorial is awaiting word from state Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office on the sale.
Memorial, which bought Anaheim Memorial a year before it acquired Orange Coast, has seen three prior deals for Anaheim Memorial fall through for various reasons.
