Kaiser Permanente is joining the fray of local healthcare providers expanding in South Orange County—a race driven by demand for medical care closer to home.
Kaiser on Jan. 27 opened a new two-story, 42,000-square-foot medical office in Aliso Viejo that offers a range of services, including primary care, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology.
“Orange County continues to grow, and so does demand for convenient, coordinated care,” Payman Roshan, senior vice president and area manager of Kaiser Permanente OC, told the Business Journal via email.
“The new Aliso Viejo Creek Medical Office allows us to expand services, bring more specialties into the community and shorten travel time for our members.”
The new facility expands Kaiser’s original offices, located a few miles away. Primary care and several specialties will be moved to the new facility, while behavioral health will remain at the existing medical office.
Together, the two sites allow Kaiser to better meet the needs of its growing membership, according to Roshan.
Founded in 1945, Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente currently serves 12.6 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia.
Within Orange County, Kaiser has two hospitals in Anaheim and Irvine, as well as 25 medical offices that serve nearly 600,000 local members.
It ranks as the fourth-largest hospital system in Orange County, with net patient revenue of $1.3 billion for the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2025, a 1.3% increase from the year prior.
“We’re proud of the significant growth we experienced last year—it reinforces that our integrated care model is resonating with the community,” Roshan said.
Kaiser is also in the planning stages of opening its next medical office in Westminster, which Roshan expects to be fully operational by 2028. In 2021, Kaiser spent $40 million to buy a 10-acre site at a portion of the Westminster Mall to build a new medical facility. The mall closed in late October.
Integrated Technology in the Lobby, Exam Rooms
Some of the other specialty care services that will be offered at Kaiser’s Aliso Creek Medical Offices are dermatology, physical therapy, radiology and mammography. Like other Kaiser facilities, it will have a pharmacy and lab services under one roof.
“We’re continuing to expand key clinical services across Orange County, with a strong focus on maternal-child health and cardiac care,” Roshan said.
The new facility features technology to help with efficiency, such as express-check-in machines by the entrance and display dashboards in waiting areas that offer estimated wait times and send text message notifications to alert patients when their care team is ready to see them.
“Our care delivery model is designed to help patients navigate their visits more smoothly, strengthen connections with their care teams, and promote better health outcomes—underscoring our dedication to patient-centered care,” Dr. Todd Newton, area medical director for Kaiser Permanente OC, said in a statement.
Beyond the lobby, exam rooms are equipped with videoconferencing and telehealth capabilities for communication between doctors, nurses and patients.
Monitors in each room are used to display patients’ medical information for review and also support virtual interpreters, providing real-time translation services.
South OC Hospital Expansion
Kaiser joins other local hospital operators looking to increase their presence in South Orange County.
The largest push is coming from Providence Mission Hospital, which is spending $712 million over the next six years to expand its operations in south OC, including two multi-specialty medical centers in San Clemente and Rancho Mission Viejo, as well as a patient care tower.
Last year, Providence received a $50 million gift from Anthony “Tony” Moiso and his master-planned community developer, Rancho Mission Viejo, to name the 100-bed hospital tower, which is expected to open in 2030, the Rancho Mission Viejo Family Tower.
In the past two years, MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center opened a $60 million Women’s Health Pavilion in Laguna Hills followed by a $20 million health center built by Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in San Clemente.
Hoag expressed its desire to expand its south OC footprint after successfully bidding on the 92-acre Ziggurat property last year. However, its expansion plans were dashed when federal officials abruptly cancelled the auction.
Kaiser Strike Update
More than 3,000 pharmacy and lab employees last week joined a coalition of 31,000 nurses and other healthcare professionals in a strike against Kaiser Permanente over alleged unfair labor practices taking place in Southern California and Bakersfield.
For the past three weeks, nurses with the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP), a union representing Kaiser employees nationwide, have been on strike at more than two dozen hospitals and clinics in California and Hawaii.
They are calling for safer staffing, fair wages and benefits and retirement security.
“Kaiser’s unfair labor practices are making healthcare unsafe,” Gerardo Silva, a pharmacy assistant of 23 years at Kaiser in Los Angeles, said in a statement. “Workers are being intimidated, shut out of safety decisions, and punished for speaking up. When workers are afraid, mistakes happen—and patients feel that chaos.”
The union previously engaged in a 5-day work stoppage last October after its contract with Kaiser expired. Among its demands were a 25% wage increase over four years in face of rising inflation.
Negotiations took place for more than eight months, with Kaiser offering a 21.5% wage increase over the life of a contract, including a 16% increase within the first two years, before Kaiser paused national bargaining on Dec. 14, citing an incident with a UNAC/UHCP leader threatening to release damaging information about Kaiser.
Following the pause, the union filed an unfair labor practice (ULP) charge against Kaiser, alleging that it was attempting to interfere with good-faith negotiations.
Kaiser said it is attempting to move to local bargaining and has contacted each local union and requested their availability to meet and bargain.
“Our contract proposal is the strongest compensation package in Kaiser Permanente’s national bargaining history and keeps employees among the best paid caregivers in the country,” Camille Applin-Jones, senior vice president for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, said in a statement to the Business Journal.
“The total pay increase we are offering, including step increases, amounts to roughly 30% over the length of the contract, not including proposed benefits enhancements.”
Kaiser’s hospitals, emergency departments and all medical offices have remained open throughout the strike, though some of its pharmacies and labs will be closed, the healthcare provider said.
More than 35% of employees are back at work across striking locations, and as high as 55% back at work in some locations, according to Kaiser.
