After four years of construction, UCI Health is taking the wraps off its new acute care hospital.
The opening will mark the sixth hospital for UCI Health, adding to its flagship hospital in Orange, the county’s largest.
“Irvine is one of the fastest growing zip codes, so that’s where there’s now that void where we’re stepping in to come back to,” UCI Health Chief Executive Chad Lefteris told the Business Journal.
The seven-story hospital, measuring 350,000 square feet, is the nation’s first all-electric-powered acute care hospital, a key differentiator for UCI Health, which touts itself as a leader in sustainability initiatives. It’s also on track to be the sixth in the U.S. to get platinum LEED certification—the highest level of sustainability rating.
UCI Health is targeting Dec. 10 to see its first patient, according to Lefteris.
The 13.5-acre UCI Health—Irvine complex along Jamboree Road also includes the Joe C. Wen & Family Center for Advanced Care, as well as the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care building. Both opened in 2024. The cost of the entire project is $1.3 billion.
UCI Health, Orange County’s only academic health system, has more than 1,300 beds and serves 1.6 million people in Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County across its entire system. The UCI hospital in Orange generated $2.2 billion for the year ended Sept. 30, 2024.
Designed During the Pandemic
UCI Health’s new 144-bed hospital features a 24-hour emergency department, 10 operating suites, a blood bank and laboratory.
Once open, the hospital will offer services for a range of specialties, including cancer care, cardiology, digestive health, neurology, orthopedics and spine care.
The hospital was designed during the pandemic.
“Normally, in design in healthcare, you bring in parades of amazing co-workers and put them around plans on a big, long table,” Lefteris said. “We had to do all of this virtually.”
A core part of the hospital’s design was its sustainability components, which are overseen by Joe Brothman, director of general services at UCI Health.
The healthcare industry contributes 8.5% of all carbon emissions, according to the latest statistics. The new hospital won’t be generating any emissions as it will be using electricity to power heating, cooling, sterilization and other operations, Brothman said.
“It’s like going from a diesel Mack truck to a Tesla,” Brothman told the Business Journal during a tour of the facility. “It’s really a paradigm shift from what hospitals have been doing before.”
The only diesel-powered equipment is four emergency backup generators, which are used in the event of a major outage caused by earthquakes, storms or other related emergencies. However, UC experts are currently working on alternatives, Lefteris said.
In response to why an all-electric hospital hasn’t been done before, Brothman said that unavailable technology, coupled with stringent regulatory policies in California, made such a project difficult up until now.
The hospital and its surroundings, including gardens and parking structures, are topped with solar panels designed to reduce solar heat gain by 85%.
On a sunny day, the solar panels can generate 1.2 kilowatts of energy, only about 7% of the hospital’s total energy, given the energy-intensive nature of hospitals, Brothman said.
In addition to being the first all-electric acute care hospital in the nation, the facility also boasts one of the first all-electric hospital kitchens. Stoves and other cooking surfaces in the hospital utilize infrared technology as a heat source, replacing gas.
Surgical “Megafloor”
Another highlight of the hospital is a surgical “megafloor” that spans from the hospital to the adjacent outpatient surgery center, located beneath the Chao ambulatory care building.
The 56,000-square-foot surgical floor has 18 operating rooms for inpatient and outpatient surgeries.
Above on the second floor is MRI equipment, which is typically found in the basements of hospitals. Officials said they suspended these machines on an elevated platform to reduce noise and vibrations.
In April, two new MRI scanners were delivered to the hospital.
One is an ultrasound-enabled MRI with a stronger magnet, said to be beneficial for imaging the brain, spine and musculoskeletal system, and the other is an MRI integrated with AI.
The laboratory is located on the third floor, featuring diagnostic equipment from Beckman Coulter Diagnostics Inc. and offering point-of-care testing that provides staff with rapid results.
Independent Electronic Records System
UCI Health will soon launch its own electronic medical records system separate from UC San Diego Health, with which it has been sharing since 2018. The transition was made possible due to UCI Health’s acquisition of four community hospitals for $975 million last year, according to principal project manager Jess Langerud.
“We’re able to be more responsive to the needs and desires of physicians and caregivers within UCI Health specifically,” Langerud told the Business Journal.
UCI Health’s digital approach also extends to patient rooms, which display virtual care boards for physicians and digital signage on the outside.
Many patient rooms overlook the nearby San Joaquin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, which can also be seen from outdoor terraces, dining patios and meditation garden.
Lefteris said these views and outdoor spaces were designed to blur the lines between inside and outside.
“This was an early design intention to give our patients and co-workers a moment to take a breath,” Lefteris said.
Throughout the hospital are works by California artists, chosen by an arts committee chaired by James Irvine Swinden, who shepherded the Irvine Museum Collection for more than three decades before donating the artwork to UCI in 2016.
Upcoming 52-bed Rehab Hospital
UCI Health will open a two-story, 52-bed rehabilitation hospital next year in Irvine at 2200 Morse Avenue just off Von Karman Avenue, and a block from Main Street.
It’s partnering with Lifepoint Rehabilitation, a business unit of Tennessee-based healthcare provider Lifepoint Health, on the new inpatient facility. The partnership was first announced in 2022.
UCI Health Rehabilitation Hospital broke ground last year and is expected to create more than 200 jobs for the region, as well as triple UCI Health’s current inpatient rehabilitation capacity, serving an estimated 1,200 patients annually, according to UCI Health.
The 68,000-square-foot facility will be designed to treat patients in need of acute inpatient rehabilitation care for stroke, traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, amputation and more.
Planned features for the rehab hospital include a specialized brain injury unit, dialysis suite, imaging suite for onsite radiology and multidisciplinary therapy gymnasium outfitted with “the latest therapeutic technologies.”
The hospital will be jointly operated by UCI Health and Lifepoint Rehabilitation, joining Lifepoint’s growing network of more than 40 inpatient rehabilitation facilities across the country.
