The Kaiser Permanente health system, which operates Orange County’s largest health maintenance organization, has two more building projects in the works here.
The unit of Oakland-based Kaiser Foundation Health Plan will spend $18 million to convert a recently acquired building in Tustin Ranch into a specialty medical clinic. It also has begun work on $9 million worth of first-phase construction of a medical building in Foothill Ranch.
The health plan, which counts 433,000 local HMO members, is adding the facilities in the wake of growth in its South County membership ranks. The increase appears to have followed the 2008 opening of a hospital at Alton Parkway and Sand Canyon Avenue in Irvine.
Tustin Ranch Clinic
Kaiser’s Tustin Ranch clinic is expected to open to patients in August 2013. The facility will be situated in a building fronting the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway near Jamboree Road that it bought in November for $14 million.
The site offers a total 148,000 square feet, but Kaiser initially will renovate only 65,000 square feet because of parking concerns. Kaiser likely will build a parking structure and renovate the balance of the building sometime in the future, said K.R. Jagannath, a senior project manager.
The clinic will provide primary care for adults, pediatric care, radiology, clinical nursing services, podiatry, optometry and ophthalmology, and will feature a laboratory for drawing blood and a pharmacy.
The Foothill Ranch clinic, located near Lake Forest and Towne Centre drives, will be built in two phases. A first phase will feature 21,531 square feet of space and room for 12 healthcare professionals, primarily doctors.
The clinic will offer primary care for adults, pediatric care and radiology services, a pharmacy and a blood-draw lab.
Obstetrics and gynecological services will continue to be available on Kaiser’s Irvine medical campus.
Construction
“The construction has just started,” Jagannath said, adding that the first phase of the Foothill Ranch clinic will be fully completed in January 2013.
An eventual second phase of Foothill Ranch construction could add 15,000 square feet of space, including offices, at an estimated cost of $15 million.
“The addition is contingent on the growth of membership in southern Orange County,” Jagannath said.
Kaiser considers membership and population forecasts in deciding where it puts buildings, said Tony Smale, Kaiser Permanente Orange County’s lead planner.
“Great Addition”
“We realized Foothill Ranch was a great addition to our portfolio,” Smale said.
The clinic will serve Kaiser’s members in Foothill Ranch, Rancho Santa Margarita and Lake Forest. The closest Kaiser location is in Mission Viejo, near Alicia Parkway and Jeronimo Road.
Smale said the proximity to Irvine was a key.
“Irvine, we know, is one of the highest-growth areas anywhere in the county, so we wanted to be well-positioned for that,” he said.
Tustin Ranch will have 185 employees, including 42 providers. Foothill Ranch will have 60 workers, including 12 providers.
Kaiser will pay for the construction through its corporate borrowing program.
$461M Hospital
Kaiser is scheduled to open a $461 million, 400,000-square-foot, 262-bed hospital on La Palma Avenue in Anaheim in September. The facility is the focal point of a medical campus that also will feature two office buildings, a support facility and a parking structure.
An estimated 60% of Kaiser’s local members live in North and Central OC.
La Palma will replace an aging Kaiser hospital on Lakeview Avenue, which the health system intends to convert to other uses.
