CHAD LEFTERIS
CEO
UCI HEALTH
WHY: Runs OC’s only academic medical center and all clinical and patient-serving operations. Also heads the overall UCI Health system, which includes Orange’s UCI Medical Center, the area’s largest hospital, and more than a dozen outpatient research and specialty care centers throughout Orange County and portions of Riverside County.
BY THE NUMBERS: On the Business Journal’s most recent list of hospitals, UCI Health ranked as the largest in Orange County, generating $1.6 billion for the year ended Sept. 30.
FUTURE PLANS: Construction well underway for $1.3 billion medical complex on 13.5 acres of land the school owns near the corner of Jamboree Road and Campus Drive. The largest parts of the UCI Health-Irvine project include a 144-bed acute care hospital with an emergency room, the Joe C. Wen & Family UCI Health Center for Advanced Care, and the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care building.
IN THEIR WORDS: The new hospital complex, near the Irvine and Newport Beach city line, has about 800,000 square feet of space planned in total. It is geared toward patients living in South Orange County, so they don’t have to battle traffic. “The biggest thing is it allows us to take our world-class experts and bring them closer to where people live,” Lefteris said. “So many patients must travel to fight traffic. You got enough to worry about. It’s about bringing our experts to you. When you live in South County, you won’t have to drive 45 minutes to an hour to get up to Orange.”
