Scripps La Jolla Breaks Ground on New Complex of Buildings

Scripps Health officials, board members, physicians, local dignitaries, and friends broke ground on April 18 for a long-anticipated complex of buildings on the campus of Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla.

The groundbreaking ceremony took place on the site of the much anticipated 1,350-space parking structure. The $29 million parking structure – estimated to be completed in mid 2008 – is one of a handful of projects currently in the works in an effort to better serve the health care needs of the community.

“Providing available parking for patients and visitors to our campus is a priority for us. The parking structure is needed to provide space for our growing campus,” says Gary Fybel, chief executive, Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla. “We anticipate building a medical office building and new hospital space on property that is currently surface parking. The high rise parking structure will open space for these future buildings.”

Following completion of the parking structure, construction will begin on a 140,000-square-foot medical office building.The building, located adjacent to the new parking structure, will house a variety of primary care and specialist offices, administration offices, and store front businesses.Expected completion date is June 2009.
Starting in 2010, the existing hospital structure will undergo retrofitting to meet state seismic standards. The five-year project will also include the addition of 40 medical/surgical beds and one operating room, and the expansion of interventional cardiology services.

Additionally, Scripps Health announced plans last year to build a $360 million comprehensive Cardiovascular Institute on the Scripps La Jolla campus. The institute will include the cardiac programs of Scripps Clinic/Scripps Green Hospital and Scripps La Jolla. The new seven-story tower will include approximately 309,000 square feet of space. Completion date is set for 2016.

Plans for the Scripps Cardiovascular Institute include 144 in-patient beds, 30 intensive care unit beds, 10 state-of-art operating rooms, cardiac catheterization labs with the most advanced medical technology, centralized cardiovascular research labs and a center for graduate medical education.

“For more than 80 years, Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla has been a health care leader in our community. We have taken a new step to ensure that this long tradition continues,” according to Fybel. “We will be proud of these facilities as they will reflect Scripps La Jolla’s goals of providing leading-edge medicine in a healing environment.”

Contact: Lisa Ohmstede
858-626-7142
ohmstede.lisa@scrippshealth.org