Construction of $1B Green Palomar Medical Center Completed

By Gabriel Circiog, Associate Editor

The new 740,000-square-foot Palomar Medical Center has passed state inspection and is scheduled to open Aug. 19. Located on a 56-acre site in the Escondido Research and Technology Center close to State Route 78 and Interstate 15, the hospital building was designed by Los Angeles-based CO Architects.

The design of the building will incorporate various features such as electronic medical record-keeping and various wired and wireless technologies. The design will also permit the hospital to accommodate future advancements in technology. The emphasis on technology and sustainability, as well as the use of natural light and greenery as part of the healing process, are some of the characteristics one will encounter in the first new hospital built in North County in over 30 years.

Close to 6,000 people were involved in the construction of the 11-story hospital, which was managed by the San Diego office of DPR Construction. Construction work for the new Palomar Medical Center started in December 2007 and, upon completion, will feature a 120-bed West Tower and a 168-bed East Tower. The hospital has the capacity to expand to 600 beds in the future.

Among the services that will be relocated to the new facility from the existing downtown Palomar Medical Center are the Trauma Center and Emergency Department. The latter will have 44 treatment rooms, 19 more than are currently available at the downtown facility.

The $956 million project was financed in large part by Proposition BB, a $496-million bond measure that district voters passed in 2004.

Palomar Health is the state’s largest public health district by area and provides services to an 800-plus-square-mile area with more than 500,000 residents. The district employs around 4,000 people and is affiliated with over 800 physicians.