UC Davis Health plans $3.75B, 16-story project at hospital in seismic overhaul
To meet California’s seismic standards by a 2030 deadline, UC Davis Health System is proposing to replace its current Sacramento hospital buildings as part of a $3.75 billion project that would boast an expanded 16-story tower and five-floor pavilion.
“While there is an overall reduction in the need for hospital beds across the region, we are uniquely planning for more beds,” said Dr. David Lubarsky, the chief executive officer of UC Davis Health, in a prepared statement.
In the preliminary proposal, UC Davis is recommending an increase in the number of licensed beds, growing to 700 from the 625 it has today. Because there will be more private rooms, the proposed structure will be double the square footage of the current hospital in Oak Park, UC Davis officials said. A number of studies have shown that private rooms cut down on patients’ stress, making it easier for them to sleep and reducing the time needed for recovery.
Lubarsky predicted that, in the future, patients who don’t need acute care will be able to seek treatment in settings other than hospitals. will more likely be diverted to other of the future will not see as many patients the number of patients.
In addition, he said, a lower proportion of the population will need to be admitted to hospitals because of evolving health technologies, same-day surgeries, telehealth visits and remote monitoring.
“However, those individuals who do require hospitalization will likely require longer stays for complex surgeries or other critical care services, such as trauma care, that we provide,” Lubarsky said. “We will continue to work with community hospital partners to increase the level and amount of care they provide locally while we concentrate on patients that require advanced technologies and coordinated subspecialists available in an academic center, and which leads to the superior outcomes we deliver in those cases.”
UC Davis Health officials said they will seek extensive input from the community on their preliminary plans for the new California Tower project, which will rise in a parking lot at the corner of 45th and X streets adjacent to the current hospital with its 14-story tower.
Right now, the project is in the planning and environmental design review process, according to UC Davis officials, and they expect planning and design to take three years. The current 12-story tower and other hospital buildings will be decommissioned or demolished since they do not meet state standards, the health system’s leaders said.
After the challenges of meeting surge capacity amid the COVID-19 pandemic, UC Davis officials are planning to ensure that a great number of rooms would be designed so they can be switched over to intensive-care rooms if needed.
This is what hospital planners call being “acuity adaptable,” and UC Davis officials said roughly 450 of the rooms in the proposed facility would meet this criteria. They would have the ability to isolate the air-conditioning system in case the medical teams are treating a patient with a contagious disease but also could accommodate the equipment needed to treat a patients who has to undergo extensive surgery.
