Rady Children’s Hospital broke ground on a new 500,000-square-foot expansion to its emergency and intensive care units on Tuesday.
The seven-story patient care tower will open in 2027. According to hospital authorities, it will include a new emergency department, sophisticated paediatric, neonatal, and cardiac critical care units. Additionally, it will have state-of-the-art surgical rooms.
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According to a news release, the $1 billion project is part of the hospital’s ambition to “reimagine” the whole campus over the next several years. The new facility will also have child-friendly spaces and single-patient rooms with accommodation for carers.
Rady Children’s President and CEO Patrick Frias, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, Councilmember Raul Campillo, benefactors Ernest and Evelyn Rady, and other hospital officials attended the groundbreaking event.
What the expansion at the Rady Children’s Hospital will offer
The facility will include “welcoming, child-friendly areas” and “large, single patient rooms with space for carers to stay,” according to a Rady statement. The pavilion will also have rooms that may be adapted for different functions at different periods as care models evolve in the next decades.
The San Diego Society for Crippled Children’s Board of Directors commenced constructing plans for a new children’s hospital in 1951. The Children’s Hospital Auxiliary was founded in 1953, and the groundbreaking ceremony took place later that year.
The first 12 children were admitted to the Children’s Hospital of San Diego on August 19, 1954. Nearly 2 million sick and wounded children have been treated at the facility since then.
Rady Children’s Hospital has about 700 physicians and over 1,000 nurses on staff. Additionally, 3,000 workers, 450 active volunteers, and over 1,200 auxiliary personnel. The majority of RCHA’s activities take place in its 21 auxiliary units. These are spread across the hospital’s service region in San Diego, Imperial, and Riverside counties. Many units hold their own fundraising activities, such as Point Loma’s Dana Unit’s Garden Walk, Fuerte Hills’ Unit’s Sweet Charity luncheon, and Rancho Santa Fe Unit’s Stand Up for Rady Children’s.
