A $3.74 billion construction project is underway to upgrade a major California hospital.
The UC Davis Medical Center will receive a new, 14-story tower – the California Tower, along with a five-story pavilion. The project will upgrade the hospital – already the largest in the Sacramento area – from 646 beds to 675-700 beds.
The new tower will expand the eastern side of the existing medical center by nearly one million square feet. It will feature new operating rooms, an imaging center, state-of-the-art facilities for pharmacy and burn care units, and approximately 334 private patient rooms.
Approved by the UC Board of Regents in January 2022, the new hospital and pavilion will complement the medical center’s existing University and Davis Towers. The California Tower project is expected to create hundreds of construction jobs, said UC Davis Health.
“The addition of the California Tower to UC Davis Medical Center is a testament to our innovative forward thinking across our health system and main campus,” said UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May in a press release.
“This project will position our researchers, students, faculty and staff to meet and adapt to regional health care needs for the next 50 years.”
“The hospital tower we’re breaking ground on today represents another pivotal investment in our city by UC Davis,” said Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
“Both this tower and the new Aggie Square innovation campus will create thousands of new, high-quality jobs and expand our ability to meet the health care needs of our residents.
UC Davis Health said the new tower will replace sections of the hospital that need to close because of state seismic regulations.
Newsweek has contacted UC Davis Health for additional comment via email.
Construction of the California Tower is slated for completion by 2030.
Newsweek reported earlier this month that construction was getting underway on a $900 million expansion for a Pennsylvania hospital.
The Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre is to receive an 11-story patient tower and a boost to the center’s capacity for emergency medicine, critical care, trauma care, surgical services and cardiovascular programs.
“Any construction project of this size presents challenges to a hospital campus. We’ve planned meticulously to minimize impact to patient care and maintain normal hospital operations throughout this project. Our family advisory council regularly requests input from our patients, and we’ll use their feedback to address any inconveniences that arise during the project, Geisinger told Newsweek.
“We will continue communicating campus impacts at the appropriate times to ensure patients can continue accessing care as they do today. Meanwhile, we’ve used ongoing communications to our staff to notify them ahead of changes that have impacted parking, traffic flow and employee entry. We’ve also updated campus signage with each change to inform patients and employees of these impacts in real time,” it said.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
