New Santa Monica Campus of UCLA Health System Dedicated

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – UCLA Health System recently dedicated its new Santa Monica, Calif. campus in a ceremony attended by doctors, nurses, university officials and business and community leaders.

Part of a massive, system-wide rebuilding project, the new campus features the UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica; a branch of the Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA; the Los Angeles Orthopaedic Hospital and the UCLA Rape Treatment Center. The new buildings will open for patient care in early 2012.

The new campus complements existing, world-class services provided by UCLA Health System facilities that include Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA, the Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA, and more than 80 primary and specialty offices throughout greater Los Angeles.

Posie Carpenter, chief administrative officer of UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, said the new campus will provide the full continuum of services, from neonatal intensive care to geriatric medicine, in a welcoming, yet technologically advanced facility.

“Our Santa Monica campus will be a jewel of the UCLA Health System,” she said. “Supported by the best doctors, nurses and hospital staff, this campus will help us improve overall patient care and bolster our continued growth into an academic medical center with longstanding community ties.”

Key components of the new campus include:

• The Orthopaedic Hospital Institute, featuring an outpatient clinic for adult and pediatric orthopaedics, the UCLA Department of Orthopaedics administrative and faculty offices, a library and museum-style display cases.
• 266 inpatient beds, most in private, spacious rooms that feature family space and sleeper chairs for rooming-in;
• A 22-bed adult and pediatric intensive care unit with the latest technology and 360-degree access to patients;
• Santa Monica’s only inpatient pediatrics unit, a 26-bed facility;
• Integrated interventional and surgical services, including radiology and cardiac-catheterization labs, 16 state-of-the-art operating rooms and pre- and post-anesthesia care units;
• A conference center with meeting rooms and a 90-seat auditorium;
• A new cafeteria with indoor and outdoor seating.

Several key services opened during a previous phase, including the Nethercutt Emergency Center in 2007, which now serves almost 40,000 patients annually, and the BirthPlace in 2008, with its comfortable, hotel-like labor, delivery and recovery rooms and 16-bassinet neonatal intensive care unit.

The design of the hospital is inspired not only by the Northern Italianate architecture of original buildings on the UCLA campus, but also by hospitality concepts that speak to the character of the building, its public spaces and patient rooms. More than 25 percent of the new campus is dedicated to green and open spaces.

“The new hospital is designed to create a comfortable, even home-like setting for delivering healthcare that will benefit patients, visitors and staff,” said architect Robert A.M. Stern, who along with CO Architects designed the new building. “Additionally, we wanted to create a design that connected the Santa Monica campus with UCLA’s Westwood campus to clearly establish its identity as part of the UCLA Health System.”

The rebuilding project was launched in response to damage caused by the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The new hospital was built to meet the latest seismic safety standards and can withstand an earthquake of up to magnitude 8.4, while redundant power sources will allow the hospital to operate for at least 100 hours after an earthquake without receiving any help from the outside world.

After patients have been safely moved to the new hospital in early 2012, the existing, nine-story tower building will be demolished to make way for additional landscaped gardens. A majority of the concrete and steel from the tower will be recaptured, ground and recycled into new concrete and steel for future projects. Final site improvements should take about one year to complete.

Funding for the $572-million project was provided by multiple sources including FEMA grants, bond initiatives and donations from individuals and corporations.