PMC Breaks Ground for Construction of New Hospital

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Sutter Health’s California Pacific Medical Center CEO Warren Browner, M.D., MPH was joined by San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee and several members of the Board of Supervisors to celebrate construction of the new state-of-the-art, seismically safe hospital at the St. Luke’s campus at Cesar Chavez and Valencia Streets. The construction, which begins in October, will be the second of two new CPMC being built in San Francisco, California. The new CMC hospital at Van Ness and Geary is currently under construction.

“This is an important milestone in the 150-year history of CPMC and for the delivery of healthcare in San Francisco,” Browner said. “With the construction of two new world-class hospitals that integrate the most advanced technology available, we have an opportunity to change the delivery of healthcare for decades to come.”

Construction of the new hospital at the St. Luke’s campus begins with excavation to prepare the site for foundation work. The hospital is scheduled to open in 2019 and will have 120 beds, which include 88 medical beds, 10 intensive care unit beds and 22 labor/delivery beds. The hospital will also have five operating rooms and an emergency department with 16 treatment rooms.

The engineering designs for the hospital incorporate innovative technologies and buckling-resistant braced frames designed to yield in tension or compression, preventing buckling of the building’s steel frame. Similar technology has long been successfully used in earthquake-prone areas like Japan.

The new hospital at the St. Luke’s campus is designed to achieve LEED certification. Green measures reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing energy and water usage. A pedestrian plaza will provide a park-like urban oasis with community access that will also help divert approximately 360,000 gallons of storm water annually from the city’s storm/sewer system. The capture of rainwater in a 50,000 gallon cistern also will be used to dissipate heat from the HVAC system at the building rooftop cooling towers.

The new CPMC hospitals are scheduled to open in 2019.