Kaiser expects to open delayed $500M Vacaville hospital in fall

Kaiser expects to open delayed $500M Vacaville hospital in fall
San Francisco Business Times - by Chris Rauber
Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Kaiser Permanente expects to open its $500 million new Vacaville hospital by the fall, after earlier delaying its opening due to the economic downturn.

That cost estimate includes the 340,000-square-foot hospital itself, with “up to 150 beds,” and a 217,000-square-foot medical office building that opened last November, Northern California Kaiser spokesman Marc Brown told the San Francisco Business Times late Monday.

Many details, including staffing levels and the exact opening date for the medical center are still to be determined, Brown said, but that opening is expected to happen in October or November.

Kaiser’s www.kaiservacaville.com web site placed the projected opening “in the fall of 2009.”

Last November, Oakland-based Kaiser said it would delay the proposed openings of new hospitals in Vacaville and Vallejo from the spring and fall of 2009, respectively, to late 2009 and early 2010, blaming the impact of “the ongoing economic challenges.” That timing still appears to be the game plan, given Kaiser’s most recent announcements.

On the Vacaville web site, Kaiser said the new Vacaville medical center will include emergency services, a critical care unit, medical-surgical services and “a full complement” of diagnostic and support services, but not labor and delivery services, which will continue to be offered at Kaiser’s Vallejo medical center. Kaiser officials said on the web site that labor and delivery services require a certain volume to ensure quality and efficiency. “As the need for obstetrical services increases in the Napa-Solano region, we will re-evaluate the availability of labor and delivery at the Vacaville hospital,” the web site posting indicated.

The Vacaville opening will not affect timing of construction of a new hospital tower at Kaiser Vallejo, officials said, “which is on schedule to open in spring 2010.”

Oakland-based Kaiser, which has 8.6 million enrollees systemwide, has more than 240,000 members in Napa and Solano counties, where it boasts 400 physicians and nurse practitioners.

crauber@bizjournals.com / (415) 288-4946