A 16-story hospital has opened in Loma Linda. At 81.7 meters (268 feet) in height, the US$1.5 billion Dennis and Carol Troesh Medical Campus houses the Loma Linda University Medical Center and Children’s Hospital expansion. The new campus doubles the hospital’s square footage to 92,903 square meters (1 million square feet.)
With 5,100 trucks of concrete in the floors and 27,000 tons of steel it will be the heaviest per-square-foot building in North America, barring military installations, according to an article in The Press-Enterprise. The building rests on 126 base isolators to protect it from earthquakes.
The building sits next to two of the provider’s older hospitals. There’s a five-story pedestal, with an expansion of the neighboring children’s facility rising to nine stories, and a new adult hospital rising the full 16 stories.
The new adult facility will have 320 licensed beds and will replace the old cloverleaf-shaped facility built in 1967, which no longer meets state earthquake standards for inpatient care. The children’s facility will add 84 beds to the pediatric hospital for a total of 364 beds for young patients. Every room is private and has sleeping furniture for family.
The largest unit in the hospital is the fifth floor San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Maternity Pavilion.
The new hospital will nearly double the number of operating rooms from 11 to 20 and two of those are hybrids, which merge traditional operating room capabilities with high-tech imaging.
The building’s design also has the well-being of staff in mind including a glass hallway along the operating rooms.
For more on this story, go to The Press-Enterprise.