Healthcare

LOS ANGELES — Dignity Health California Hospital Medical Center has broken ground on a $215 million campus expansion and modernization project in downtown Los Angeles. The centerpiece of the project is a 150,000-square-foot patient care tower that will add space, privacy and advanced medical technology, as well as increasing capacity and accessibility for emergency, trauma and maternity services. The first floor of the new tower will house larger, private and state-of-the-art emergency and trauma bays resulting in a 51 percent increase in the number of patient care areas. Additionally, the new tower will feature an enhanced neonatal intensive care unit with private rooms and labor and delivery suites, including midwifery services, antepartum and postpartum services. The expansion will also include a new pediatrics unit on the sixth floor of the existing Tibbitts Tower, an emergency mental health observation center adjacent to the new emergency department and a new multi-level parking structure with meeting and retail space on the ground floor. Completion is slated for 2020, with occupancy in 2021. The campus expansion is being funded through a loan of $165 million from Dignity Health and a capital campaign seeking local philanthropic investment of $50 million.