SAN MARCOS, CALIF. — Scripps Health has unveiled plans to move forward with the development of a new medical center campus in San Marcos, about 35 miles north of San Diego. The Scripps San Marcos Medical Center will be located on a 13-acre site south of State Route 78 near Twin Oaks Valley Parkway. The first phase of the project will be a comprehensive ambulatory facility, and the second phase will be an acute care hospital. Total project costs are estimated at $1.2 billion, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.
“We acquired the San Marcos property 35 years ago, but it wasn’t the right time to build,” says Chris Van Gorder, president and CEO of Scripps Health. “Our patient population in the area has since grown to the point that it made sense for us to move forward.”
Scripps purchased roughly 80 acres in San Marcos for a medical center campus in 1990. In the early 2000s, Scripps engaged H.G. Fenton to work with Scripps and the City of San Marcos on how to best utilize the land, with Scripps retaining 13 acres for the development of the new campus.
For more than four years, Scripps management has been working to develop a master plan for the site and conducting the necessary studies for board approval. Last week, the Scripps Health Board of Trustees approved the facility plans for North San Diego County, including endorsing development in San Marcos. In addition, significant improvements to the site have been completed, including grading, roads and numerous underground utility stubs.
The ambulatory facility will include multi-specialty and primary care physician offices, ambulatory surgery, cancer care, complex imaging, laboratory and other services.
Planning is underway for a 200- to 250-bed acute care hospital that will provide a broad range of inpatient and outpatient hospital services. Scripps will work with the city and the state, which oversees acute hospital construction.