A $50 million gift from the Sun Family Foundation is helping Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian create three new medical institutes at its Irvine campus, expected to open in 2025, hospital officials have announced.
Catering to women’s health, cancer care and digestive illnesses, the institutes will be housed in three-story buildings being built to blend into the nearby landscapes, officials said. Each of the buildings will have atriums and surrounding gardens to make the facilities seem less clinical.
“We’re creating a healthcare village built on what the Irvine Co. has done,” Sanford Smith, Hoag’s vice president of real estate and facilities, said of the expansion planned of its campus. “The buildings will be low-rise and pedestrian-friendly. It will complement the health care center already on Sand Canyon Avenue.”
The 24-acre campus will add eight buildings, two of which will be parking structures. The Women’s Health Institute has two designated facilities and the Digestive Health Institute has two. Medical procedures will be done in another building and one more will house a pharmacy and laboratories. Work has begun on the parking structures.
“This gift from the Sun Family Foundation will enable Hoag to dramatically expand the breadth of outstanding health care services,” Flynn A. Andrizzi, president of the Hoag Hospital Foundation, said in a statement announcing the donation. “The Sun family’s generosity is a testament to the unique relationship Hoag enjoys with the community – and how, together, we can make Orange County stronger and healthier.”
The Sun Family Foundation and the Kingston Technology Foundation have given Hoag more than $52.3 million, and Kingston Technology Foundation gave $2 million to Hoag’s COVID-19 fund. In 2015, the Sun Family Foundation gave more than $300,000 toward the expansion of Hoag’s Irvine hospital emergency department.
The foundation will have given more than $1.3 billion to various efforts in Orange County over the last decade with the new contribution.
Hoag officials said the $50 million enables the health care system to turn its Irvine campus into an internationally prominent, comprehensive center for medical treatment, research and education.
A big focus of the project is including numerous gardens, atriums and landscaping around the buildings to soften their look, making the experience more relaxing for patients and the doctors, nurses and staff who work there.
“We’ve known for generations about the healing power of nature in health care,” said Karen Costello, who works for Smith in Hoag’s planning, design and development. “Instead of a singular tower, everyone is just a few feet away from landscapes. We’re making use of our assets here: our weather, climate and wonderful environment.”
The innovative new care programs are expected to draw more patients and new physicians and staff to the institutes. Their specialized focus are the result of the ever-changing needs and advances in medicine, Smith said, especially in wake of the pandemic, which exposed the strengths and weaknesses of the nation’s healthcare system.
Hoag’s Irvine campus is at the center of Orange County and close to John Wayne Airport, making it easy for patients from out of area to see doctors and receive “unsurpassed personalized care,” Hoag officials said.
Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan said her city is admired as one of America’s “most innovative and livable cities” because the environment it fosters enables forward-thinking companies and organizations to thrive.
“Hoag definitely fits the mold of a forward-thinking organization,” she said.
Hoag CEO Robert Braithwaite said the hospital already attracts patients from around the globe, and its national reputation for innovation draws physicians practicing new techniques to the area.
The new institutes will help Hoag further elevate its health care, he said, by transforming its care delivery to an “integrated, specialized, services-based model.”
By: The Orange County Register
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