Inland Empire health care will never be the same after the first shovelfuls of dirt move at the May 22 groundbreaking of the new adult and children’s hospital towers at Loma Linda University Health, which will open in the year 2020.
This new facility will usher in a new era of medicine for the region.
The event runs from 2 to 5 p.m., and employees, students and the community are invited. The formal program, which will begin at 2:30 p.m., will include a preview of the new world-class facilities, followed by the ceremonial breaking of ground.
In addition to the ceremony, planners are making this a day of health and wholeness for the entire family. It will feature free activity areas for children, healthy cooking demonstrations, and a chance to win a free family vacation. Food trucks will serve festive eats, and additional activities will include face painting, a petting zoo, and a sneak peak of the new Children’s Hospital tower.
Come, experience the future of health care. For more information, visit groundbreaking.lluh.org. And spread the word with hashtag #LLUHGroundbreaking.
What will that future look like? The new medical complex will feature a 16-story adult hospital tower and a 9–story children’s tower. It will be the tallest building in San Bernardino County, but more notably it will offer whole person care with attention to people’s physical, mental, and spiritual needs — the same compassionate care for which Loma Linda University Health is known. All rooms will be private with a healing atmosphere and space for family members.
Kerry Heinrich, JD, CEO of Loma Linda University Medical Center, notes the monumental nature of this undertaking.
“There have been years of planning going into where we are,” he says. “We are just about to start moving dirt, and I am so excited about what is coming in the years ahead.
“In the next four years, this will be the largest hospital construction project in the state of California.”
The new hospital will have its footprint in what, up until now, has been the guest and patient parking lot of the Medical Center. The two hospital towers will share a base, on the north end of which will sit the adult tower. South, the Children’s Hospital tower will rise in shades of dichroic glass shimmering in the California sun.
“The children’s tower will have some remarkable features that will make it uniquely appealing to children,” Heinrich notes.
There will be some growing pains in the construction process, but Heinrich says, “We’re trying to minimize that in every way we can for our patients and our employees.”
The chief change seen thus far is that the front driveway to the Medical Center has been changed from Anderson Street to Prospect Avenue, and all patient and guest parking is now free valet service until the new six-story patient parking garage opens behind the Children’s Hospital on Campus Street in June.
Years in the planning, the new medical complex will set the standard in the local region and nation for whole person care. Dirt is about to move, and, as Heinrich says, “Someday is now.”