Scripps Health announced plans Monday to build a new medical center campus in San Marcos, including an ambulatory care facility and acute care hospital.
Plans for the Scripps San Marcos Medical Center campus are moving forward decades after Scripps Health purchased property in the North County city.
"We acquired the San Marcos property 35 years ago, but it wasn't the right time to build,'' Chris Van Gorder, Scripps Health president and CEO, said in a statement.
"Our patient population in the area has since grown to the point that it made sense for us to move forward. Scripps provides care to many residents of the San Marcos region today and this campus will expand access and make care more convenient for these patients and their families.''
Erik Bruvold, CEO of the San Diego North County Economic Development Council, said the region was underserved with the amount of hospital care available and health care providers are starting to see the need.
“Our region has grown. 1.3 million people live north of (State Route) 56," he said. "It only makes sense for the major health care systems to serve up here. And we're waiting for Sharp and UCSD to figure out how to get to North County.”
Sharp HealthCare last year announced a partnership with Palomar Health to provide services at its Escondido Medical Center. UC San Diego had planned to expand its services in partnership with Tri-City Medical Center, but the talks ended last summer.
The campus will be located on 13 acres on Discovery Street, south of State Route 78 and near the Bent Avenue Bridge.
It is within walking distance of the newly built Kaiser Permanente San Marcos Medical Center and a short drive away from Palomar Medical Center Escondido.
Bruvold said San Marcos is essentially becoming a health care hub.
"But most importantly for the residents up here, that means that specialty care and acute care, and rehabilitative care that they might otherwise have had to go down to Kearny Mesa or UCSD," he said.
The ambulatory care facility is expected to be constructed first, and will include primary care physician offices, ambulatory surgery and cancer care, among other services.
The hospital is in the planning stages and is expected to have 200 to 250 beds, Scripps Health said.
"A major player like Scripps choosing to invest in San Marcos is exciting on so many levels,'' San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones said. "We have worked hard to become a premier health care hub in the region, which not only supports a strong local economy but contributes to the ultimate goal of making San Marcos a place where people live long, healthy lives.''
The Medical Center campus is expected to open by 2031.
