After 36 months of construction, Sharp Chula Vista has officially opened a new 197,000-sq.ft. $244 million hospital tower, marking the opening of the first new hospital in the South Bay in more than 40 years.
“I think this was a team effort and you can feel the pride, the excitement of all the people working here, all our staff,” CEO Pablo Velez said. “I feel very proud of the project, this is once in a lifetime that you get to design a new hospital and open a new facility.”
He added that the construction of the building prioritized sustainability, used local materials as much as possible and sourced construction labor locally, with 90 percent of the construction labor coming from San Diego County.
The new building adds 106 private patient rooms with private bathrooms and showers and enough space for family members to visit.
With the increase in patient rooms, Velez said Sharp will be able to expedite the process of getting emergency department patients a bed, making it more efficient for the more than 75,000 emergency department patients Sharp cares for annually.
The tower also adds six new operating rooms, including the only hybrid operating room in the South Bay, which is a surgical suite complete with cardiatric and radiology equipment that allows for advanced surgical procedures.
“If the patient needs open heart surgery, instead of moving that patient to another surgical suite, we keep the patient there and bring the team. We are able to avoid a waste of time and return, stabilizing the patient sooner,” Velez said.
While developing the design of the building, Velez said he and the design team went to other new hospitals and asked staff what they loved about their building and what they hated about their building to better understand how Sharp could maximize efficiency and safety.
“The way we designed and built the building, it’s probably one of the safest hospitals,” Velez said.
Safety is being maximized through separate paths of travel in the hospital for dirty supplies and clean supplies, including linens, and separate elevators designated for different dietary restrictions, according to Velez.
To top off the tower’s functional layout, the seventh floor features a cafe and indoor and outdoor terrace with expansive panoramic views.
“We wanted to create a soothing, nice environment for employees and physicians to practice in,” Velez said.
Aside from the additional medical resources the new tower will allow Sharp to provide to the South Bay community, it will also open up 175 jobs for various positions including nurse technicians and physicians.
