Dignity Health's French Hospital Medical Center plans to break ground in November 2019 on a $100 million-plus expansion and renovation that hospital leaders say will address an overcapacity issue. The construction is to be completed by mid-2023. The facility is in central California's San Luis Obispo.
The renovation will include a four-story hospital addition; 95 new private patient rooms; an eight-bed neonatal intensive care unit; five new intensive care unit suites, a new front entrance; a helipad; and expanded space for imaging, labs, material management, food services and other departments. The project also will upgrade the facility's technology.
The project will add a total of 115 rooms, bringing the facility's bed count to 195.
Hospital operations and a fundraising campaign will provide the capital for the expansion and renovation.
Hospital leaders said the construction is necessary because the 70-year-old campus is over capacity. They said San Luis Obispo County is experiencing much growth, and that is driving a need for expanded health care services.
San Francisco-based Dignity Health acquired French Hospital in 2004 and has since invested more than $45 million in the hospital, including for a cardiac care center, cancer resource center, hybrid surgical suite, education pavilion, birthing center and an in-progress emergency department expansion.
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