An inspirational event earlier this month recognized the dedicated teamwork which is bringing world-class healthcare closer to home for those living on the east side of the City and County of San Diego.

Top administrators, physician leaders, the Mayor of San Diego and even the spouse of a patient who recently received life-saving care at the new facility, took turns acknowledging the significant personal and institutional efforts which have led to UCSD’s growing capacity to serve the region’s healthcare needs.

Pradeep Khosla, Chancellor of UCSD, welcomed a group of about 100 health, campus and community leaders, government officials and others to the celebration of what he called, a “tremendous milestone.” Representatives of San Diego State University, the College Area Community Council and City Council District 9 office were also present. Khosla spoke about the “exponential growth” UCSD has experienced during the past decade, stating, “We have seen double-digit growth in multiple areas: students, research and our presence in the community.”

Part of this growth is the new UC San Diego Health East Campus, located in College Area at 6655 Alvarado Road.

Previously known as Alvarado Hospital, the University acquired the site from Prime Healthcare in December, 2023. According to Patty Maysent, Chief Executive Officer of UC San Diego Health, the vision and strategic planning for the addition of the East Campus was nearly a decade in the making. She acknowledged the efforts of both organizations during the transition and the ongoing role of more than 700 former Alvarado Hospital staff members who became UC San Diego Health employees on Jan. 1, 2024.

Expansion provides a tremendous opportunity

During her initial remarks, Maysent emphasized the tremendous opportunity the expansion provides to open up care to the east. She said, “About 28% of the patients we serve today come from this community, so we are super excited that now we’re going to bring care closer to home.”

Then the UC San Diego Health CEO introduced Carrie Mayers, a local resident and the wife of a recent East Campus patient who sought care for an unexplained, persistent fever. Both grateful and witty, she gave voice to the experience of patients and their families, sharing that her husband was admitted after testing led to the diagnosis of a severe infection. Following his emergency room visit, he received multi-disciplinary care while being hospitalized for a week in the 302-bed facility.

In addition to emergency, acute and critical care, a range of specialty services are offered at East Campus Medical Center, including behavioral health, cardiology, gastroenterology, interventional radiology, orthopedics and urology. East Campus is also designated as both Stroke and STEMI (ST-elevation myocardial infarction) Receiving Centers, able to treat the most severe types of stroke and heart attack. UC Health patients can also access on-site lab and imaging services as outpatients.

No matter which practitioner or specialty service a patient visits, there is now one common medical record system across all campuses. The integration of East Campus electronic medical records started May 17, allowing information access and sharing systemwide.

Attending the event was Allen Tran, PharmD, the Director of In-Patient Clinical Systems for UC San Diego Health Information Technology. He’s been key to successfully onboarding the tech side of East Campus operations. “Our MyChart platform is one of the premier patient portal platforms of users across any academic medical center,” he said. “We’ve reached so many patients with that platform and have some of the highest rating of functionality of any Epic client. With this functionality the patients will be connected with any appointment and any data seen at any of our campuses in Hillcrest, La Jolla or any of the ambulatory care centers. It allows them to input information, ask their physicians questions, of course, but also schedule appointments.”

Mayor Todd Gloria also made time to attend the event and spoke to the group.

He stated that he is deeply appreciative that UCSD is bringing care to the eastern edge of the City of San Diego. “This is the gateway to East County,” he said, “it’s an important community, not just of San Carlos, Del Cerro and College Area, but of La Mesa, of El Cajon, of Lakeside, of Santee, Lemon Grove, Spring Valley . . . communities that deserve to have high quality care.”

Understanding the needs of the community

The mayor acknowledged, “What’s most important to me today is that UC San Diego understands the need in our community for the growth of behavioral health services in San Diego.” In a light-hearted way, he noted the breadth of his job tasks from typical to critical, “As Mayor you expect me to do a couple of things. You expect me to fill the potholes, right? Pick up the garbage, yes? Get the water to your house . . . that is my day-to-day job, but the fact of the matter is, I spend an extraordinary amount of my time on our mental health crisis.”

A health crisis which led the San Diego City Council to unanimously declare it a “behavioral health bed crisis” last December, about the same time UCSD purchased the East Campus facility. With a renowned Department of Psychiatry and multi-disciplinary approach, the new East Campus of the #1 rated hospital system in San Diego currently operates a 30-bed Senior Behavioral Health Unit in its West Tower. Planned additional behavioral health beds in the future will provide more San Diegans with mental and physical healthcare under one roof.

As UCSD’s top administrator, Chancellor Khosla summed up the remarkable accomplishments being celebrated at the event, “We do all this and much more in service to our mission to be a destination public university that is student-centered, research-driven, patient-dedicated and service-oriented.” The new East Campus is now one of UCSD’s three academic medical centers and 30 primary care and specialty clinics throughout the region, each providing world-class healthcare close to home.

Editor’s note: Karen Austin is one of approximately 260,000 patients seen annually by UC San Diego Health.

Top photo caption: Pictured with a sign for the renamed trolley stop across the street from UC San Diego Health East Campus Medical Center, are four of the keynote speakers during a June 7 celebratory event for the new facility. L to R: Richard Lieb, Chair of the University of California Board of Regents; Pradeep Khosla, Chancellor of the University of California, San Diego; Todd Gloria, Mayor of the City of San Diego; and Patty Maysent, Chief Executive Officer of UC San Diego Health. (Photo by Karen Austin)