UC Riverside’s School of Medicine will get its own teaching hospital in a project that will start with medical offices and eventually include a research center.
Officials made the announcement Tuesday morning, June 3, during a news conference at the future site of the long-sought hospital.
RELATED: UC Riverside’s new chancellor is Jack Hu, a University of Georgia administrator
UCR is the only University of California medical school to not have its own hospital. Instead, it has been training students at other area hospitals through partnerships.
On Tuesday, UCR Chancellor Kim Wilcox, University of California President Michael Drake and Garry Spanner, CEO of TDA — an investment company that manages the land on which the project will be built — signed an agreement for the facility.
-
UC Riverside Chancellor Kim Wilcox speaks Tuesday, June 3, 2025, about plans to build medical offices, a hospital and a research center in eastern Riverside. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)
1 of 17
UC Riverside Chancellor Kim Wilcox speaks Tuesday, June 3, 2025, about plans to build medical offices, a hospital and a research center in eastern Riverside. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)
The complex will be a partnership with TDA, which manages the site for the Construction Laborers Pension Trust for Southern California, will be on a 95-acre tract known as Canyon Springs Market Place.
A pending lease agreement is for 21 acres, with the potential for a future expansion at the intersection of Valley Springs Parkway and Gateway Drive.
Officials did not have a timeline or cost estimate for the project, but they said it would be funded by UC.
While not on campus, the facility will not be far from UCR.
It will be near Riverside’s eastern border with Moreno Valley, down the street from the Riverside County Registrar of Voters office and next to a Riverside Medical Clinic building.
The facility is considered the first phase of a “robust medical center,” Wilcox said.
Officials did not have details on the facilities such as how many beds would be in the hospital or what type of medical offices would be included.
Future plans for the center include the hospital and a research and innovation center, Wilcox said.
“Today we are stretching towards a whole other future for the Inland Empire and health care,” said Wilcox, who was joined at the event by UC President Michael Drake.
Drake called the announcement a great “capstone” to the career of Wilcox, who announced his retirement in September.
The news comes as UCR Health looks to further its healthcare footprint in the Inland Empire, a historically underserved community, Deborah Deas, dean of UCR’s medical school, said Tuesday.
She called it a moment of celebration and said the school’s main goal is to “extend beyond the education mission” by providing diverse direct care to the community.
“If you want to go fast, go alone,” Deas said. “If you want to go far, go together … We will go far while building a healthier Inland Empire.”
By 2048, Riverside and San Bernardino counties are expected to have a combined 5,692,922 residents, up from 4,723,216 residents in 2023, according to the California Department of Finance.
The Inland Empire, with a population of more than 4.6 million, has about 40 primary-care physicians per 100,000 people — well short of the 60 to 80 recommended by the California Health Care Foundation, a UCR news release states.
Legislators have pushed for the addition of a hospital to provide medical care for Inland Empire residents.
In 2019, then-state Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, and then-Assemblymembers Jose Medina and Sabrina Cervantes, both D-Riverside, helped snare $100 million in state dollars for the School of Medicine Education Building II that is rising on the Riverside campus.
In 2022, Roth lobbied colleagues to pave the way for a UCR hospital by approving Senate Bill 1199. The bill would have authorized UC to expend money to create a teaching hospital in Riverside. But Roth dropped the bill after finding that he did not have the UC Regents’ support.
UCR opened its medical school in 2013 with an inaugural class of 40 graduates. The university has relied on partnerships with area hospitals to provide hands-on training. UCR Health, through the school of medicine, sees more than 45,000 patients annually.
The school hosts pathway programs that support more than 1,200 students on their path to medical school and health or science professions, a news release states. Three-fourths of students accepted to the School of Medicine have ties to the Inland Empire, with almost half coming from underrepresented communities, the news release said.
The most recent addition to the medical school was The School of Medicine’s Education Building II, which opened in September 2023.
The five-story building was, until the announcement of the hospital, the largest expansion since the school of medicine’s inception in 2013.
The 90,000-gross-square-foot building has an urban downtown theme that includes outdoor seating, terraces, and landscaping designed to complement nearby buildings. The addition allowed UCR to expand its class from 80 students and add an additional 45 to 125 students.
Originally Published:
Source link
