UC San Diego Medical Center, Hillcrest
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Hillcrest Medical Center at UC San Diego Health (Previously UC San Diego Medical Center, Hillcrest and UC San Diego Medical Center) is one of three medical centers of
UC San Diego Health UC San Diego Health is the academic health system of the University of California, San Diego in San Diego, California. It is the only academic health system serving San Diego and has one of three adult Level I trauma centers in the region. In o ...
and is a teaching hospital for the
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine is the graduate medical school of the University of California, San Diego, a public land-grant research university in La Jolla, California. It was the third medical school in the Univer ...
. The 390-bed hospital offers a range of primary care and specialized services and houses several regional services, including the San Diego Regional Burn Center and a Comprehensive Stroke Center. Its
emergency department An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the Acute (medicine), ...
includes the first overall and sole academic Level I Trauma Center serving
San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of California, north to its border with Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634; it is the second-most populous ...
and
Imperial County Imperial County is a county located on the southeast border of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 179,702, ranking as the least populous county in Southern California. The county seat and largest city is ...
. It and the UC San Diego
Jacobs Medical Center Jacobs Medical Center is a teaching hospital on the University of California San Diego, University of California, San Diego campus in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego. Along with the UC San Diego Medical Center, Hillcrest, it serves as a fl ...
are the only two academic teaching hospitals in
San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
.


History

The history of medical care in Hillcrest dates back to 1904, when patients from the Poor Farm in
Mission Valley Mission Valley is a wide river valley trending east–west in San Diego, California, United States, through which the San Diego River flows to the Pacific Ocean. For planning purposes the City of San Diego divides it into two neighborhoods: Mi ...
were transferred to the new three-story San Diego County Hospital there. In 1958, the UC Regents approved the creation of a
medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...
at the University of California San Diego, coinciding with the county's plan to create a $12.5 million, 600-bed medical center to replace the structurally deficient county hospital. The eleven-story, 623-bed Hillcrest hospital opened in 1963, and control was transferred to UCSD in 1966 for an initial lease payment of $350,000 a year. Over the next fifteen years, the renamed University Hospital expanded its services rapidly. In 1973, the Regional Burn Center was established, followed by the Regional Trauma Center in 1976, the Outpatient Center in 1977, and the Cancer Center in 1978. In 1981, the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
system purchased the hospital from the county for $17 million. It continued to expand services, while reducing the number of inpatient beds as needed. In 1988, the creation of Thornton Hospital on the
La Jolla La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood in San Diego, California, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. The climate is mild, with an average daily temperature o ...
campus allowed the regents to reduce the number of Hillcrest beds from 447 to 327. The hospital received a 78,000 square foot, $32 million facelift in 1992. In 2005, UC San Diego announced future plans to consolidate its Hillcrest and La Jolla operations under one roof in La Jolla. This plan was met with considerable backlash, as neighboring hospitals and communities expressed concern about UCSD's interest in serving indigent communities. UCSD shelved these plans until 2010, when it announced construction of
Jacobs Medical Center Jacobs Medical Center is a teaching hospital on the University of California San Diego, University of California, San Diego campus in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego. Along with the UC San Diego Medical Center, Hillcrest, it serves as a fl ...
in La Jolla. The health system's new plan outlines a long-term Hillcrest presence past 2030.


Facilities

The Hillcrest Medical Center at UC San Diego Health comprises 37 individual buildings on a 56-acre campus, of which seven are primarily facilities for patient care. The remaining structures serve a variety of support services, including administration, housing, teaching, and transportation. Of these seven, five are clinics scattered around the facility, one is the inpatient psychiatric unit, and one is the eleven-story hospital inpatient tower. The tower houses the vast majority of the medical complex's advanced services. UCSD administration has been planning to replace the dated facility since 2005, as by 2030 it will be inoperable due to increased seismic regulations in California. Planners believe that it would be more cost-efficient to replace the facility than perform the necessary upgrades. The ten-story Jacobs Medical Center was originally proposed as a controversial replacement for the Hillcrest facility. San Diego residents and nearby hospitals such as
Scripps Health Scripps Health is a nonprofit health care system based in San Diego, California. The system includes five hospital campuses and 30 outpatient centers and clinics, and treats more than 600,000 patients annually through 3,000 affiliated physicians. ...
argued that the move would leave South County patients underserved, and UCSD decided to build Jacobs Medical Center as a supplement to, not a replacement for, the Hillcrest campus. A long-range development plan is expected by 2018, and the replacement hospital on the current site will likely be completed by 2030.


Services

A variety of advanced medical services are housed at the Hillcrest campus, including an emergency department and Level I Trauma Center, Regional Burn Center, HIV/AIDS Treatment Center, stroke center, birth center, and Surgical Intensive Care Unit. The emergency department at Hillcrest Medical Center at UC San Diego Health handles 60,000 patients a year and operates the original Level I Trauma Center in San Diego County. Patients may arrive via ambulance or helicopter, as the hospital also serves Imperial County. The trauma center, which handles 3,000 patients annually, was remodeled in 2013 to modernize its facilities. The new services include a consolidated resuscitation center on the fifth floor with four dedicated beds and a camera monitoring system, as well as instant x-rays and electronic lab results. The expansion was coupled with a $14 million remodel to the first-floor emergency department, which added 12 private beds to the facility for a grand total of 36. The stroke center at the hospital was one of the first five
Joint Commission The Joint Commission is a United States-based nonprofit tax-exempt 501(c) organization that accredits more than 22,000 US health care organizations and programs. The international branch accredits medical services from around the world. A majori ...
-certified comprehensive stroke centers in the country. It specializes in acute stroke, stroke prevention, and after-stroke care. The Regional Burn Center is a level 1 pediatric and adult burn unit, and is the sole burn center serving San Diego County,
Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is the major West Coast base of the United States Marine Corps and is one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the United States. It is on the Southern California coast in San Diego County and is bordered by ...
, and Imperial Valley. It has been the treatment center for numerous natural disasters, including the 2007 San Diego wildfires.


Research and teaching

The medical center at Hillcrest is the location of much of UCSD's basic research and clinical research. Its researchers and clinicians coordinate their activities with researchers at the
UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Sc ...
main campus and
UC San Diego School of Medicine The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine is the graduate medical school of the University of California, San Diego, a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in La Jolla, California. It wa ...
. The complex north of the hospital tower includes the Airway Research/Clinical Trials Center, one of several specialized research centers participating in phase I through phase IV clinical trials through UC San Diego Health. Clinical trials and translational research were centralized with the opening of the Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute adjacent to Jacobs Medical Center in 2016. Hillcrest Medical Center at UC San Diego Health is a well-regarded teaching hospital. Residency and fellowship programs are available in most medical specialties, including allergy, anesthesia, cardiology, emergency medicine, endocrinology, gastroenterology, geriatric medicine, hematology, hyperbaric medicine, immunology, internal medicine, nephrology, oncology, pediatrics, pulmonary and critical care medicine, and rheumatology. Hospital teams may be composed of attending physicians, hospitalists, residents, fellows, interns, medical students, and clinical pharmacists, but medical students would only be involved in care under an attending physician's supervision.


References


External links


UC San Diego Health

UC San Diego Medical Center, Hillcrest

This hospital in the CA Healthcare Atlas
A project by OSHPD {{authority control Teaching hospitals in California UC San Diego Health Hospitals established in 1963 1963 establishments in California