Providence St. Mary Medical Center of Apple Valley, California, is partnering with Kaiser Permanente to build a replacement hospital in San Bernardino County's Victorville. The partners plan to open the campus in 2026.
They will construct the facility, which will have about 260 beds, on land that Providence St. Mary purchased in 2007 for a replacement hospital. Construction will cost about $750 million. The partners are not disclosing how much capital each will invest.
Providence St. Mary will be the employer and operating manager of the hospital, which will retain its Catholic identity and will continue to adhere to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. Kaiser Permanente, a health maintenance organization with its own employed panel of direct service providers, said Kaiser Permanente physicians on the staff of the replacement hospital are expected to provide the majority of care to the HMO's members. Community physicians including doctors from the Providence St. Mary medical staff not employed by Kaiser may be involved in treatment of the insurer's patients based on their specific medical care needs and physician coverage in the hospital on any particular day.
The Victorville site will replace the 213-bed facility in Apple Valley, about 10 miles away. The Apple Valley hospital opened in 1956. Leaders of the partner organizations say that hospital is outmoded and it would be too costly to bring the facility into compliance with the state's seismic requirements that take effect in 2030.
The organizations say the partnership will enable them to combine resources to improve care delivery in the High Desert region of San Bernardino County. The construction site is centrally located in an area of rapid population growth.
Providence St. Mary is creating an ad hoc committee of hospital and community leaders to assess local health and community leads in order to determine potential uses for the Apple Valley campus.