SIMNSA to Build Binational Hospital on Border

Sistemas Medicos Nacionales S.A. de C.V. (SIMNSA) announced plans today to build the region’s first hospital aimed to meet the health care needs of the growing binational community along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Scripps Health will provide consultative services to SIMNSA for the hospital’s planning, construction and operation, which SIMNSA will design, build and manage to achieve the standards of the Joint Commission International Accreditation (JCI). The hospital would be the first in Tijuana and one of only six in Mexico with the JCI designation. The JCI-accredited hospital will be co-branded as an affiliate of the Scripps Health Network as part of the arrangement.

“Our affiliation with Scripps will be important as we work together to transform the delivery of health care in our region,” said Frank Carrillo, president and CEO of SIMNSA. “This collaboration effort is the first of its kind, and the possibilities that this affiliation agreement brings are very exciting to our company.”

This marks the first binational collaboration on a hospital built to serve patients from both sides of the border.

“We live in a binational region where thousands of people cross the border between San Diego and Tijuana daily for work. Access to high quality health care on both sides of the border is important for our regional economy,” said Chris Van Gorder, president and CEO of Scripps Health. “We have been looking for opportunities to expand the Scripps Health Network and our agreement with SIMNSA is the perfect way to do so in Mexico.”

Over the years, SIMNSA’s medical campus in Tijuana has grown to an eight-story outpatient medical tower with services including primary and specialty care, a full-service dental clinic, state-of-the-art stem cell therapy, an ambulatory surgical center, a medical spa, radiology and laboratory. With the addition of the new hospital, it will become a world-class medical campus for the state of Baja California and beyond.

The hospital will be built in phases. The first phase, anticipated to be completed by early 2017, will consist of an emergency room with four operating rooms, an intensive care unit and 30 inpatient rooms. Upon completion of the project, the hospital will have 200 beds, making it the largest hospital in the state of Baja California. The hospital will be fully equipped to meet the needs for emergency, cardiology, neurosurgery, oncology and labor and delivery.

SIMNSA, which operates a health plan for Mexican Nationals who work in San Diego or Imperial County and prefer to access medical care in Mexico, has a long history of providing binational health care services. The SIMNSA network includes more than 200 physicians along the U.S.-Mexico border and operates medical clinics in Tijuana and Mexicali, Mexico. The clinics are not included in the Scripps affiliation agreement. The affiliation will be governed by a joint operating committee composed of members from both companies.

Learn more about Scripps Health, a nonprofit integrated health system in San Diego, Calif.