Scripps to Build New San Marcos Medical Center Campus

Scripps Health announced Monday it plans to move forward with the development of a new medical center campus in San Marcos. 

The Scripps San Marcos Medical Center campus will be located on a 13-acre site south of state Route 78 near Twin Oaks Valley Parkway in an area where the city has stewarded thoughtful and robust development. The first phase of the project will be a comprehensive ambulatory facility. The campus’ second phase will be an acute care hospital. 

“We acquired the San Marcos property 35 years ago,” said Chris Van Gorder, president and CEO of Scripps Health, “but it wasn’t the right time to build. Our patient population in the area has since grown to the point that it made sense for us to move forward. Scripps provides care to many residents of the San Marcos region today and this campus will expand access and make care more convenient for these patients and their families.”

Scripps purchased roughly 80 acres in San Marcos for a medical center campus in 1990. The intent was to build at some time in the future a Scripps San Marcos Medical Center campus that would include ambulatory care and an acute care hospital. In the early 2000s, Scripps engaged H.G. Fenton to work with Scripps and the City of San Marcos on how to best utilize the land, with Scripps retaining 13 acres for the development of the Scripps San Marcos Medical Center Campus.

For more than four years, Scripps management has been working to develop a master plan for the site and conducting the necessary studies for board approval. Last week, the Scripps Health Board of Trustees approved the facility plans for North San Diego County, including endorsing development in San Marcos. In addition, significant improvements to the site have been completed including grading, roads and numerous underground utility stubs. 

Scripps will now start working with the City of San Marcos on the development and construction of a comprehensive ambulatory care facility to include multi-specialty and primary care physician offices, ambulatory surgery, cancer care, complex imaging, laboratory and other services. 

Planning also is underway for a 200- to 250-bed acute care hospital that will provide a broad range of inpatient and outpatient hospital services. Scripps will work with the City of San Marcos and the State of California, which oversees acute hospital construction. 

“A major player like Scripps choosing to invest in San Marcos is exciting on so many levels,” said San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones. “We have worked hard to become a premier health care hub in the region, which not only supports a strong local economy but contributes to the ultimate goal of making San Marcos a place where people live long, healthy lives.”

Jones also praised Scripps for its commitment to working with the local community as the project begins to take shape.