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New hospital proposed for Camp Pendleton

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Navy officials want to build a new hospital complex on land near Camp Pendleton’s main gate in a project that will replace the existing hospital with a facility providing more out-patient services.

The preferred location to replace the existing Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital is a 105-acre site along the east side of Vandergrift Boulevard, a busy road that links Interstate 5 to the city of Oceanside. Officials chose that site — it’s near a large military housing area, commissary and Pacific Plaza exchange complex, consolidated club and transient lodging facility — over a second smaller site just to the north along Vandergrift.

The proposed 500,000-square-foot hospital and parking for up to 3,500 vehicles would be built on about 40 acres at the site, according to the draft environmental assessment completed Nov. 23 by Navy Medicine West-San Diego. The facility, funded with $563 million from the federal economic stimulus package, will replace the existing naval hospital, which sits along Lake O’Neill in the base’s southeastern area. A final decision will be made after the public comment period, which ends Dec. 23.

The existing base hospital lies almost 11 miles from the main gate. A new facility built near the main gate, just off Interstate 5, would close an existing gap in emergency services coverage for military families and retirees who live in San Diego County, when compared to the existing naval hospital and the larger Naval Medical Center in San Diego, 44 miles south, the report states.

Officials also ruled out constructing a new hospital next to the existing facility and rejected two alternate locations at Camp Las Flores and near the gate leading to Fallbrook Naval Weapons Station.

The existing hospital, built in 1974, is a nine-story, 428,000-square-foot concrete building that has 60 in-patient beds, far fewer than the 580 in-patient beds provided by the original design. It falls short in meeting the growing demand for specialized care, such as chiropractic, dermatology and audiology care, which have had to operate in makeshift spaces, the report notes. “Changes in military requirements, the population served and the delivery of healthcare have resulted in a shift from primarily in-patient-based care to a focus on delivery of out-patient-based care,” it states, adding a 60-bed facility would better meet the needs.

The new hospital would be designed and built to meet state and federal seismic regulations, and force protection requirements. Without renovations or rebuild, the existing hospital “would continue to have safety issues associated with the risk of progressive collapse,” the report states.