Scripps Health plans $1.2B hospital campus outside San Diego

Talk about patience.

Scripps Health has announced plans to build a new, $1.2 billion medical complex in San Marcos, California. The site will include a hospital and ambulatory care facility.

After acquiring property in San Marcos, California in 1990, Scripps Health announced this week that the system is ready to build a new, $1.2 billion medical complex on the site.

Scripps plans to build a hospital and an ambulatory facility on the 13-acre site. San Marcos is about 35 miles from San Diego, where Scripps Health is based.

Chris Van Gorder, president and CEO of Scripps Health, said that the region now needs the services the medical campus can provide.

“We acquired the San Marcos property 35 years ago,” Van Gorder said in a statement. “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 Health says the project will be done in two main phases. In the first phase, the system plans to build an ambulatory care facility that will provide primary and specialty care services. The system says the facility will offer ambulatory surgery, cancer treatment, imaging, and a laboratory.

In the second phase, Scripps Health plans to build an acute care hospital with 200 to 250 beds. The hospital will offer additional outpatient services as well as inpatient care.

A Scripps Health spokesperson told Chief Healthcare Executive® via email that the expectation is that the ambulatory facility will be completed within two to three years. The system hopes that the hospital will be done within six years.

Scripps purchased land in San Marcos 35 years ago with the intention of building a medical center. San Marcos, a city of about 95,000, has seen some growth in recent years, adding 11,000 residents since 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Scripps has been working on a master plan for the site for the past four years. The system’s board of trustees approved the development plans for the site last week.

San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones offered a statement of support that accompanied the health system’s announcement, saying Scripps Health’s investment in the community “is exciting on so many levels.”

“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 said in the statement.

Scripps Health has enjoyed improved financial performance recently, according to a December 2024 report from Fitch Ratings. The system generated $206 million in revenue in the 2024 fiscal year, with a 4.2% operating margin, compared to a negative 0.9% operating margin the previous year.

The Scripps market is favorable for the health system, with 16.6% percent of revenue coming from patients using Medicaid and self-pay patients, Fitch says. The San Diego market is a competitive one, with Scripps vying with Sharp Healthcare in the region. Still, Scripps enjoys “robust unrestricted balance sheet resources,” Fitch says.

“The system is well-positioned as an integrated provider with multiple hospitals, retail and ambulatory access points, a health plan and a large medical foundation with closely aligned 1,000 physicians and 3,000 active medical staff,” Fitch said in its report.