Moreno Valley, Calif.-based Riverside University Health System recently broke ground on a massive $200 million outpatient center that is being viewed as the missing piece, The Press-Enterprise reports.
What the center will bring to the system is potentially transformative. Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley said to The Press-Enterprise, "We're at the point where if we didn't do this we would implode. We wouldn't be able to sustain ourselves economically as well as we should."
Here's what you should know.
1. The 200,000-square-foot facility will feature specialty physician group space, an outpatient surgery center and expanded pharmacy and imaging services.
2. Health system spokesperson Kim Trone said the outpatient surgery center will lessen the health system's surgical patient caseload as well as provide patients more timely access to surgical services.
3. The center is expected to boost the health system's finances because its adds outpatient options.
Ms. Trone said, "It’s very hard to attract insurers when you don’t have those outpatient services, which can be delivered at much less cost outside the hospital. That is something that has been a missing piece of the business model.”
4. Riverside University Health System CMO Arnold Tabuenca, MD, said it'll boost the local economy as well. He believes the center will create an unspecified number of jobs and expand nearby housing.