RUHS Begins Construction on Surgery Center, Medical Offices

From RUHS: Construction formally began Wednesday on a state-of-the-art 200,000-square-foot medical office building that will add primary care and specialty physician groups, an outpatient surgery center and expanded pharmacy services to the RUHS Medical Center campus in Moreno Valley when it opens by early 2020.

Healthcare executives, county, civic and elected leaders – alongside scores of doctors, nurses and pharmacists – applauded the project as a linchpin in their efforts to expand access to quality, local healthcare while attracting new patients and insurers to the 125-year-old public teaching hospital and its community-based medical and behavioral health services.

“This project is going to be transformational for our patients and the way we deliver services,” said RUHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Arnold Tabuenca. “It will help us provide higher quality and more efficient care while stimulating job creation, expansion of housing and a strong local workforce.”

The three-story medical office building will occupy 17.4 acres on the south side of the RUHS medical center campus along Cactus Avenue. It will feature a 7,000 square-foot lobby and café. A second floor pedestrian bridge will link the outpatient building to the Medical Center. The project is funded through a public-private partnership between the County of Riverside and Trammell Crow Company, a national leader in healthcare space development.

“We are proud to be a part of the next generation of medical office building at RUHS,” said Tom Bak, senior managing director of TCC’s Southern California—Newport Beach office. “The new facility will be integrated into and enhance the entire medical center campus.”

Fifth District Supervisor Marion Ashley, now in his 80s and preparing to retire from his seat on the Board of Supervisors, recalled how he earned money as a teen picking onions in the agricultural fields where the thriving RJHS Medical Center campus now sits at the corner of Nason Street and Cactus Avenue.

“It’s true that time goes quickly by and those fields are mostly gone now,” Ashley said. “They’ve been replaced by a growing community and a medical campus where doctors and nurses are trained, where babies are born and lives are transformed by the miracles of medicine and the touch of human compassion,” he said. “Today we are investing in the next century of innovation, education and health. We are investing in you.”

Riverside University Health System (RUHS) encompasses Riverside County’s behavioral and public health services, including the 439-bed Medical Center in Moreno Valley and 10 Federally Qualified Health Centers. RUHS has been the foundation of healthcare, community wellness and medical education in Riverside County for 125, and has more than 6,400 employees.

Image Via RUHS