Finding The Power For Uci Health S New Hospital

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Oct 23, 2025, 6:32 PM

finding the power for uci health s new hospital

Orange, Calif. — UCI Health announced the significant completion of UCI Health — Irvine, the nation’s first all-electric acute care hospital. The milestone means moving into the 144-bed, seven-story, 350,000-square-foot hospital, can begin. When it opens in December 2025, it will be the sixth hospital in the academic health system, which is one of the largest in California. More than 200 members of the UCI Health and Hensel Phelps teams came together to celebrate and recognize the hard work and dedication the went into building a high-tech hospital of the future that... “We are extraordinarily proud of this state-of-the-art facility and the visionaries who have worked tirelessly to bring it to fruition.

We thank each person who has contributed to this project,” said Chad T. Lefteris, president and CEO of UCI Health. "Their work means that residents of coastal and south Orange County will have full and convenient access to collaborative, research-driven, next-generation care, hallmarks of academic medicine.” The all-electric, zero emission UCI Health Irvine Hospital paves the way for lowering the impacts of future health facilities. When the $1.3-billion UCI Health - Irvine Hospital & Ambulatory Care Center makes its debut this December, the project will be one of a kind. The facility, on the campus of the University of California, Irvine (UCI), will be the first all-electric, zero-emission hospital in the nation.

In going all-electric, Brian Pratt, campus architect at UC Irvine, says the project team looked at the UC system’s goal of decarbonizing its 10 campuses and six academic health centers by 2045, and “we... And so our campus leadership basically said, ‘Let’s set the standard for the future of hospitals.’” That ambitious goal also created major construction challenges for the CO Architects + Hensel Phelps design-build team, which worked in close collaboration with UCI Health. In September, the team reached substantial completion on the project and officially handed the ceremonial master key to UCI Health leadership. The new facility will offer a 350,000-sq-ft specialty hospital, a 220,000-sq-ft ambulatory care center (ACC) and parking structure, but the star of the show is the massive, 31,848-sq-ft central utility plant that supplies power... Something momentous is happening on a large piece of land situated just off Jamboree Road and Birch Street: UC Irvine is about to open the nation’s first all-electric acute care hospital.

Under development for years, this ambitious $1.2-billion project is aiming to push the boundaries of what’s possible in healthcare and sustainability, while also building in enough flexibility to allow for updates and expansion as... It’s what Chad Lefteris, the president and chief executive officer of UCI Health, refers to as “future-proofing.” Since I first learned about this project I’ve been itching to get an inside look, and I finally got that opportunity earlier this month, just ahead of a community open house planned for Nov. 15 and the first patients arriving on Dec. 10. What I saw did not disappoint, and if all goes well, this first-of-its-kind facility will provide a blueprint for others to follow.

UCI years ago identified the need for a healthcare hub in the area, as many patients were traveling outside of Orange County for medical treatment. A recent trend report showed hospital executives are still holding strong to sustainability-related commitments regardless of federal changes. University of California, Irvine (UCI) Health is embodying that with its new all-electric hospital, set to open Dec. 10. UCI Health says the new hospital is the first all-electric acute care hospital of its size in the country, featuring renewable solar park structures, electric instead of gas for utilities like heating and hot... And electricity isn’t the only sustainable feature at the 350,000-square-foot, 144-bed hospital, Brothman said.

The hospital also has rainwater collection built into its landscaping that uses recycled water, bird-friendly glass, around 87% outdoor water reduction and about 38.5% indoor water reduction, and energy efficient equipment for lighting along... “It’s a significant cost to make this all-electric [hospital], but we do anticipate, in the long run, that we will have a cost savings, especially with the rising costs of natural gas,” Brothman said. UCI Health‘s newest hospital is slated to start admitting patients on Dec. 7, hospital leaders said, opening a seven-story, 144-bed facility that UCI calls the nation’s first all-electric acute care hospital. The 350,000-square-foot building stands at the corner of Jamboree Road and Birch Street in Irvine and caps a $1.3 billion medical campus that includes a cancer center and ambulatory care building. Hospital officials say the new facility will serve residents of central, coastal and south Orange County and offer specialties including cancer care, cardiology, digestive health, neurosciences, orthopedics and spine, along with interventional radiology, catheterization...

The hospital and adjacent cancer center are connected by a massive surgical “megafloor,” spanning the width of three football fields, with operating rooms, sterilization areas and flexible pre- and post-op recovery space. “This is a really historic thing,” said Chad Lefteris, president and CEO of UCI Health at a celebration Friday, Sept. 19, marking the completion of construction and being handed the keys for the health system’s sixth hospital, adding to its medical center in Orange. “We are finally returning to Irvine as a health system. We’ve been up on the Orange freeway for a while and now we’ve returned fully to meet the needs in Irvine and the central and coastal communities.” The hospital will be the first of its size in the U.S.

to run entirely on electricity. With our free press under threat and federal funding for public media gone, your support matters more than ever. Help keep the LAist newsroom strong, become a monthly member or increase your support today . Hospitals are notorious for their greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for around 5% of emissions globally. The UCI Medical Center in Orange relies on natural gas, a greenhouse gas that’s more potent than carbon dioxide, for about 25% of its power. And that’s why UCI Health is touting its latest facility as the “hospital of the future.”

In December, the country’s first all-electric hospital will open in Irvine along the San Joaquin Marsh. Joe Brothman, director of UCI Health general services, said the hospital will adopt a “healthcare without harm” model. “The operation of this campus will have no emissions,” he said. “The energy that we're utilizing is all green electricity that we're importing.” When the $1.3 billion UCI Health – Irvine Hospital & Ambulatory Care Center makes its debut this December, the project will be one of a kind. The facility, on the campus of the University of California, Irvine (UCI), will be the first all-electric, zero-emissions hospital in the country.

Brian Pratt, UC Irvine campus architect, says the project team looked at the UC system’s goal of decarbonizing its 10 campuses and six academic health centers by 2045, and “we felt an obligation to... This ambitious goal also created major construction challenges for the design and construction team of CO Architects + Hensel Phelps, who worked closely with UCI Health. In September, the team reached substantial completion of the project and officially handed over the ceremonial master key to UCI Health management. The new facility will offer a 350,000 square meter specialty hospital, a 220,000 square meter ambulatory care center (ACC) and a parking structure, but the star of the show is the large 31,848 square... Working with the air-source heat pumps on the central floor was a challenge because they took up about 6,000 square feet of space, says Gina Chang, principal and healthcare team leader at CO Architects. To fit things in, the team had to expand the roof area on the central floor and add a 60-foot extrusion to accommodate all the air stacks.

IN THE NEWS: Situated about 1.5 miles from the UC Irvine campus, the new UCI — Health Irvine acute care hospital is scheduled to welcome patients in December 2025. Constructed with a focus on sustainability, the new hospital is also built for flexibility as technology advances and demand increases. Chad T. Lefteris, president and CEO of UCI Health, spoke with the Daily Pilot about how patients will benefit from more convenient access to care. “We believe the last thing a patient needs is to get on the 405 Freeway and travel north to L.A. or south to San Diego to receive care.”

Jess Langerud, principal project manager, spoke about how the UCI Health — Irvine hospital can adapt as technology improves. “The hospital will eventually be able to take DC power generated from renewable sources directly without the need to convert to AC, a far more efficient way to power the facility.” IRVINE, Calif. (KABC) -- UCI Health is building what may be the first all-electric, zero-emission hospital in the nation in Irvine. The Director of Facilities with UCI Health, Joe Brothman, said there were a lot of eyes on this building. "This facility will be the way that hospitals and high-energy-intense buildings are built in the future," Brothman said.

Sustainability was not the norm for hospitals, Brothman added. "They're open 24/7. They're always on. A lot of the airflow requirements in hospitals cause our heating ventilation and cooling to be more demanding than a common building," Brothman said.

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