Inland North San Diego County appears to have another hospital on the way after Scripps Health announced plans on March 17 for a 13-acre health care campus in San Marcos.
Scripps officials said that the provider is ready to move forward with the project on property it purchased for future growth back in 1990. The Scripps San Marcos Medical Center will be located on a site south of state Route 78 near Twin Oaks Valley Road.
“We acquired the San Marcos property 35 years ago, but it wasn’t the right time to build,” Chris Van Gorder, Scripps Health president and CEO, said in a news release. “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.”
The project’s first phase will include a comprehensive ambulatory facility, followed by a second phase to include a 200- to 250-bed acute care hospital, according to the announcement. The Scripps Health Board of Trustees approved plans for the San Marcos development in early March.
Scripps stated that it originally purchased about 80 acres in San Marcos in 1990 with the intent of eventually building the medical campus. Working with the city in the planning process in the 2000s, Scripps ultimately retained 13 acres for its facilities.
“A major player like Scripps choosing to invest in San Marcos is exciting on so many levels,” San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones said in Scripps’ news release. “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.”
The area has developed into a health care hub over the past 15 years.
Palomar Medical Center opened its new hospital in west Escondido in August 2012. Then, in August 2023, Kaiser Permanente opened its hospital farther west near California State University San Marcos on property it also purchased in the 1990s.
Scripps Health operates a hospital in coastal North County in Encinitas, which opened in the 1960s and has undergone several expansions, including Lusardi Tower, which is currently under construction.
