Business Boom Prompts Continued Expansion of Mission Viejo Hospital : MEDICAL

Hospital business is booming in south Orange County, according to Reynold R. Welch, president and chief executive officer of Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo.

The area’s recent and projected growth, Welch said, has prompted Mission to launch the fourth and most significant phase of a $60-million expansion that began last year.

Plans include a 250-bed capacity, five-story patient tower on the southwest corner of the existing hospital. The $43-million development project, expected to be completed toward the end of 1990, also calls for renovations of the existing 17-year-old facility.

“We have just plain outgrown the space we have, while at the same time needing to position ourselves for the long term,” Welch said. He said that while the hospital is licensed for 212 beds, “when we have 165 patients, we are really stressed.” He said the hospital usually operates at near capacity.

After the tower addition, Welch said, the hospital expects to have a total of 241 licensed beds. The top two floors of the building addition, he said, will be left empty and used to accommodate future growth. Ultimately, he said, he expects the hospital to expand to 375 beds.

Besides patient rooms, Welch said, the expansion will provide more storage space, conference rooms, sleeping areas for physicians and nurses who must work at the hospital around the clock, and outpatient and rehabilitation services.

To accommodate a larger patient load, the hospital will add 400 employees to its 1,100-person work force over the next four to five years, Welch said.

Other stages of expansion have included construction of an 1,100-space garage, a five-story, 122,000-square-foot medical offices building and a conference center and general services building.