St. John’s to Start Work on New Hospital in Oxnard

Officials at St. John’s Regional Medical Center planned this morning to break ground on an $82-million medical complex at a 48-acre site on Oxnard’s east side.

Scheduled to be completed early in 1991, the facility will include a 206-bed hospital, a medical office building with 60 to 65 tenants and a 5,000-square-foot mall that will house medical-supply businesses.

The new hospital will have 59 fewer beds than the present 265-bed facility, reflecting the growing trend toward same-day surgery, expanded outpatient services and other ways of treating patients outside a hospital setting, said hospital spokeswoman Judy Cole.

The hospital plans to maintain part of its present facility as a rehabilitation unit for stroke victims and patients with head and spinal injuries. In keeping with an agreement made in February with the Oxnard City Council, St. John’s will continue providing some emergency care at its facility on the city’s west side, where most of Oxnard’s population resides.

Senior Citizen Housing

The hospital plans to adapt another portion of its present building for senior citizen housing and will sell a separate building on the site.

Construction of the $70-million hospital and mall will be partly funded by Catholic Healthcare West, a nonprofit organization that runs St. John’s and 11 other hospitals in the West. The adjacent $12-million office building will be financed by its tenants, Cole said.

To spur a drive for $4 million in local donations for the hospital, St. John’s plans a May 4 fund-raiser. The Money to Aid St. John’s Hospital Party will re-create the setting of the hit television program “MASH” from 4 to 8 p.m. at Rose Avenue and Gonzales Road, the site of the new hospital. Admission will be $15.

Founded in 1912, St. John’s Medical Center is the largest hospital in Ventura County and the only full-service hospital in Oxnard.