French Hospital expansion to bring hundreds of new jobs to SLO
French Hospital Medical Center expects to bring more than 300 new medical jobs as part of a planned 85,000-square-foot expansion project.
The project, which would nearly double the San Luis Obispo hospital’s capacity, is expected to start construction this fall and finish in 2022.
French Hospital is in the midst of a fundraising drive to raise an additional $24 million of the needed $125 million to complete the project, which will include a four-story Patient Care Tower.
The new jobs will include 17 additional physicians and 297 more staff members, including nurses, pharmacists, technicians, dietitians, kitchen workers, lab assistants and others.
The pay and benefits for the non-physician staff is expected to total around $35.2 million.
Additionally, the hospital operated by Dignity Health will employ between 190 and 260 local construction workers to complete the project, according to spokeswoman Megan Maloney.
“Our emphasis with the expansion is to create the hospital of the future, to exceed the needs of our growing community and provide the region with the most advanced technologies, highly skilled and compassionate personnel and a new state-of-the-art facility,” Alan Iftiniuk, French Hospital’s CEO and president, said in a statement.
The hospital currently has 705 total non-physician employees and about 400 physicians affiliated with the hospital.
Permanent head-of-household jobs coming
Iftiniuk said that the economic impact will bring many additional permanent head-of-household jobs.
The job creation will help offset some of the loss of the pending closure of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, according to hospital officials.
The nonprofit Dignity Health corporation invested $95 million into the project, and it received a $4.2 million donation from North County residents Stan and Barbara Clark and a $350,000 donation from the Harold J. Miossi Charitable Trust — gifts announced last week.
“We are so grateful that French Hospital was there when we needed medical care,” Stan Clark said in a statement. “Both Barbara and I fully support the hospital expansion efforts to continue its tradition of providing the most advanced care in a healing environment, so people don’t have to leave San Luis Obispo County.”
French Hospital medical staff has donated $120,000 collectively and an anonymous donor gave $100,000, Maloney said.
The remainder of the $125 million campaign, totaling about $24 million, is yet to be raised.
A look at the expansion
Key features of the project include:
▪ 56 new private patient rooms, bringing the total licensed bed count at French to 180, making it the largest in the county
▪ A 16-bed neonatal intensive care unit
▪ 10 more intensive care unit beds, bringing the total to 21
▪ A rooftop garden terrace that will include patient stimulation and socializing
▪ Enhanced technology space and equipment
▪ A helicopter landing pad for critical emergencies
▪ A new parking structure with 243 additional spaces
The hospital is still in the process of finalizing all permits, Maloney said.
This story was originally published July 1, 2019 at 7:07 PM with the headline "French Hospital expansion to bring hundreds of new jobs to SLO."
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