Sierra Vista hospital in SLO to get a $220 million expansion. Here’s what’s coming
San Luis Obispo County’s largest hospital is about to get a whole lot bigger.
On Saturday, Adventist Health announced plans for a $220 million capital expansion at Adventist Health Sierra Vista in San Luis Obispo, according to a news release from the health provider.
Starting this year, early construction work will kick off at Sierra Vista, modernizing existing facilities while adding new services, including:
- A new emergency department and trauma center
- New labor and delivery and postpartum units
- New operating and procedure rooms to support advanced and specialized care
- A new intensive care unit
- Remodeled inpatient rooms designed for healing, comfort and improved patient experience
According to the release, these expansions will increase the hospital’s capacity by introducing more advanced support technology, which will reduce the need for patients to leave San Luis Obispo County for complex care.
Adventist Health Central Coast President Ryan Ashlock said the expansion represents a renewed commitment by Adventist to serving the Central Coast.
“We’ve been in the market now almost two years, and when we got here, we were clear on a couple priorities, which was to invest to ensure that there was access to care, to expand access to care, to keep care local, and to ensure that we’re building for the long term,” Ashlock told The Tribune. “We know how challenging health care access is in our community, and any little investment goes a long way, but an investment like this will be significant to the health and the well-being of the communities that we get to serve.”
Space is the name of the game with the new expansion, both by making more efficient use of existing facilities while adding more capacity overall, he said.
Ashlock said the construction work will be phased to minimize disruptions to the hospital’s existing services, with a new tower building planned to house the new emergency department.
The tower building will also house the new labor and delivery unit, which will be consolidated from two separate floors into one while adding private rooms and showers, he said.
The emergency department will see its capacity expand from nine bays to 17, while the total number of new beds to be introduced is not currently known as the designs for inpatient spaces are still being finalized, Ashlock said.
“We’re the only trauma center in the county, and the emergency department is on the front lines of dealing with trauma patients, so we wanted to make investments there,” Ashlock said. “We need more space — currently, the number of emergency department bays that we have is less than what we should have for the volume that we are seeing.”
In conjunction with its news release, Adventist Health formally announced the expansion during Saturday’s San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce Annual Gala, where Adventist Health served as a presenting sponsor.
Construction on the expansion is expected to break ground in 2028, and is projected to be fully complete in 2032, Ashlock said.
“This is more than a construction project,” Ashlock said in the release. “It’s a commitment to access, quality and the future of healthcare for this region.”
