Huge San Jose hospital project heads to key public development review

SAN JOSE — A massive project that will add a new hospital and medical center in San Jose is now available for the public to scrutinize, an environmental review that’s a crucial step in the project’s approval.

Good Samaritan Hospital has proposed a big increase in the number of beds it can accommodate as part of a new medical center complex that it is planning in San Jose.

Tennessee-based HCA Healthcare, the owner of Good Samaritan, is floating the proposed development, which would sprout at 2425 Good Samaritan Drive.

Once complete, the new campus would contain 419 licensed acute care beds. The hospital currently accommodates 404 such beds, a city Planning Department web post states.

The project is being driven by state regulations that require hospitals in California to be compliant with seismic requirements.

A four-story existing tower with 89 beds complies with the state seismic regulations and will remain.

The new hospital portion will be constructed next to the existing medical center. The project will enable Good Sam to comply with the seismic rules when the new hospital construction is complete in 2029.

“The Project buildout would substantially maintain the existing buildings to the maximum extent possible,” HCA states in planning documents. “The Project assumes growth will occur in phases to maintain the beds and facility operations without downtime of critical services.”

While modified building codes have prodded HCA to undertake this massive construction endeavor, shifting industry trends and patient requirements also are major factors, according to the planning records.

“Changes in operational and patient care models, increases in average patient acuity and disease prevalence, increased use of private patient rooms and the evolution and impact of technology” are major factors behind the project, the proposal states.

It appears the new campus would be roughly three times as large as the existing medical complex.

The total building area at the future Good Samaritan medical complex would be slightly under 1.35 million square feet, compared with the current campus which totals 450,700 square feet, the city plans show.

That’s slightly more than three times the size of the existing campus, according to the plans filed by Good Samaritan Hospital.

The project also envisions an interim size for the campus. In the interim phase, the Good Samaritan complex would total 705,500 square feet.

The existing complex provides 1,031 parking stalls. The proposal would eventually create a complex with 2,422 stalls.

Good Samaritan and HCA Healthcare want city officials to completely rezone the entire 21-acre site that accommodates the existing hospital as well as the future expansion buildings and parking facilities.

In its final phase, the project would add a medical office building totaling 200,000 square feet.

“The proliferation of clinical technologies such as MRI, Cath Labs, CT Scan and interventional Radiology has changed the standard of care and played a role in the increasing the size of diagnostic and treatment departments,” the planning documents state. “Operating rooms also have become larger given the more complex nature of cases being handled.”

The complexity of healthcare has increased the number of caregivers in the room along with the amount of equipment.

“Computers, larger anesthesia carts, perfusion machines, integrated ceiling-mounted monitors, and mobile X-rays are just some of the equipment routinely brought into the operating room,” HCA states in its proposal. “There needs to be room for all of this equipment.”

Along with larger operating rooms, more patient rooms will be private and larger.

“The project is necessary to allow HCA to continue providing high-quality care to the community,” the healthcare titan stated in planning documents on file with San Jose city officials.