Hoag's new center in Irvine creates 'health care village'

Hoag has opened a new health center across from its Irvine hospital so patients can receive specialized services without driving to Newport Beach.

The Hoag Health Center Irvine on Sand Canyon Avenue is intended to create a “health care village” in Irvine, said Marcy Brown, vice president of Hoag Hospital Irvine and ambulatory services.

Designed to complement the adjacent hospital, the center offers outpatient services in cancer care, neurosciences, women’s health, heart and vascular and orthopedics. Sometimes, patients don’t even have to step into the hospital, which can be intimidating.

“We want patients to feel healthier,” Brown said. “The future of health care service is providing those outpatient services (that don’t require overnight stay) outside the hospital. We’ve had this vision for many, many years.”

Here are some of the highlight features of the new center, consisting of four buildings with 150,000 square feet of medical space:

  • Cancer care, along with chemotherapy and infusion services, radiation oncology, hereditary counseling, oncology physician specialists and nurse navigation.
  • Cardiac rehabilitation, echocardiogram, EKG, stress testing and Holter monitoring, as well as a vascular lab and the peripheral arterial disease supervised walking program.
  • The sophisticated care and neuro-rehabilitation for the diagnosis, treatment and management of epilepsy, as well as movement, memory and cognitive disorders, stroke and sleep disorders.
  • A comprehensive breast center with screening and diagnostic mammograms, including 3D mammography, and Hoag’s pelvic floor treatment program, as well as obstetrics and gynecology.
  • King’s Pharmacy and Compounding Center, as well as Hoag Urgent Care managed by Hoag Medical Group and a Café.

Cancer patients who had to drive to Hoag’s Newport Beach hospital for treatment, sometimes every day for weeks, can now get it done in Irvine, Brown said.

“It’s a one-stop shop where anybody can get all their diagnostic images here in Irvine with the top equipment that you can buy on the market,” said Scott Norton, radiology manager at Hoag Health Center Irvine.

Brown said Hoag doesn’t disclose financial figures, but said the nonprofit hospital made a “significant investment” to open the center.

Hoag began treating patients at the new center on July 11 and has been gradually opening more services. The public grand opening event is scheduled Sept. 17.

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