Joint venture will construct and operate a 52-bed hospital in Irvine
Orange, Calif., and Brentwood, Tenn., June 16, 2022 – UCI Health and Kindred Rehabilitation Services (“KRS”), a business unit of LifePoint Health, today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to create a joint venture to construct and operate a 52-bed, 68,000 sq. ft. inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Orange County. The hospital will employ up to 200 and will be located at 17931 Von Karman Ave., in Irvine, Calif.
The UCI Health Rehabilitation Hospital will serve the growing clinical needs of the Orange County region. The hospital will treat patients recovering from conditions such as stroke, traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, as well as trauma, burn and orthopedics patients. KRS will manage the hospital’s day-to-day operations, and patients will receive leading care provided by UCI Health physicians and clinical staff, all in private rooms and state-of-the art rehabilitation facilities. The partners expect construction on the approximately $80 million inpatient hospital to begin by December 2022 and begin admitting patients in late 2025.
KRS has national track record of providing high-quality care as reflected by outstanding patient outcomes and experiences. Nearly 90% of its inpatient rehabilitation hospitals rank in the top quartile nationally in patient care performance metrics.
“We are excited to collaborate with UCI Health to build and operate a new facility that will improve access to high quality rehabilitative care in Orange County,” said Russ Bailey, president of Kindred Rehabilitation Services. “This partnering with a premier academic healthcare system will create a hospital that leverages the clinical innovations and best care practices to deliver outcomes and experiences that improve patients’ lives, and in the process, advances our mission of making healthier communities.”
The rehabilitation hospital will serve patients across the region, including eligible patients treated at UCI Medical Center in Orange, which features Orange County’s only Level I trauma center and regional burn center, in addition to a large orthopedic and neurological surgery service and a comprehensive stroke center. The hospital will also serve patients from the new UCI Health – Irvine medical complex, now under construction at the UCI campus. The facility, expected to open in 2025, features a 144-bed acute care hospital and will specialize in orthopedic and neurological surgery.
“UCI Health and Kindred have a shared vision to create the most innovative and comprehensive rehabilitation center on the West Coast,” said UCI Health CEO Chad T. Lefteris. “As Orange County’s only academic health system, UCI Health provides leading critical care to a region of more than three-and-a-half million people – they deserve a state-of-the-art rehabilitation center that offers advanced technologies to help them get back to their lives faster.”
The initiative expands the UCI Health inpatient rehabilitation capacity from its existing 14 rehabilitation beds at UCI Medical Center in Orange and locate them between the two UCI medical complexes.
“The new rehabilitation hospital will be more than just a patient care facility,” said Jay Han, MD, chief of physical medicine & rehabilitation for UCI Health and the hospital’s medical director. “It will enable clinicians to conduct clinical research, including clinical trials, and advance new rehabilitation technologies to improve healing for patients and help them return to their lives following surgeries and inpatient treatment.”
UCI Health is the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine, and the only academic health system in Orange County. Patients can access UCI Health at primary and specialty care offices across Orange County and at its main campus, UCI Medical Center in Orange, Calif. The 459-bed acute care hospital, listed among America’s Best Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report for 21 consecutive years, provides tertiary and quaternary care, ambulatory and specialty medical clinics, behavioral health and rehabilitation services. UCI Medical Center is home to Orange County’s only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, high-risk perinatal/neonatal program and American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center and regional burn center. UCI Health serves a region of nearly 4 million people in Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Kindred Rehabilitation Services (KRS) – with its 30 stand-alone inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) across 18 states – is a partner of choice for many major hospital systems in the creation of joint-venture operations that are industry-leading in clinical and operational outcomes. KRS brings proven rehabilitation management and services expertise to help the nearly 30,000 patients we see each year in our specialty hospitals recover and return home quickly from any of a number of conditions, including stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury, orthopedic injury, neurological conditions, amputation and trauma. Kindred Rehabilitation Services is a business unit of Brentwood, Tennessee-based LifePoint Health.
LifePoint Health is a leading healthcare provider that serves patients, clinicians, communities and partner organizations across the healthcare continuum. Driven by a mission of Making Communities Healthier, the company has a growing diversified healthcare delivery network comprised of more than 50,000 dedicated employees, 65 community hospital campuses, more than 30 rehabilitation and behavioral health hospitals and 170 additional sites of care, including managed acute rehabilitation units, outpatient centers and post-acute care facilities. More information about LifePoint can be found at www.LifePointHealth.net.
