The McGrath Family Foundation is once again helping to build local health care infrastructure with a $25 million contribution to UC San Diego Health.
The gift will help build what will now be called the McGrath Outpatient Pavilion, a six-floor structure already under construction adjacent to UC San Diego Medical Center in Hillcrest. The facility represents the first phase of a sweeping redevelopment plan for the 62-acre medical campus that will replace an existing medical tower and add a range of new amenities, including housing, at a cost of more than $3 billion.
And it is not the foundation’s only multimillion-dollar effort to support healing in San Diego. Last week, the same organization gave $10 million to Sharp HealthCare to support a new medical tower on the medical provider’s metropolitan campus in Serra Mesa.
Slated to open in 2025, the McGrath Pavilion in Hillcrest will house a broad range of services, including oncology, neurology, neurosurgery, urology, orthopedics and ear, nose and throat care. Outpatient surgery, medical imaging and space for endoscopy procedures will also be included in the 250,000-square-foot structure.
Laurie McGrath, the foundation’s president, said last week that UC San Diego Health, Sharp and also Stanford Health in Northern California helped her mother, the late Carlee McGrath, through the aftermath of a severe stroke.
“It was a humbling experience, and it opened our eyes to the importance of the medical community,” McGrath said.
The McGrath family is well known in San Diego for its work in the building and real estate development industry, especially in earth moving and general engineering. The late Bill McGrath, Laurie McGrath’s father, established the foundation in 1986. In addition to health care, the foundation has supported a wide range of community benefits, including various YMCA centers, the Humane Society and Junior Achievement.
UCSD emphasized in a statement about the donation that it remains committed to its full plan for Hillcrest, including a level 1 trauma center, burn center and emergency department capable of handling 50,000 patient visits per year.
The second phase of the Hillcrest redevelopment plan calls for housing to be added to the property’s western and northeastern locations. A new hospital would be built next to the existing UC San Diego Medical center, which would be removed.
