Cottage Health has completed the final phase of new construction (called Phase 6) of the rebuilding of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
Phase 6 includes approximately 134,000 square feet of added space and 90 licensed beds in two new pavilions, Compton and Arlington. Patients and staff will move into the new pavilions on Nov. 4.
The third floor of the new pavilions will be the home of Cottage Children’s Medical Center, with all the pediatric units — Pediatric Intensive Care (PICU), Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU) and Acute Pediatrics — located adjacent to each other. The NICU will be next to the Birth Center and Mother Infant Unit.
Other improvements in Phase 6 include an expansion of the Emergency Department with 24 private treatment rooms. A new CT scanner and X-ray unit have been added inside of the department so patients will not have to be transported to the radiology area to be examined.
Areas of the existing ED will be closed and remodeled over the next 18 months with an expected completion in 2020.
The Oncology and Dialysis units are also moving into the new pavilions. A new courtyard with a water feature and new stairs in the lobby mirror the layout of the hospital’s existing Pueblo Street public entrance.
On the first floor, a new amphitheatre with a stage has seating for 144 people. The theater foyer features a museum highlighting the 127-year history of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and its service to the community and region.
The 1994 Northridge earthquake prompted the Legislature to require that all hospitals in the state be retrofitted or rebuilt to withstand a 7.0 earthquake. No local, state or federal funding was provided to meet this new seismic requirement.
Cottage reached out to the community to support the rebuilding project and received more than $110 million in donations.
Groundbreaking on the new Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital began in 2005. In 2012, the first three new pavilions opened, which are located on the south end of the hospital. The rebuilding of all inpatient care areas totaled more than $820 million.