Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian is one month away from opening the final phase of its $1.2 billion Sun Family Campus in Irvine.

Capping off the six-building complex, which first began construction three years ago, are four specialty facilities dedicated to women’s health and cancer and digestive health that were chosen after extensive analysis of patient trends in the region.

“We looked at the data for Orange County and saw three conditions where demand is high and infrastructure is low,” Marcy Brown, senior vice president and chief operations officer at Hoag, told the Business Journal during an exclusive preview of the campus. “That’s when it all started to come together.”

Outpatient services will open on Sept. 14, followed by the cancer and digestive hospital on Sept. 17 and women’s hospital on Sept. 21. A ribbon cutting will take place on Sept. 19.

The first specialty facility, a 130,000-square-foot surgical pavilion, opened in May to meet rising demand for complex inpatient surgeries. In total, the expansion is adding 155 patient beds, 11 operating rooms and 120,000 square feet of ambulatory facilities to Hoag.

The campus is named in recognition of $50 million gifts from David and Diana Sun, made in 2022 and 2025 through the hospital foundation’s Boldly Hoag campaign, which aims to raise $300 million to fund the expansion. Hoag is close to concluding the campaign, according to a spokesperson.

Hoag’s expansion efforts are expected to continue with its $207 million winning bid of the Ziggurat property in July. Officials have not revealed redevelopment plans but said the site creates new opportunities to shape Southern California’s healthcare landscape.

This week’s Business Journal has a special report on healthcare (see page 13).

Bringing NICU Care to Irvine

“Once we started to see the appetite for the Hoag brand in South County, our CEO Robert Braithwaite, along with our board, started putting the strategy together about how do we expand this campus,” Brown said.

The transformation began with the expansion of the emergency department, made possible by a $5 million gift from Benjamin and Carmela Du in 2018. In 2024, the couple gave an additional $25 million to establish the Du Family Hospital Pavilion, which serves as the front entrance to the Sun Family Campus.

Brown said Hoag launched plans to build out the campus seven to eight years ago after quickly running out of beds, deciding to go the specialty hospital route.

Women’s health emerged as a clear priority based on county birthing trends.

“We started looking at the zip codes of individuals that were giving birth in the women’s pavilion in Newport Beach and saw that the lion’s share of births were coming from Irvine residents,” Brown said.

Hoag currently has the largest birthing program in California, delivering more than 9,100 babies every year. With 24 labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum suites, Hoag expects to boost that figure to more than 12,000 births a year.

The new women’s hospital will also include a 17-bed Level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), bringing advanced newborn care to Hoag’s Irvine campus for the first time.

Previously, Hoag had to transfer newborns requiring intensive care to its Newport Beach campus or Rady Children’s Health Orange County (previously CHOC), according to Brown.

“Now, we’ll be able to keep mothers and babies together, which is huge,” she said.

Nurses and physicians helped guide design choices, including the 24 birthing suites, where expectant mothers can personalize their birth plans with curated amenities such as foot massages and aromatherapy. The rooms are also equipped with built-in tubs for families who wish to have water births.

Comprehensive Breast Center
The women’s outpatient pavilion features a comprehensive breast center.

In addition to being the No. 1 birther, Hoag is also regarded as the highest-volume breast cancer care provider in California, screening more than 55,000 women a year at its imaging centers across OC.

“For the first time, a Hoag patient diagnosed with breast cancer can have their entire care journey on this campus—from screening and diagnosis to intervention surgery, chemotherapy and radiation,” Brown said.

The new breast center will offer services for MRI, mammography, ultrasound and biopsy ultrasound.

Underground tunnels connect the breast center to the surgical pavilion, so patients don’t have to come in contact with the public if they want privacy.

Brown said that a majority of the staff will come from Hoag’s breast center across the street on Sand Canyon Road.

“We’ve been able to successfully recruit the additional staff to grow the program as we anticipate,” she said.

Bridging Cancer with Digestive Health Care
Next door to the women’s hospital and outpatient pavilion are the Cancer & Digestive Hospital and Outpatient Pavilions, combining two specialties that frequently overlap in patient care.

“We studied the connection between the 09 and the services that were needed weren’t very coordinated for these patients,” Brown said.

One of the facility’s features is an urgent care for cancer patients undergoing radiation and chemotherapy who may be too immunocompromised to visit the emergency room. There will also be 70 inpatient rooms, a dedicated pharmacy, gastrointestinal (GI) and fluoroscopy labs, and six GI procedure suites with broadcast capabilities for educational purposes.

Rather than separating medical oncology, surgical oncology and infusion services across different floors, Hoag placed them side by side to create a more seamless patient experience.

“The doctors are able to come out and see their patients that are infusing that same day, and it also allows for cohorts of patients to be infusing together,” Teresa Conk, Hoag’s senior vice president and chief clinical institutes officer, told the Business Journal.

Conk said that Hoag is home to the largest digestive program in Orange County, covering expertise from advanced endoscopy to all types of GI cancers.

Hoag in March announced plans to launch the first liver transplant program in Orange County, which is expected to begin as early as 2027 pending regulatory approval.

“There is no liver transplant program in Orange County, which means oftentimes we’re sending our own hepatology patients outside of the county to get transplant care,” Conk said. “The ability to provide that locally and allow patients to stay around their family and their home with their support systems is really important.”

It appointed Dr. Aaron Ahearn from USC Keck School of Medicine to co-lead the program with Dr. Tse-Ling Fong and Dr. Brian Lee, co-directors of Hoag’s liver program, as well as Dr. Kenneth Chang.

Hoag is still considering whether to house the program at its Newport Beach or Irvine campus, but is “leaning toward Irvine,” according to Conk.