Countdown to Launch:
Kaiser Permanente
Downey Medical Center

Staff Report

DOWNEY — Kaiser Permanente is in its final stages of preparing to welcome patients to their new medical center in Downey along Imperial Highway. This 657,000 square foot hospital will feature 352 beds, 19 labor and delivery suites, and a fully operational emergency department. The 33 acre Kaiser Permanente campus also includes a central support plant and two outpatient medical office buildings already occupied. The Kaiser Permanente hospital is the first new medical center in the Downey area in over 40 years.

Photo by Zion Publishing

KAISER PERMANENTE — A new place for wellness.

On September 15th Kaiser Permanente will formally move all in-patient hospital services from Bellflower to Downey including emergency services. “This move will be monumental for us,” enthused Jane Finley, Executive Director of the Kaiser Permanente hospital, “The new facility will give patients access to the most up to date medical technologies while still providing the same great Kaiser Permanente care and service.”

The new medical center represents the next phase of technological innovation in Downey. With high-tech features such as a fully operational electronic medical record and all digital imaging services the new medical center features the most modern equipment available in health care today.
It is also Kaiser Permanente’s “greenest” facility to date with energy efficient lighting, plumbing, and electrical systems, ecologically sound building materials such as PVC-free carpet, and non-allergenic landscaping that requires limited water.

The Kaiser Permanente Downey hospital serves as a seismic safety required replacement structure for the aging Kaiser Permanente Bellflower facility along Rosecrans Ave. which has been in operation since 1965. The facility currently provides care for over 280,000 members, has over 400 physicians and almost 4,000 total caregivers.

Following the move, the Bellflower medical campus will be officially converted into outpatient specialty care medical offices and will include the new same day surgical center providing further patient benefits.

“Kaiser Permanente chose to build the new replacement hospital next to the Imperial Medical Office Building in Downey instead of rebuilding at the existing Bellflower site because the Downey location offers patients accessibility to the largest outpatient clinic facility within Kaiser Permanente,” said Dr. Martin Gilbert, associate area medical director for Kaiser Permanente.

Kaiser Permanente also has plans for its existing Bellflower facility. Once the new Downey medical center is built, Kaiser Permanente will update the Bellflower facility and convert it into an outpatient surgical center with other outpatient services.

Kaiser Permanente is America’s leading health care organization. Founded in 1945, it is a non-profit, group-practice prepayment health care program with Southern California headquarters in Pasadena, California. Kaiser Permanente serves the health care needs of 3.3 million members in Southern California. Today it encompasses the non profit Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and their subsidiaries and the for-profit Southern California Permanente Medical Group.

The Kaiser Permanente Bellflower/Downey area serves 286,756 members throughout Southeast Los Angeles County. For more information visit kp.org.