BALBOA NAVAL HOSPITAL WELCOMED IN 1988

‘21ST CENTURY HOSPITAL’ IS DEDICATED BY NAVY

In January 1988, a new $264 million Navy hospital was dedicated at Balboa Park. Billed as the world’s largest and most modern naval medical facility, the Balboa Naval Hospital is officially the Naval Medical Center San Diego.

From The San Diego Union, Sunday, Jan. 24, 1988

Navy doctors and nurses served as ushers yesterday as admirals and area politicians dedicated the world’s newest and largest Navy hospital, located along the west rim of the Florida Canyon in Balboa Park.

“This is a hospital for the 21st century,” Rear Adm. H. James T. Sears said to 500 dignitaries and guests during the dedication of the $257 million facility.

When patients are moved to the new nursing towers next Saturday, the Navy’s landmark 69-year-old, pink-colored hospital will close.

Since 1919 the old hospital’s staff has treated millions, including wounded from World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Rear Adm. Joseph Cassells, commander of the Navy Medical Command in Washington, D.C., talked of his time when he was deputy commanding officer of the old hospital in 1978.

“It was my best tour of duty, but I won’t miss it,” Cassells said. “I won’t miss sending gynecology patients from building to building in the rain, or 72 buildings on 73 acres, or the distance between the emergency room and surgery or orthopedics. I’m nostalgic, but I’m not stupid.

The new hospital’s design is expected to ease the strain between patients and staff by creating a streamlined flow of patients between beds and clinics, and from registration to semiprivate rooms.

The streamlining has taken many forms. For example, inpatient wards have been built with more recovery rooms to provide more privacy. Previously, patients would line the hallways outside clinics at the old hospital.

Computerization will speed the flow of patients, while the pharmacy is a maze of robotic pill-shufflers. Throughout the patient wards, 150 robots, which resemble retail store hand trucks, will deliver food to patients’ wards. The robots will follow sensing wires installed below the floor.

The new Balboa naval facility, the costliest military hospital in the United States, will open on time after 17 years of planning, design and construction. And, said Sears, the hospital was built $36 million under budget.

Most of the credit for the savings was bestowed yesterday on Capt. William Joseph O’donnell, who managed the building project.

“I’m just glad we’re done,” said O’donnell, who plans to retire from the Navy next summer. O’donnell also has built Navy hospitals in Pensacola, Fla., and Bethesda, Md. The latter is considered to be the Navy’s flagship health-care facility.

The Balboa hospital complex is as striking today as it was controversial in the 1970s when it was first proposed.

It was the focus of two votes by the public, as well as the subject of lawsuits, congressional debate and presidential decisions.

Vehemently opposed by Balboa Park preservationists, the hospital became the subject of a 1979 ballot in which San Diego voters failed to give the necessary two-thirds approval to donate land needed by the Navy to build the facility.

“One of those protesters hit me in the head with a sign,” said Bob Wilson, a former congressman from San Diego.

Wilson was considered the key person in breaking the logjam between the city and the Navy in finding a site for the new hospital in the 1970s.

“Really, that was the toughest part,” said Wilson. “Once the Navy made up its mind on a site, it was OK.”

After the dedication, Mayor Maureen O’connor said, “Those problems are behind us now.”

“It’s another example of how the city and the Navy can work together to get the job done,” she said.