Riverside Community Hospital Opens Seven-Story Patient Tower in Time for 2018

By Rachel Leber

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — After a long construction schedule that began in 2013, the Riverside Community Hospital (RCH) announced the opening of its brand new seven-story patient tower on Oct. 16, 2017. Orthopedic and surgery patients were moved in to the new tower space on Oct. 30, 2017 by hospital staff, volunteers and administration.

The new tower had a budget of $460 million. Perkins+Will was the architect on the project based out of their Los Angeles office, with DPR Construction based out of Redwood City, Calif. and Skanska AB out of their Riverside office offering construction services.

The vision behind the design of the project was to enable the hospital to provide cutting-edge technology, advanced services to critically ill patients and evidence-based design features that will enhance clinical operations, safety and quality and a more comfortable place for patients to receive care, according to a statement on the Riverside Community Hospital website.

The 285,000 seven-story square-foot tower includes 105 private patient rooms, a new cafeteria, kitchen and a new state-of-the-art laboratory. The new bed count includes 35 additional ICU beds, and 70 medical and surgical beds, which brings the total number of licensed beds in the hospital to 478 including the existing beds, with room for 84 more when needed in the future.

All new rooms offer floor-to-ceiling windows with sweeping views of downtown Riverside or Mt. Rubidoux, and feature tiled bathrooms with showers, allowing patients to experience a serene atmosphere for their recovery.

The new tower also includes a new surgical pre-op and post-op surgical recovery area. In addition, there is a new three-story medical office building, a new five-level 1,060-space parking garage, as well as additions and expansions to the medical imaging department equipment additions and expansions. Finally, a seismic retrofit and cosmetic upgrades were made to the existing patient tower.

“RCH has come a long way over the last decade and the completion of the new tower is a remarkable milestone for us as we continue to support the health and well-being of a growing community,” said Patrick Brilliant, president and chief executive officer at Riverside Community Hospital in a recent statement. “Our patients will receive the same exceptional care by our staff regardless of which tower they reside in. The addition of our new tower is a representation of our continued commitment to providing high quality, compassionate care in a healing environment for our patients.”