Adventist Health Bakersfield announced Tuesday plans to build a new hospital in northwest Bakersfield.
Adventist Health Bakersfield's CEO Sharlet Briggs spoke to 23ABC and said the new hospital will be located on the east side of Coffee Road near Brimhall Road, near the Bakersfield Commons.
The Commons development includes a hospital as part of its plans. Although Briggs said the hospital is not technically part of the Commons project, she said developers reached out to Adventist Health to build in that location.
Adventist Health is in the very early stages of planning, Briggs said, so there is no concrete plan of what facilities will go in the new hospital.
She plans to meet with employees of their current hospital on Chester Avenue this month to hear feedback about what they like and what they need in the present facility to figure out what will be built in the new facility.
Briggs said the hospital plans to hear community feedback for what is needed as well.
Briggs said this will be an opportunity for new jobs but does not know how many, because the plans and needs are not finalized yet.
The steps in the process of building this hospital are gathering feedback, having an architect create a plan, then beginning the estimated three-year building process.
Briggs said the goal is to have the new hospital open by 2024.
