The UC San Diego Board of Regents approved an $83.4 million spending increase for the Jacobs Medical Center — a 245-bed specialty hospital that is set to open in La Jolla, Calif., this fall — bringing the total cost of the facility to $943 million, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.
The price tag for the hospital was about $664 million at its 2012 groundbreaking and has been raised four times since then. UC San Diego attributes the increasing tab to features being added at the hospital. For instance, in 2012 the overall project cost increased by $34 million when the system decided to add a specialized surgical suite, more operating rooms and an anatomic pathology lab at the hospital. Two years later, the price swelled again when additions such as a discharge pharmacy and nursing administrative space caused the price to jump $20 million, according to the report.
However, documents from the board of regents show the latest cost increase for the project was due to poor financial forecasting and a lack of experience with large hospital construction projects, according to the report. Because of the repeated price tag increases for the hospital, the facility's expected opening has been pushed back from July to October or November of this year.
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