New Scripps Coastal Medical Center Oceanside opens

OCEANSIDE — Scripps Health has opened a new medical office building for Scripps Coastal Medical Center that incorporates the latest advances in wireless device technology. The updated facility is adjacent to California State Route 76 at 4318 Mission Ave., and will replace the original Scripps Coastal Medical Center facility on Mission Avenue.The 33,500-square-foot medical office building opened July 23. It is almost twice the size of the original medical center, and provides more parking and easier accessibility. Initially, the new Scripps Coastal Medical Center office building will house the 10 Scripps doctors and 40 staff from the existing medical center, expanding to a total of 20 physicians in the future.

The new Scripps Coastal Medical Center office building is the first in San Diego County to use a single, universal wireless network designed to handle all types of mobile devices — everything from infusion pumps and vital signs monitors to laptops and tablets used by health care providers and even patients and visitors.

The new medical center’s network allows all devices to operate simultaneously, and it can isolate different segments of the bandwidth to protect patient data, so that someone using a personal iPad can’t access patient information flowing from a medical device.

Scripps is part of a national coalition of health systems organized by the West Wireless Health Institute in La Jolla to develop a universal wireless infrastructure known as a medical-grade wireless open framework.

Scripps will install the advanced wireless network next in the new Critical Care Building now under construction at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas, followed by the Prebys Cardiovascular Institute being built on the campus of Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla. The technology eventually will be deployed at all Scripps hospitals and clinics.