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UCSD opens health center at former Brett’s BBQ site

Above: UCSD opened its new Encinitas location on June 10 to provide same-day appointments and other healthcare services, such as pediatrics, primary care and Express Care. Courtesy photo

ENCINITAS — It has been almost a year since a popular barbecue eatery closed its doors, and UC San Diego is opening new medical offices on the former site.

The university announced June 10 the opening of its new comprehensive health center at the former Brett’s BBQ site at 1505 Encinitas Boulevard, just east of El Camino Real.

Officials with the university said the new location is aimed at expanding convenient access to primary care services near major transit corridors.

Former Brett’s BBQ owner Bruce Weisman stands in the dining room of his former restaurant in Encinitas. File photo

“From the working parent to the caregiver, we all lead busy lives. UC San Diego Health is dedicated to caring for our community and meeting our patients where they are instead of asking them to travel a long distance for exceptional care,” said Patty Maysent, CEO of UC San Diego Health. “Health issues don’t take personal schedules and plans into consideration. The opening of the Encinitas location is part of our goal to bring new and convenient primary care options to multiple neighborhood locations across San Diego.”

The Encinitas location will provide same-day appointments and other services such as pediatrics, primary care and Express Care — essentially urgent care that operates 12 hours a day, seven days a week — to address colds, simple fractures or sprains, or physicals for school or camps.

Other features of the Encinitas location include state-of-the-art design elements that allow patients to be more involved with their care. Forty-inch monitors in patient rooms give patients the opportunity to see their electronic medical record and notes as their physician types them.

This is a much different look for the space than when it was last open in September 2018, the last day that Brett’s BBQ was in business.

The popular eatery opened in 2008 before the space owners terminated the restaurant’s lease in to make way for the health center. Brett’s co-owners said re-locating the business would have been cost prohibitive and shut it down Sept. 29, 2018.

1 comment

taxpayerconcerns June 12, 2019 at 8:03 pm

No more sales tax there. How many medical outposts can Encinitas handle? The new medical building next to the hospital. The mass of medical buildings on El Camino Real. All the smaller doctor offices in the grocery stores. Will medical bills be lowered with the additional competition? A nice touch would be green stamps with each $25 incremental charge.

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