UC San Diego Health Expands Primary and Urgent Care Options

Good health begins with good primary care. With this in mind, the university is expanding its network of primary care, urgent care and express care locations, including a new comprehensive health center recently opened in Rancho Bernardo. Described as a “clinic of the future,” the new 57,000-square-foot facility offers patients increased access to a top team of UC San Diego Health doctors, nurses and care providers.

“In the past six years, UC San Diego Health has invested more than $1.3 billion dollars in patient care facilities. Its world-class hospitals and clinics are open to you and your family,” said Patty Maysent, CEO, UC San Diego Health. “We now have more doctors and locations to choose from, hopefully close to you.”

As the first pediatric patient walked into the new Rancho Bernardo clinic, the nurses and doctors lined the hallways giving him high fives. It was a celebratory day as the ribbon was cut and the doors opened to the public. From imaging and blood draws to primary care and pediatrics, more than 100 patients were cared for on the first day.

Patty Maysent, CEO, UC San Diego Health

“The new Rancho Bernardo location has been designed to optimize the amount of personalized time that patients have with their doctors and nurses. In an unrushed environment, we listen attentively to our patients with a focus on improving overall health and wellbeing,” said Tyson Ikeda, MD, Clinical Service Chief, UC San Diego Health Physician Group. “We hope all of our patients, from children to seniors, will see UC San Diego Health as a place to get well and be well.”

As UC San Diego Health has expanded, it has also increased the number of ways that appointments can be made. The newest option is the MyUCSDHealth mobile application, now available on Apple and Android devices. It includes a time-saving feature called “Save My Spot,” which allows patients to remotely hold their spot in advance for same-day walk-in visits for express and urgent care. When arriving for an appointment, your space in line is saved and you are typically seen within minutes.

“We are empowering our patients to take control of their health journey. One of the convenient ways patients can do this is through an online portal called MyUCSDChart,” said Ikeda. “Patients can use this secure online portal to message their provider and to track medical histories, prescriptions and lab or radiology results. Appointments can also be made for everything from urgent care visits to mammograms to video visits.”

Unique among local health care providers, UC San Diego Health is a nationally recognized academic medical center. These special health systems offer teams of national experts who have access to medical and surgical resources not offered anywhere else. Many of the doctors at UC San Diego Health are also researchers in the School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center, where they are developing the newest diagnostic criteria, therapies and treatments for the most challenging patient conditions.

“While we all hope it will not happen, one of the most important decisions you can make after a diagnosis of cancer is where to get your care. Not all places are equal. There are fewer than 50 centers in the United States that are designated by the National Cancer Institute as Comprehensive Cancer Centers,” said Maysent,. “These are extraordinary places where the toughest cancer cases are successfully diagnosed and treated. Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego is one of them—and the only one in the region.”

UC San Diego Health also includes UC San Diego Medical Center in Hillcrest and Jacobs Medical Center, Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, Shiley Eye Institute, Koman Family Outpatient Pavilion and Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute, all in La Jolla. Clinics are offered throughout the region in local neighborhoods.

To learn how you can choose UC San Diego Health, visit: health.ucsd.edu More than 800 primary care and specialty physicians are available to choose from, based in convenient locations, and waiting to care for you.