Loma Linda University Health and Lifepoint Rehabilitation broke ground this month on a new 80-bed rehabilitation hospital that will nearly double Loma Linda University Health's rehabilitation-services capacity for patients recovering from strokes, brain injuries, and other life-altering conditions. The $140 million facility at 11207 New Jersey St. in Loma Linda along its border with Redlands is expected to begin seeing patients in 2028, with construction targeted for completion by summer of that year.
The project, reported by the Daily Bulletin, will replace and expand on the 45-bed rehabilitation unit Loma Linda University Health has run out of its East Campus Hospital at 25333 Barton Road for more than 30 years, according to Loma Linda University Health. Anthony Hilliard said the project will nearly double rehabilitation-services capacity for people recovering from life-altering conditions, per the Daily Bulletin's report. Once the new hospital opens, the health system plans to convert the 45 vacated beds at East Campus into short-term beds for patients with urgent needs, effectively expanding capacity on two fronts at once. According to the California Department of Health Care Access and Information, Ballard Rehabilitation Hospital has 60 licensed beds and was listed as open for the reporting period of July 1st, 2024 - June 30th, 2025.
A Standalone Hospital Built for Recovery
The three-story, roughly 99,000-square-foot standalone hospital is being developed by PMB alongside general contractor Layton Construction, Material Design Architects, and financing partner Harrison Street Asset Management, according to a PR Newswire announcement. The site is roughly 99,000 square feet. The new hospital will sit next to Loma Linda University Surgical Hospital on Barton Road, the Daily Bulletin reported.
Inside, the facility will include a therapy gym for physical, occupational, speech, and recreational therapies, robotic technology to help patients relearn to walk, and an indoor car for patients to practice getting in and out, according to the Daily Bulletin's account of the project. Loma Linda University Health and Lifepoint Rehabilitation will jointly build and operate the hospital, which will provide intensive nursing, physical, occupational, and speech pathology services. Lifepoint Rehabilitation staff will manage the center's day-to-day operations once it opens.
Why the Inland Empire Needs More Beds
Lyndon Edwards said the rapidly growing population of older Inland Empire residents is driving the need for the new hospital, the Daily Bulletin reported. San Bernardino County projects a 50% increase in its senior population between 2025 and 2045, with residents 65 and older rising from 13.6% to 20.0% of the county's total population, according to San Bernardino County data. Older Medicare patients comprise a significant percentage of those needing rehabilitation services, the Daily Bulletin noted, and statewide, the California Department of Finance projects the 65-and-older population will grow more than 65% by the mid-2030s, with the largest increases expected in Central Valley and Inland Empire counties, per CalMatters.
Loma Linda University Medical Center operates one of only two Level I trauma centers. That role generates a steady stream of stroke, brain injury, and trauma patients who need intensive rehabilitation, a pattern reflected in Hoodline's recent coverage of a 12-year-old's recovery from a rare spinal stroke through months of therapy at Totally Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Loma Linda.
Lifepoint's Growing Southern California Footprint
For Lifepoint Rehabilitation, the Loma Linda project marks its first venture in the Inland Empire, though the company already operates rehabilitation facilities in Irvine and Escondido. Russ Bailey said Lifepoint is committed to investing in people, facilities and technologies that help patients regain independence close to home, according to the Daily Bulletin. Lifepoint Rehabilitation, headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee, is a division of Lifepoint Health, which runs over 50 hospital-based rehabilitation units nationwide, according to the Daily Bulletin's reporting, while Lifepoint Health describes managing more than 300 hospital-based therapy units and over 45 joint-venture inpatient rehabilitation hospitals across the country. The Loma Linda project is being developed by PMB and Lifepoint Rehabilitation.
The timing tracks with Lifepoint Rehabilitation's existing Southern California footprint: the company operates facilities in Irvine and Escondido, according to the Daily Bulletin.
Part of a Larger Loma Linda Build-Out
The rehabilitation hospital is one piece of a wider expansion across Loma Linda University Health's six hospitals. The Daily Bulletin reported that Loma Linda University Hospital plans two dedicated psychiatric units for youths and adults within its emergency department, along with a youth-ward expansion in Hinshaw Towers. Loma Linda University Children's Hospital is developing a five-story specialty-clinics facility, and the health system is also building a pediatric and adult medicine clinic in Moreno Valley that is currently awaiting final licensing before it can open.
Those projects follow the addition of new adult and pediatric hospital towers in 2021. Together, the projects reflect a health system betting that the Inland Empire's aging population will keep demand for specialized rehabilitation and acute care climbing well past the new hospital's planned 2028 opening.
