California state treasurer Fiona Ma announced recently that the California Health Facilities Financing Authority (CHFFA) has awarded US$135 million in grant funding to Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital (LLUCH) — the single largest distribution that CHFFA has ever given — through the Children’s Hospital Program of 2018, to fund six major projects:

• The construction of a new pediatric Medical Office Building, which will house 23 existing subspecialty clinics under one roof, with an increased number of exam rooms, allowing LLUCH to see approximately 15,000 additional pediatric patients annually.
• Expansion of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), which will add nine single-bed NICU rooms at LLUCH and increase capacity to serve an additional 150 NICU patients annually.
• The relocation and expansion of the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Infusion Center, which will increase the number of pediatric infusion chairs, exam rooms, and infusion beds, and will allow LLUCH to go from completing 9,000 infusions annually to 11,700.
• Renovation of the pediatric Operating Rooms that are more than 30 years old. The new equipment and renovation materials to be used will decrease cleaning time between surgeries and will allow LLUCH to serve approximately 250 more pediatric patients annually.
• The addition of a new 48-bed pediatric Psychiatric Inpatient Unit, which will provide intensive care treatment in a safe and controlled environment and expects to have 2,615 admissions annually.
• The reimbursement of eligible pediatric equipment including, but not limited to, a surgical robot used for pediatric minimally invasive surgeries, allowing the performance of surgeries with greater accuracy and precision.

“I am thrilled and excited to see these six major projects come to fruition and see their impact on the critically ill and vulnerable children of San Bernardino, Riverside, Inyo, and Mono counties,” Ma said. She explained that most of those patients are on Medi-Cal, the California Medical Assistance Program for low-income families. The new improvement initiatives come on the heels of the completion of the much-needed expansion of the new Children’s Tower on the new Dennis and Carol Troesh Medical Campus in 2021.

Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital is a 364-bed nonprofit acute-care pediatric hospital in San Bernardino County that serves as the sole children’s hospital for 1.2 million children. Its 84-bed NICU is one of the largest in the county, providing the highest level of care to high-risk pediatric patients.

“Children have unique needs for their health care, and these funds will enable Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital to grow and enhance the vital health care we provide to our region’s youngest, most vulnerable patients,” LLUH Hospitals CEO Trevor Wright said. “We serve children from some of the most distant rural areas of the state, from nearby suburban communities, and from San Bernardino’s inner-city neighborhoods. This important California State commitment will result in many children being able to go home with their families, healthy and whole.”

The Children’s Hospital Program of 2018 (Proposition 4), passed by California voters on November 6, 2018, permitted the state of California to issue $1.5 billion in general obligation bonds to fund the Children’s Hospital Program of 2018. The purpose of the program is to improve the health and welfare of California’s critically ill children by providing a stable and ready source of funds for capital improvement projects for children’s hospitals. CHFFA aims to help vulnerable pediatric populations by expanding access to health care, inspiring health care improvements, and promoting pediatric teaching and research programs.

CHFFA previously awarded Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital a total of $172.9 million ($74.9 million under Proposition 61, the Children’s Hospital Program of 2004, and $98 million under Proposition 3, the Children’s Hospital Program of 2008) to construct the new Children’s Hospital Tower at the Dennis and Carol Troesh Medical Campus and to purchase pediatric equipment.

The original version of this story was posted on the Loma Linda University Health news site.