Hoag Memorial Hospital will open its $1.2 billion Sun Family Campus expansion in Irvine on Saturday, Sept. 19. The project adds six buildings, 155 inpatient beds and 475,000 square feet to a hospital system that families from Newport Beach ZIP codes have been filling for years.

The expansion responds directly to that demand. Marcy Brown, Hoag's senior vice president and chief operations officer, said the hospital tracked where its Newport Beach maternity patients lived and found a pattern.

"One of the real foundational components was when we looked at the number of babies being born in Newport Beach that were from Irvine ZIP codes … It was telling a story, and the story that was being told was really that there were a lot of families growing and a lot of moms and babies in South County," Brown told the Daily Pilot in a Sept. 11 interview.

Hoag delivers more babies than any other hospital in California, according to the Daily Pilot. The expansion is expected to push annual births from 9,000 to 12,000 by 2028.

The new buildings include a women's hospital with 24 birthing suites and a 17-bed neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), a cancer and digestive hospital with 70 inpatient rooms, outpatient pavilions for each specialty, a surgical pavilion and a laboratory center. Hoag's maternity page lists the Irvine NICU as a Level III unit beginning Sept. 21, two days after the ribbon-cutting.

A Comprehensive Breast Center lets patients complete a full cancer journey on the Irvine campus, from diagnostic mammogram through surgery, reconstruction, radiation and chemotherapy. A dedicated urgent care for cancer patients means they will not need to visit a general emergency room. Hoag also plans to add cardiac services, including open heart surgery and neurosurgery, in the months after opening.

The ribbon-cutting begins at 9 a.m. Sept. 19. All services are expected to be fully operational by Sept. 28.

The project is funded in part through the Boldly Hoag campaign, which has a $300 million philanthropic goal. Diana and David Sun gave two $50 million gifts, in 2022 and 2025, and the campus bears their family's name, according to the Boldly Hoag campaign site. Irvine-based LPA Design Studios served as lead architect. Wendy Rogers, LPA's chief executive, told the Orange County Business Journal in an Aug. 24 profile that seeing the project reach completion was "tremendous."

Following the ceremony, Hoag is hosting a free public event called "World of Wonder" on Sept. 19 and 20. Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The event features interactive health exhibits and guided tours of the new buildings. Registration is available at hoag.org/wonder.