Ribbon-cutting ceremony marks opening of Joe C. Wen & Family Center for Advanced Care

State-of-the-art facility will bring academic medicine to central, south OC

UCI Health President and CEO Chad T. Lefteris addresses attendees at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Joe C. Wen & Family Center for Advanced Care at UCI Health — Irvine on May 8.

Orange, Calif. — UCI Health and UCI Health Sciences leaders, philanthropists and elected officials came together this week to mark a major milestone in the construction of the UCI Health ― Irvine campus: the opening of the Joe C. Wen & Family Center for Advanced Care. 

Celebrating access to specialty care

UCI Health President and CEO Chad T. Lefteris welcomed the attendees to the Wen Center, which marks the beginning of an exciting healthcare transformation for the region.

The center’s opening was eagerly anticipated by residents of coastal and south Orange County. On its first day of business on April 30, about 500 visitors sought advanced, specialty care.

Construction of the $221 million, 168,000-square-foot facility was approved by the University of California Board of Regents in August 2020 and was augmented by a $20 million gift from Joe C. Wen and his family.

Wen is the founder and chief executive of Sakura Paper Inc., a division of Formosa Ltd. The gift is one of the largest ever to UCI.

Wen Center floor by floor

The new building features:

• Level one: Center for Children's Health, including the Center for Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders, comprehensive laboratory and imaging services and urgent care
• Level two: Center for Children's Health provided by Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC)
• Level three: The UCI Health Digestive Health Institute, and adult primary and specialty care, including cardiology, ear, nose and throat, endocrinology, gastroenterology, gynecology, hepatology, primary care, sports medicine, urology and vascular surgery services
• Level four: Neurosciences, orthopaedics, spine and pain management

Academic cancer care coming soon

The UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center opens in July.

The center is part of the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center based in Orange County.

The five-story, 225,000-square-foot tower will offer a full range of outpatient services. It has 52 private exam rooms, eight outpatient operating rooms and 42 infusion bays, all designed for patient comfort.

The facility will seamlessly integrate research and prevention with the most advanced diagnostics, treatments and rehabilitation programs. It will also be the home of the only adult hematopoietic stem cell/bone marrow transplant program, currently at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

Together, the Wen and cancer centers will foster research efforts — the foundation of an academic health system — giving patients access to the latest, most promising new therapies unavailable elsewhere.

Acute care hospital in 2025

The final phase of the Irvine medical complex will be a seven-story, 144-bed acute care hospital complete with a 24-hour emergency department, which is scheduled to open in 2025. 

About UCI Health

UCI Health is the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine, and the only academic health system based in Orange County. UCI Health is comprised of its main campus, UCI Medical Center, a 459-bed, acute care hospital in in Orange, Calif., four hospitals and affiliated physicians of the UCI Health Community Network in Orange and Los Angeles counties and ambulatory care centers across the region. Listed among America’s Best Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report for 23 consecutive years, UCI Medical Center provides tertiary and quaternary care and is home to Orange County’s only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, high-risk perinatal/neonatal program and American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, gold level 1 geriatric emergency department and regional burn center. UCI Health serves a region of nearly 4 million people in Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

About UCI Health — Irvine

UCI Health — Irvine, a new medical complex under construction at the north end of the UC Irvine campus, will bring unparalleled expertise and the finest evidence-based care that only an academic health system can offer to the communities of coastal and south Orange County. As part of UCI Health — which includes the flagship UCI Medical Center in Orange, Orange County’s only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and multiple outpatient care locations — the new 1.2 million-square-foot campus will offer key clinical programs in oncology, digestive health, neurology, neurosurgery, orthopedics and spine surgery. The nation’s first all-electric, carbon-neutral medical center, UCI Health — Irvine is home to The Joe C. Wen & Family UCI Health Center for Advanced Care, a five-story, 168,000-square-foot medical facility offering the full range of multidisciplinary specialty care for children and adults under a single roof, urgent care services, the Center for Children’s Health and the UCI Health Center for Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Opening this summer: The Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care building. Coming in 2025: A seven-story, 350,000-square-foot, acute care hospital.