About This Issue

Welcome to the City of Laguna Beach’s web page relating to Mission Hospital, Laguna Beach. The owner and operator of the hospital, Providence St. Joseph’s, has shared that it does not intend to meet a 2030 deadline to upgrade the Hospital to seismic safety standards, and is in the early stages of evaluating a future healthcare model for Laguna Beach. Providence estimates that it may cost $300M-350M to bring the Hospital up to the seismic standards required under the law and has shared that retrofitting the current facility would not bring innovation or new services to meet the long-term needs of Laguna Beach.

In Providence’s words, this new model would evolve the current hospital campus to an outpatient-focused medical center that includes an Advanced Care Center.

Today, the Hospital is not designated as a site for care of trauma, stroke, or heart attack patients (see “Acute Care Hospitals in OC” below). In fact, the City’s own ambulance transports to Mission LB can be diverted en route to another regional hospital (such as Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo or Hoag in Newport Beach) if a patient is having a stroke, cardiac event or other emergent issue requiring a higher level of care. Providence has also shared utilization data showing that “of the … 17,275 (patients) who came to the Laguna Beach ED, 84% were treated, discharged, and didn’t require hospitalization, 73% of arrivals did not require paramedic accompaniment, and 2.5% were transferred to Providence Mission Viejo for a higher level of care.”

Providence has pointed to these trends as one reason it believes a new model focused on advanced care, outpatient services and specialty access would better align with how most residents currently use the facility. Within this model, an Advanced Care Center could have the capabilities to stabilize and arrange transfer when hospital-level care is needed.

Why this Matters to the Community.

 

The former South Coast Hospital has been in place since 1959 and was constructed based on local support and funds after a Laguna Beach Police Officer died in part because of a lack of nearby care (read more about this in Ann Christoph’s piece below). As noted above, today the ER receives about 17,000 patients annually – and fairly few of them (about 10%) are admitted to the hospital for longer-term care. About 30 beds in the hospital are occupied at any one time (on average), and a portion of these patients are electing to stay there following surgery.

A key “why it matters” issue involves State law and regulation – if a person is transported in an ambulance transport vehicle, like an LBFD Ambulance, they can only be taken to a licensed hospital. An Advanced Care Center will not, today, be able to accept patients on our Ambulance transports.

This means a couple of things for Laguna Beach residents / patients: (1) it means that a primary and trusted transport method during a crisis – the LBFD ambulance transport system – will not be able to take a patient to a local hospital. All transports will have to go to Mission in Mission Viejo, Hoag in Newport Beach, UCI, or another site well outside of the community; (2) it means that the same ambulances will be in transit longer, possibly in slow traffic, and may have to wait at the various hospitals longer until clients are admitted – delaying the ambulances’ return to town and return to service. The city only has three ambulances at most times, with a fourth added in the summer.

Providence, however, believes that its plan will enhance outpatient services to Laguna Beach, adding specialties and services that we may not have locally. Patients who arrive at the Laguna Beach Advanced Care Center and require a higher level of care would be stabilized and transferred to an appropriate hospital.

Action Steps. In March of 2026, the City Council directed that a Hospital Action Plan be followed, which includes a Hospital Task Force. The preliminary direction of the Hospital Task Force is to thoughtfully and carefully examine at least two plans: (1) a plan that retains an Emergency Department in Laguna Beach, whether operated by Providence or someone else; and (2) the plan put forth by Providence, which includes either an Advanced Care Center or, should state law change, a medical center with a stand-alone Emergency Department (Providence has told us that it would support placing a stand-alone ED on a new Laguna Beach campus if State law allowed it).

Document Repository. Relevant documents related to the Hospital are here (these will be added to over time):