Ribbon Cut for Region's First Dedicated Cardiovascular Center

UC San Diego Health System hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the region’s first dedicated cardiovascular patient care and research center Friday morning. The UC San Diego Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center is a four-story facility adjacent to Thornton Hospital with four operating rooms, 22 day beds and 27 acute-care beds.

The facility was completed six years after Richard Sulpizio, a longtime Qualcomm executive, and his wife, Gabby, donated $10 million for the project.

“It was a no-brainer for us when presented with the opportunity to be involved with the cardiovascular center that we would step up and do that,” said Richard Sulpizio at the ceremony. “And if our lead gift helped encourage other people, that was great. We are just pleased and honored and actually a little humbled to be involved with this great, great facility.”

Kirk Peterson, the new facility’s director and professor of clinical cardiology, said the community has aspired to build this kind of center for 40 years.

“The SCVC represents the culmination of that effort, to have a facility in which all disciplines render cardiac care housed where we can work in close proximity,” Peterson said in a statement.

The facility will open its doors on April 3.

UC San Diego will host an open house for the new facility March 26 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. To register for the open house, call 800-926-8273 or visit heartcenter.ucsd.edu.