A groundbreaking response to Oregon’s hospital capacity crisis
OHSU is growing to meet the most urgent needs of patients across Oregon and Southwest Washington. The OHSU Hospital Expansion Project is a multiphase initiative that will enlarge and transform the inpatient care environment on OHSU’s Marquam Hill campus for patients of all ages who require the highest level of hospital care for cancer and other complex conditions.
As a not-for-profit, mission-driven institution operating in the public interest, OHSU has always relied on the community’s partnership when tackling Oregon’s most significant health care challenges. Private support will help increase the availability of hospital beds for the region’s sickest patients and expand access to cutting-edge treatments available nowhere else in the state, while also advancing OHSU’s vital education and research missions.
The current state at OHSU
Hospital beds are at 100% capacity
Vista Pavilion, opening in 2026
513,000
square feet
New inpatient beds
128
The addition will increase OHSU’s total bed count to more than 750
A critical need for hospital beds across the region
Fueling the urgency of this project is Oregon’s longstanding shortage of adult hospital beds. Compared to other states, Oregon and Washington have the fewest hospital beds per capita in the nation. For patients from across the Pacific Northwest, that translates into unacceptably long wait times for a bed. OHSU offers advanced treatments not found elsewhere in the region and cares for more patients who are sicker and require longer hospitalizations than any other medical center in our area. During periods of unusually high demand, there simply are not enough beds or hospital staff to accommodate everyone who needs urgent care.
Expanding OHSU’s bed capacity will give more Oregon and Southwest Washington residents more timely access to the advanced treatments that make the greatest impact on their most urgent health care challenges.
For many of Oregon’s most seriously ill patients, when there is no room at OHSU there is simply nowhere else to go. As Oregon’s only public academic health center, OHSU provides the broadest array of tertiary and quaternary care services between Seattle and the San Francisco Bay area and is the only regional provider of breakthrough treatments such as CAR T-cell cancer therapy. This project will expand OHSU’s capacity to provide more timely care for more the region’s most seriously ill patients, including more from underserved communities across the state who cannot access the level of care they require in hospitals closer to their homes. As a result, OHSU will be able to provide more timely access to a bed for more people from across Oregon and beyond who need the level of care only OHSU can provide.
A new addition: The Vista Pavilion
A state-of-the-art inpatient addition to OHSU Hospital is currently under construction on Marquam Hill. The new building, called the Vista Pavilion, will increase OHSU’s bed count by nearly one third, putting OHSU’s capacity on par with that of similar health care institutions on the West Coast. More beds will give more people timely access to advanced care, address the needs of our aging population and keep pace with regional growth. The new building will be dedicated primarily to providing advanced cancer treatments and complex surgical care for seriously ill patients facing longer-than-average hospitalizations. As these services move from their current locations into the new building, it will open up space to expand and enhance OHSU’s capacity to provide inpatient cardiovascular and neurological care, with other areas of expansion under discussion for future phases.
“We’re seeing more patients than ever before. They’re sicker, more complex and they have more needs, so their visit takes longer. When all the hospital beds are full, they don’t have access to a room, so they stay waiting in the ED beds.”
– Mary Tanski, M.D., chair of OHSU’s Department of Emergency Medicine
Opening in 2026
The 513,000-square-foot Vista Pavilion will increase OHSU’s total bed count to more than 750. Scheduled to welcome its first patients in 2026, the Vista Pavilion will initially offer 128 inpatient beds on four patient-care floors, with flexibility to add up to 64 more beds in the future depending on how they are used.
It will primarily house patients of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute who face long hospital stays while undergoing advanced treatments or complex surgeries. The new addition will also significantly increase OHSU’s capacity to serve patients facing other diseases perennially among Oregon’s leading causes of death and disability: heart disease, stroke, neurological disorders and traumatic injuries. Subsequent phases of the project, subject to OHSU board approval, would give Doernbecher Children’s Hospital extraordinary new capabilities to care for the region’s most vulnerable newborns and their families, with a long- planned expansion of its neonatal intensive care unit and other innovative services in birthing and post-partum care.
With nearly half of OHSU’s patients coming from outside the Portland area, the impact of an investment in OHSU’s capacity would extend far beyond the city limits – by expanding capacity at the region’s premier advanced-care hospital, this project is an essential investment in a stronger state of health for all.
Get in touch
To talk to a member of our development team about how you can help with this essential project, call the OHSU Foundation.
