Sacramento Medical Field Expanding With Groups Investing More Than $1 Billion In Region

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The medical field is expanding in the Sacramento area as three groups have multimillion-dollar projects underway in the capital city.

Sutter Health moved 200 patients into a new facility in Midtown over the weekend as part of a $750 million project, but it won't be the newest for long.

"Sacramento is a large region now," said Sacramento State professor Suzanne O'Keefe. "We have space to grow, it's a location where people come from outside the area to obtain certain health services."

Couple that with many people living longer, and she says the city could continue to see a shift from a state-driven industry to other sectors, such as medical.

In addition to the Sutter Health project, UC Davis has announced a $200 million upgrade to its facilities, and Kaiser Permanente has plans for a new hospital at the downtown railyards as well as intentions to fill a downtown building.

"It's a really important sector right now in terms, of employment growth for our region," said Peter Tateishi with the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce. He pegs the Kaiser project at upward of $1 billion.

He says the region has been in need of more hospital beds for some times, and with those beds will come careers.

"There will be additional jobs, in truth, we're expanding the number of beds which means you're expanding the number of jobs that are able to manage those patients," he said.

With the average health-care salary at $80,000, it could mean great things for the economy, with patients hoping the expansion means more competition.