North County's new hospital was set to start receiving patients at 7 a.m. Sunday, altering the region's health care landscape and capping a process that began 18 years ago with a Los Angeles earthquake.

The 1994 Northridge quake ---- which damaged 11 medical centers ---- prompted lawmakers to mandate that all hospitals in California be retrofitted by 2013 to meet tougher seismic standards.

The deadline has been extended for many hospitals. Yet it spurred the leaders of Palomar Pomerado Health to look long and hard at their dated Palomar Medical Center and decide ---- given the work a retrofit would require ---- that it was time to start from scratch. After significant study, they eventually chose a site on a hill in Escondido overlooking Highway 78 and Interstate 15.

At a cost of nearly $1 billion, Palomar officials designed the hospital to take advantage of the latest research in preventing infections, speeding emergency care and helping patients heal more quickly. And administrators also expect such innovations to help the state's largest public health district compete more effectively for doctors and patients in the rapidly evolving health care economy in San Diego County.

The new building's design, with its 11-story, glass "vertical garden" and private patient rooms sporting flat-screen TVs, mirrors the district's goal to transform how a hospital functions.

Central nursing stations have been eliminated in favor of smaller, room-side kiosks where nurses ---- all equipped with smartphones ---- can keep a closer eye on patients and receive instant messages that eliminate the need for noisy intercoms. Sunlight floods into nearly every room, including surgical suites, a feature that experts say promotes healing.

Board Chairman Ted Kleiter said last week that the project was designed for the long haul, for his children and grandchildren.

"We said, We're not going to build a hospital for today. We're going to build a hospital for the next 50 years,' and that's what we did," Kleiter said.

Health care district CEO Michael Covert declined several requests for an interview. In a written statement Thursday, he said that the district had met its goal "... to create a uniquely flexible, future-oriented facility that would combine all of the principles that have been studied for many years to enhance the care and safety and well-being of patients and their families on one site ..."

A long journey

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HEALTH: As hospital opens, officials bet on innovation