SAN DIEGO – Nonprofit St. Paul’s Senior Services is expanding its footprint in hopes of providing more resources to San Diego’s growing elderly population.
The organization is undergoing a $12 million expansion of its flagship downtown PACE Reasner Center, a healthcare facility designed to support frail, low-income seniors who qualify for nursing-home-level care but want to remain at home.
The update will bring a senior day center, clinical level, rehabilitation level and administrative level.
St. Paul’s also recently opened its new $11 million Technology Collaboration Hub (TCH) which provides a centralized access point with telehealth, round-the-clock nursing triage, remote patient monitoring capabilities, expanded home health, 24-hour behavioral healthcare and a “PACE Concierge” concept coming soon to streamline real-time care coordination.
“When you look at the homeless population in San Diego, the fastest rising segment is over the age of 55,” St. Paul’s CEO Michael McHale said. “We’re looking at folks who aren’t going to have enough resources to pay for their needs. We’re trying to design healthcare delivery models and housing that actually decline over the years — like, rents don’t go up, rents go down — because seniors aren’t going to have enough money.”
In 2008, St. Paul’s was instrumental in bringing PACE (Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) to San Diego County. PACE is a Medicare and Medicaid program that provides comprehensive medical and social services to qualified people in their community.
Investing in expansion allows for St. Paul’s to increase its capacity and better serve its existing senior clients.
Increasing Capacity Downtown
Before the expansion of Reasner Center, St. Paul’s was only using 7,000 square feet of its 28,000 square-foot building at Elm Street and First Avenue. There were three whole floors that the organization had not activated yet.
With the completion of this project, all of the facility’s square footage will be utilized.
“We know that the demand for PACE is going to go up. It’s been rising significantly every year,” McHale said. “So we wanted to modernize that building so that we could use all four floors in the building to provide various services.”
Currently, Reasner Center serves about 450 to 500 seniors. With the expansion, the center is projected to serve up to 800 seniors with its tripled exam room space, expanded rehabilitation centers and increased number of providers.
The center will also feature a model apartment that allows St. Paul’s team to asses whether a senior is able to navigate a living space independently after hospitalization.
The first two renovated floors of the center are expected to be opened by March, and the whole center should be operational by June of this year.
Streamlining Resources
Beyond Reasner Center, St. Paul’s has three other PACE facilities in San Diego, including its full locations in El Cajon and Chula Vista and its alternative care site in Encinitas.
St. Paul’s new 16,000 square-foot TCH, based in Mission Valley, centralizes logistical operations for all of its PACE centers.
“Our centers used to run independently of each other, so they all had their own transportation networks, they had all their healthcare networks, they had all the supports and services they provided,” McHale said. “What we did was we took all those services, and we hosted them in one center, so that now we can coordinate all the services in one spot for all of San Diego.”
One example is St’ Paul’s van service, through which seniors are provided rides to go see outside specialists. The organization provides about 700 rides each day, and by streamlining the service, McHale said that St. Paul’s is able to be more organized and prepared to respond to seniors’ calls.
While the TCH officially opened in 2024, St. Paul’s investment in technology is ongoing, McHale said.
Last year, St. Paul’s entered an affiliation agreement with TRU Community Care of Colorado, creating a resource-sharing model that has created an economic efficiency of about $1 million thus far.
One element of St. Paul’s technological advancement is its use of AI, McHale said.
“We don’t want to take away from the human touch, but we want to augment how many times you’re touched, if that makes sense,” McHale said. “So if you come into your doctor now, let’s just say three times a month. We don’t want to take away from that, but with this technology, we may be calling you on the phone four times. We’ve added more capacity to interact.”
McHale said that AI will be primarily used to enhance customer service and aggregate data, but never for medical decision-making.
St. Paul’s currently sits at 694 employees but is targeting the 1,000-employee mark over the next three to five years. The organization is also projecting a budget of $300 million in 2026.
St. Paul’s Senior Services
FOUNDED: 1960
CEO: Michael McHale
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego
BUSINESS: Senior Care/Healthcare
EMPLOYEES: 694
REVENUE: $200M in annual revenue
WEBSITE: stpaulseniors.org
CONTACT: [email protected]
SOCIAL IMPACT: St. Paul’s helps seniors age safely, independently and with dignity through coordinated medical care, social services and senior care communities.
NOTABLE: St. Paul’s Senior Services was the first nonprofit to bring PACE to San Diego County in 2008.
Born and raised in San Diego, Madison takes great pride in local storytelling. Her coverage at the San Diego Business Journal includes tourism, hospitality, nonprofits, education and retail. An alumna of San Diego State University’s journalism program, she has written for publications including The San Diego Union-Tribune and The San Diego Sun. At the 2024 San Diego Press Club awards, Madison was recognized for her exemplary profile writing. She was also a speaker for the 2023 TEDx Conference at Bonita Vista High School. When she’s not working on her next story, Madison can be found performing music at a local restaurant or on one of San Diego’s many hiking trails.
