OHSU will open its 14-story Vista Pavilion on April 7, 2026 — a $650 million, 530,000-square-foot cancer tower on Marquam Hill that adds 128 inpatient beds entirely dedicated to the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. The project was completed on time and under budget by Skanska, with the building connected to the existing hospital via three skybridges. OHSU's total bed count will rise to more than 750, making it the largest capacity expansion in the system's history.

The Vista Pavilion will house stem-cell transplants, CAR T cell therapy, complex surgical oncology, and advanced imaging — consolidating cancer care that was previously scattered across OHSU's campus into a single purpose-built facility. Critically, the four patient-care floors are designed with flexibility to add up to 64 additional beds as demand scales. The dedication of the entire tower to oncology frees up space in Kohler Pavilion for expanded heart, brain, and emergency services — a shift OHSU leaders say should help shorten wait times and ease the system-wide bed crunch that has strained care delivery across Portland and the state.

For Oregon's healthcare market, the capacity injection is significant. Portland-area hospitals have operated at or near capacity since the pandemic, with boarding times in emergency departments and surgical scheduling delays becoming routine. OHSU's expansion doesn't just add beds — it restructures patient flow by concentrating high-acuity cancer cases in a dedicated facility, which should reduce competition for general medical-surgical beds system-wide. For referring providers, dental practices managing oral cancer cases, and primary care physicians coordinating complex care, the Vista Pavilion creates a clearer referral pathway with dedicated oncology intake. For competing systems — Providence, Legacy, Kaiser — OHSU's enhanced cancer capabilities will intensify the specialty market competition in the metro area.

What to watch: OHSU's bed utilization data in Q2-Q3 2026 — whether the 128 new beds actually decompress the system or simply absorb latent demand that was previously going unserved or leaving the state.