|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
In the middle of a once‑in‑a‑generation building boom at UC Davis Health, Executive Director of Information Technology Matthew Aguilar is one of the people quietly making a million square feet of new health care real estate work.
By 2030, the Sacramento campus will double from 3.6 million to more than 7 million square feet and grow from 664 to more than 800 licensed beds, a capital program that ranks among the largest health system expansions in the country. Aguilar’s team is responsible for the technology backbone that will knit those new facilities into a seamless, always‑on environment for patients and clinicians.
“We’re on track to open 1 million square feet of new development in a single year, and my job is to oversee the technology in every one of those spaces works on day one,” Aguilar says.
UC Davis Health’s Vision 2030 program includes the new California Tower, a 14‑story hospital building and five‑story pavilion that together will add nearly 1 million square feet, 334 private patient rooms, and a dramatically expanded ICU capability to the medical center.
Dad, Artist, and Tribal Member
Outside of work, Matthew Aguilar describes his greatest accomplishment as being a father of three and an engaged stepfather, coaching youth football and shuttling between dance, gymnastics, baseball and Taekwondo practices. He is also an artist who creates digital art, runs an Etsy shop, and is launching a wine‑tour business. It seems like an energy drink may be a better bet, if only for his own benefit.
Aguilar’s sense of service is deeply rooted in his identity as a card‑carrying member of the Mesa Grande Band of Diegueño Mission Indians Tribal Citizens in Southern California, where multiple generations of his family are enrolled. That upbringing, he says, shapes his focus on giving back, especially to communities that have fewer resources and less access, and it informs how he thinks about UC Davis Health’s role as a regional beacon for care, jobs, and innovation.
Around it, additional projects such as the 48X Complex advanced outpatient surgery center, the Aggie Square innovation hub, and new ambulatory sites across the region are reshaping how and where care is delivered.
Aguilar’s remit spans the design and delivery of all infrastructure IT systems for these investments, from low‑voltage infrastructure and smart‑building controls to clinical devices, networks, and digital experiences in every patient room.
His organization, which was fewer than twenty people when he arrived, has tripled as UC Davis Health’s real estate and technology footprint has surged.
“I’m responsible for infrastructure technology delivery into a $3.75‑billion capital program,” he explains, “but none of it matters if the bedside experience doesn’t feel effortless to a nurse or a patient.”
One of Aguilar’s signature undertakings is an in‑house patient engagement system being built specifically for UC Davis Health’s new bed tower. The project started when leaders realized no off‑the‑shelf system could fully support the integrated, flexible rooms envisioned for the California Tower and other new facilities.
Most engagement platforms focus on entertainment and basic comfort controls for patients. Aguilar’s vision is a hybrid model that unites comfort, communication, and clinical data in a single interface.
The emerging system aims to integrate room controls, messaging, education, and real‑time clinical information into one “single pane of glass” that works for patients, families, and clinicians alike, with the potential to be commercialized with vendor partners later.
“We’re building something that, if we get it right, will look unlike anything else in the market in terms of how patients, families, and clinicians interact in the room,” he says.
Aguilar’s fluency from the physical plant up through applications comes from a career that started far from academic medicine. He joined the US Air Force in the late 1990s, intending to pursue law, only to be classified into computer programming and immersed in the full IT stack.
“I’m responsible for infrastructure technology delivery into a $3.75‑billion capital program, but none of it matters if the bedside experience doesn’t feel effortless to a nurse or a patient.”
Matthew Aguilar
Mentors across facilities, desktop support and networking took him under their wing, giving him a crash course in everything from electrical distribution and generators to data center operations and end‑user computing.
Aguilar is quick to credit a series of mentors for giving him both opportunity and guardrails. Early in his career, leaders like Rick Gounaris at a national pharmacy benefits firm and Frank Velasquez, a veteran data center manager who later helped build Apple’s Reno facilities, invested heavily in him, coaching him on technical depth, operational excellence and relationship‑driven leadership.
Their imprint is visible in his style today: democratic, transparent and relationship‑oriented. Aguilar is known for skip‑level meetings with front‑line staff, one‑on‑one mentoring of emerging leaders, and an insistence on pulling people out of their comfort zones so they can grow. He also emphasizes treating vendors and partners with respect, seeing those relationships as strategic assets that can be decisive in moments of change.
“Humility is non‑negotiable,” Aguilar says. “The higher you go, the more important it is to ask questions and listen before you decide.”
He initially intended to stay at UC Davis Health only a few years, build a strategy and move on. A decade later, he leads a much larger organization, has his signature on steel beams that will be part of the UC Davis Health building portfolio for generations, and is still energized by the culture and mission of the institution.
While he is candid about aspirations to step into a VP, CTO, or CIO‑track role in the future, he says it will be hard to pull him away from the organization he’s contributed so much to. Right now, he just wants to keep building technology and mindset. And there’s so much to build.
Wireless Built for What’s Next
Connectivity is no longer just infrastructure — it’s a strategic advantage. Strategic Venue Partners (SVP) delivers carrier-grade, in-building wireless infrastructure as a fully managed service, removing the burden of capex and complexity. We design, deploy, monitor, maintain, and upgrade bespoke solutions — from DAS to Private LTE/5G and Public Safety — ensuring your venue is ready for next-generation technologies like AI. Our model empowers forward-thinking executives to lead with confidence, knowing their connectivity is seamless, scalable, and future-proof. SVP isn’t just your provider — we’re your long-term innovation partner.
📍 Learn more at strategicvenue.com
