Demand for medical service in the
Truckee Meadows is growing rapidly
enough that Washoe Health Systems is
confident that its new hospital in the South
Meadows region won't erode admissions at
its downtown Reno facilities.
The health system's forecasts have been
good enough in the past to allow the new
facilities to be built more cost efficiently.
Here's how:
When Washoe Medical Center purchased
its property at South Meadows
Parkway and Double R Boulevard in the
1990s, much of Reno's population growth
clearly was headed in that direction.
But the timing wasn't right.
"You don't want to build the facilities
and have them standing empty," said Pat
Coward, chairman of the Washoe Health
Systems board.
Instead of building a hospital, the
organization built Washoe Village. That
facility, which opened in 1999, provides
rehabilitation, sub-acute, urgent and outpatient
care.
The Washoe Village structures were
built so they could be fairly easily converted
to a more traditional hospital as the area
continued to grow. In the current project,
medical-surgical beds and an intensive-care
unit will be added.
Scott Anderson, director of project
management, said the planning to convert a
portion of Washoe Village to a traditional
hospital will provide a boost to construction
crews who face a tight timeline.
The work is projected for completion in
early 2004.
The largest portion of the work, however,
is new construction that will add about
117,000 square feet to the campus.
A 51,000-square-foot addition to the
existing building will house a surgical suite,
laboratory and radiology department.
The Terrace at South Meadows, a
66,000-square-foot office building, will
provide space for physicians space that
Coward said is important to the success of
the entire project.
"It's key to get the physicians out here,"
he said.
The office building also will house the
Washoe Institute for Neurosciences, and
outpatient and urgent-care services will be
relocated from the existing structure.
The Washoe Health expansion is based
on a master plan that expects projects that
admissions will increase each year as the
region's population continues to climb.
