Saint Mary’s expands northwest clinic

Saint Mary’s Medical Group opened the doors on a new 46,000-square-foot medical center Nov. 1 in northwest Reno.

The Robb Drive Medical Campus is located at 6255 Sharlands Avenue near Robb Drive in a former Scolari’s grocery store. The large space offers room for a major expansion of services compared to the northwest medical facility it replaces.

For example, the old clinic had eight examination rooms. The new clinic has 80, divided between separate areas for urgent care, pediatrics, and primary care.

“It will accommodate current need and growth,” said Lori Martin, Saint Mary’s Medical Group executive director of clinical operations, during a pre-opening tour of the facility that still bustled with workers setting up chairs, desks, examination tables, computers and other equipment.

Besides housing the practices of primary care, pediatrics and urgent care doctors, Saint Mary’s northwest clinic includes specialists in dermatology, cardiology, pulmonology, and obstetrics/gynecology.

In the next few weeks and months, additional services and tests will be available at the center, which is managed by Lady Diana Militante.

In December, the center will offer mammography, and early next year it will have a Dexa scanner for measuring bone density and an ultra sound.

Beginning mid-December, patients will be able to fill new prescriptions without another stop, pick up refills, and buy common over-the-counter medications.

“This will be our first pharmacy. We’re very excited about that,” Martin said. “We want to make it a one-stop-shop for everyone.”

The pharmacy will also offer bedside delivery services for Saint Mary’s hospital patients. Prescriptions filled at the new center’s pharmacy will be delivered to a patient’s bedside before discharge, along with consultation about the medications.

“Not getting prescriptions filled is one of the top three reasons patients are readmitted to the hospital,” Martin said, noting the difficulty many newly discharged patients have making a stop before going home. “We definitely want to make it easier.”

The pharmacy will also have a compounding pharmacy to mix special prescriptions.

In keeping with the one-stop experience, the medical campus includes a LabCorp branch, expected to open Nov. 23.

There’s a lot going on in this one building, so the center includes a greeting desk just inside the doors.

“It’s a large campus. We don’t want people to feel like they’ll get lost,” Martin said.

With the additional space and services, Saint Mary’s added 16 positions to the staff including additional doctors and nurse practitioners.

Remodeling of the Scolari’s building began in July, with A&D Construction managing the extensive changes to the interior of the building.

The other businesses in the strip mall are happy to see Saint Mary’s come in so quickly after Scolari’s closed, not leaving an empty building, said Jazmin Wright, marketing coordinator for Saint Mary’s Medical Group.

The northwest clinic is part of $50 million that Saint Mary’s Medical Group is investing in the community, but the for-profit company would not specify how much of that went to the Robb Drive Medical Campus.

The expanded northwest medical center is just one part of Saint Mary’s efforts to ensure Reno-area residents have ready access to health services. Another large clinic is planned in the North Valleys and a sleep center for downtown Reno.

Saint Mary’s has a responsibility to enhance healthcare access and ensure quality options are available to patients; this is a direct testament to our investment in this new medical campus,” Helen Lidholm, CEO of Saint Mary’s Health Network, said in a written statement. “We are proud to be a community provider and collaborate with others to secure services in neighborhoods that currently do not have robust medical offerings.”