Carson-Tahoe Regional Medical Center
Healing Touch
by Tony Illia

Healing help is on the way for residents of northern Nevada.

The Hunt Group Inc., of Phoenix, is building a new $132 million, 146-bed, full-care regional medical center in Carson City. The city's present facility, Carson-Tahoe Hospital, is so overcrowded that it sends 30 percent of its patients elsewhere for medical attention.

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"We simply don't have the room," said Cheri Glockner, a Carson-Tahoe Hospital spokesperson. "This replacement facility will allow for us to recapture 30 percent of the market that is now traveling north to Reno for surgeries and health care."

The existing 148,000-sq.-ft., 101-bed facility, located at 775 Fleischmann Way, services 250,000 people a year.

Carson City experienced a 29.7 percent population growth from 1990 to 2000, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures, and hospital officials started looking at alternative options five years ago.

A 1999 study showed that it would have cost $90 million to make the changes necessary to accommodate the city''s growth and meet its health needs. As a result, officials opted for a new 80-acre medical complex, located at Eagle Valley Road and U.S. Highway 395.

The Carson-Tahoe Hospital recorded a $14.35 million profit in 2002, according to the Nevada Division of Health Care.

"This is going to be a full replacement hospital that allows us to expand our services in several areas," Glockner said. "Only 9 to 10 full replacement hospitals are built a year throughout the country. Most projects are facility expansions or upgrades."

The new three-story, 350,000-sq.-ft. medical center will be more than twice the size of the current facility. The steel-framed concrete tilt-wall building rests atop a combination of spread footings and a 7.5-in-thick slab foundation.

Measuring roughly 700 -ft. -long by 200 -ft. -wide, the structure has eight cast-in-place concrete sheer walls inside, plus a partial basement for storage.

"There haven't been a lot of tilt-panel hospitals in the region," said Tom Martin, Hunt's project manager. "This was a quick and cost-effective way to build a new facility. The tilt panels are most challenging part of this project, due to their size and complexity."

There are 71 cast onsite panels in total, with the largest measuring 66- ft. -high by 30- ft. -wide. The 14-in.-thick panel weighs about 292,000 lbs., making it one of the five largest concrete panel tilts ever attempted in the United States, according to the Tilt-Up Concrete Association, a Mt. Vernon, Iowa-based trade group.

Roughly six tons of supporting steel rebar is being added to each panel to withstand the sheer force of erection. Additionally, each panel has six 4- by 10-ft. window openings.

Tedesco Construction Inc. of Reno is the concrete contractor.

The project will require a total of 350 workers during the height of construction activity, plus 22,000-cu. yds of concrete to complete. Additionally, it will need 2,500 tons of reinforcing and structural steel.

Martin Iron Works Inc. of Reno is the rebar supplier. Capital City Concrete, an affiliate of Granite Construction Inc., Watsonville, Calif., is the concrete supplier, and SME Steel Contractors of West Jordan, Utah, is the structural steel provider.

"Using tilt-wall panels gave us more flexibility with the interior," said Roger Sedway, Carson-Tahoe Hospital''s project manager. "It also minimized the number of sheer walls needed."

Plans for the first floor include support and administrative services, patient records, conference rooms and a dietary department. The main lobby will be two football fields long, and the emergency room will be three times larger than the present one.

The second floor will house the intensive- care unit and patient rooms. More patient rooms will be on the third floor, along with the women''s and pediatrics units.

Designed by Moon Mayoras Architects Inc., of San Diego, the elevated site is situated on a bluff overlooking the city. With natural topography that includes trees, wetlands, and a creek, the building takes advantage of the landscape through design. For example, the entry lobby is fully glazed in a saw-tooth pattern, providing a 390-ft.-long, 27-ft.-tall panorama of the surrounding Eagle Valley.

Also, the building is oriented to provide sweeping views to the south and west, maximizing natural daylighting and the surrounding scenery.

"We took what we saw as a natural element and brought it into the building," said Doug Mayoras, design principle with Moon Mayoras Architects. "We tried to take advantage of the unique site."

The medical center boasts the latest in high-tech equipment, including two CAT scans machines and, two MRI machines. There are also two vascular labs, eight operating rooms, 24 intensive-care beds, eight pediatric beds, and 12 OB-GYN beds.

"All the rooms will be private," Glockner said. "People want it that way, and they deserve it."

Each room also will have an extra bed for family and visitors as well as a computer and a charting station for medical professionals. The Carson-Tahoe Regional Medical Complex Masterplan calls for an eventual single-story, 50,000-sq.-ft. day- surgery center with 15 beds; a single-level, 50,000-sq.-ft. cancer center; and 300,000 -sq. -ft. of surrounding medical office space to built over the next five to 10 years.

As it stands, the new medical center is scheduled to open in September 2005.
Hospital officials plan to hire 200 more people to staff the facility, bringing its total to 1,200 employees.

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