Carson Tahoe Health Regional Medical Center Lab & Connector

PROJECT NARRATIVE

This existing four-story, 344,000-square-foot hospital includes 144 acute patient beds, 24-hour emergency services, surgery, imaging, lab, pharmacy, and support services. As part of a long-term campus master plan, the health system embarked on several projects to better serve the needs of its current and future community, beginning with a 6,550-square-foot emergency department addition, the first major renovation to the campus since the medical center originally opened. The addition provides additional trauma, treatment, staff, and administrative areas, with adjacent existing treatment spaces also renovated and new treatment rooms designed as universal rooms to maximize adaptability. Existing trapezoidal skylights over the patient drop-off and ambulance canopies were preserved as a defining architectural feature, now bringing daylight into the nurse station, ambulance vestibule, and staff lounges.

As testing volume grew, the facility's laboratory required a larger, more flexible footprint. A 23,790-square-foot addition to the medical center's lower level now houses an expanded lab, combining microbiology, molecular, urinalysis, hematology, coagulation, chemistry, cytology, pathology, histology, and a blood bank into one centralized space, with the remainder of the addition providing mechanical, electrical, and IT rooms along with shelled space for future growth. On-site operational flow assessments with lab staff informed a layout in which core workstations run perpendicular to specimen processing, with high-volume tests positioned closest to processing, and a new automated line combining a centrifuge, chemistry analyzers, hematology analyzers, and refrigerated storage that maximizes uptime and supports future equipment integration.

A signature element of the project is a two-level enclosed connector bridge linking the medical center with a neighboring surgery hospital, crossing a nearby creek with large, windowed walls that frame sweeping mountain views. Design of the new 7,890-square-foot bridge required foundations placed in the middle of the creek; because the waterway is deemed an emergency channel, the team worked through a range of environmental challenges alongside FEMA and other regulatory agencies to minimize impact to the ecosystem while ensuring the structure would withstand a 500-year flood. The walkway provides year-round access for patients, staff, and visitors and also serves as a conduit for pneumatic tubing and chilled water from the central utility plant to the surgical hospital.