Ground breaking at new Robert Maloff Center of Excellence at Barton

As do all good ideas that want to become lasting projects, many years and lots of planning have gone into creating what will become the Robert Maloff Center of Excellence at Barton Health.

It's been 55 years since the Barton family donated the land where the first hospital in South Lake Tahoe was built, and it was in that same footprint of land that the ground was broken for the new center 26,000 square foot center on Tuesday.

"Sometimes I wonder what my grandparents would think of this hospital today," said Kirk Barton Ledbetter during the groundbreaking ceremony. "On June 1, 1961 we celebrated Barton's site acceptance day, and now on August 23, 2016 we celebrate another momentous occasion."

In 2015, Lisa Maloff donated $10 million to the Barton Foundation to have the center built in honor of her late husband, Robert. The family of the late Dr. Paul Fry II, aka "Papa Fry," also donated to the creation of the center that will take his dream and make it a reality.

When Fry arrived on the South Shore in 1965, he had a vision for a center of excellence, and when he died a year ago he left behind an orthopedic legacy known across the county. It was those dreams and talent that started the concept of a health and sports performance center on the Barton Memorial Hospital campus.

The idea behind the center will be for treating the whole patient, and not just the disease or injury. Not just to maintain health, but to improve health.

There will be four components of the Maloff Center, wellness, orthopedics, sports performance and rehabilitation.

"We'll be here to help local teens striving to meet their dreams of being Olympians," said Chris Proctor, Director of the Tahoe Center for Orthopedics. "We're also here for the eight grade athlete." Proctor has been overseeing the creation of the new building, and its focus. "He has orchestrated the project and all of its moving pieces, and has now brought it all together," said emcee Jason Collin of Proctor.

Proctor explained that the Center will be USSA (United States Ski and Snowboard Association) certified and they'll be able to provide a seamless pathway of treatment between Tahoe and Park City. It will be an altitude training center as well as, with their teamwork with Altis of Phoenix, become an elite training facility.

"This will be a great opportunity not only for elite athletes, but also for every day athletes," said Proctor.

"55 years ago our community had a vision," said Dr. Clint Purvance, Barton’s Chief Executive Officer. "That vision remains the same today - to provide consistently exceptional health care to the community."

Purvance said during the dedication Tuesday that the Center will prevent the surgeries of the future by its focus on wellness. "The best treatment is prevention," he said.

The Robert Maloff Center of Excellence will integrate health, fitness, and medical expertise to treat the person holistically and improve a person’s overall well-being. It will expand on Barton’s comprehensive offerings for healthy living and preventative medicine, and build on a personalized, patient-centered experience.

The Center is expected to be completed by summer of 2017.