Barton Health takes next steps toward a Nevada hospital and expanding care on south shore

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Barton Health is moving forward with plans to move its hospital to the site of the old Lakeside Inn that they purchased in 2021.

The Barton Board of Directors had the decision to make this week between two choices - tear down the current hospital and bring it up to new earthquake standards, or start with a new hospital on the Stateline location. The board has approved the direction to pursue the building of a new hospital which was a much cheaper option than replacing the aging infrastructure at the current hospital. California’s 2030 seismic standard is a mandate that requires California hospitals to meet new structural criteria.

Building new is also not the better financial choice, it also will provide less patient interruption during building.

“We are excited to receive this direction from the Board of Directors, securing Barton’s future as Lake Tahoe’s community health partner,” said Dr. Clint Purvance, President and CEO of Barton Health. “The future of healthcare is complex and changing, and we have a responsibility to remain viable and capable of providing care to this community for another 60 years, which is why we are developing plans for the Barton Regional Expansion.”

The Barton Health Regional Expansion will broaden regional medical services on the south shore, giving them a robust outpatient presence on both the California and Nevada campuses. The old hospital and the rest of the California campus will still be part of Barton Health with specialty care and rural health program.

The new growth opportunities cover the other side of US50 since Barton bought the Tahoe Chamber/Lake Tahoe Visitor's Authority building in May of this year.

Barton's Nevada hospital should break ground in 2025 and be completed in 2028. Permits need to be obtained, but the board's decision allowed staff to start working on in-depth plans and working with Douglas County.

“Rebuilding and retrofitting the current hospital facility to meet our needs and regulations would require a complex and financially-prohibitive staging and moving of patient care services while the project is constructed in multiple, years-long phases,” said Purvance. “Barton is fortunate to carry little debt and have campuses in both California and Nevada, resulting in several scenarios for consideration. Fiscal responsibility demanded we assess both campus locations to understand cost, timelines, patient care disruption, and growth opportunities in each location to best meet the needs of the future.”

In addition, a purposeful shift in the continued decrease of inpatient volume and increase in outpatient services is occurring, due to a national focus on proactive health management through annual wellness visits, preventative screenings, key relationships with primary care offices, chronic care navigators, and population health teams. Rural hospitals continue to trend away from high inpatient bed counts to increased supportive outpatient services such as home health and hospice, alongside primary care. A new Nevada-based hospital will allow Barton to reassign services in each location to best meet the shifting needs of the population.

Throughout the project, Barton has been guided by input from community surveys, stakeholders, partner agencies, and physician and staff teams, along with data from the triennial Community Health Needs Assessment, market trends, current health data, state regulations, and CA 2030 seismic requirements for healthcare facilities.

Indicators show Medical will cover Californians on the Nevada side, along with other insurance companies.

More on the expansion plans: https://www.bartonhealth.org/tahoe/regional-expansion-project.aspx