Sitting on a tight campus site, Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital in Roanoke, Va., is partially landlocked by Mill Mountain on the back side, leaving little room for the facility to grow over the years. In fact, the hospital had not expanded significantly since 1994 with the addition of the South Pavilion, which houses a 55-bed emergency department on the second floor.
In 2017, facing significant increases in patient volumes, especially in its emergency department which was straining to treat nearly 90,000 patients each year, the healthcare organization purchased 2 acres of land adjacent to the South Pavilion from the Western Virginia Water Authority.
As “the last adjacent land to expand the hospital campus horizontally,” the hospital sought to deliver the best-use case for the site, slated to include more than 40,000 square feet for increased emergency services, including 44 new beds, and a new 500,000-square-foot patient tower, says Sam Burnette, principal at Earl Swensson Associates (ESa; Nashville), which was hired to conduct a feasibility study and to design the expansion.
Outlining service lines for hospital addition
The architecture and design firm, together with Pinnacle Consulting (Philadelphia), studied long-range planning for the hospital’s service lines, determining that consolidating existing cardiovascular services into one location would support improved coordination among staff and provide more efficient and safer care for patients.
The new Crystal Springs Tower would house the Carilion Clinic Cardiovascular Institute as well as space for research and education. “Cardiovascular care is one of Carilion’s core strengths and a growing need in our community,” says Marguerite Underwood, vice president of the Carilion Clinic Cardiovascular Institute.
Overcoming site constraints on hospital campus
Turning to the site, the project team faced challenges with an approximately 40-foot grade from the highest to lowest points. ESa saw an opportunity to support the expanded service lines while bringing more parking on the campus. Specifically, to line up the ED expansion with the existing department on the second floor, two parking decks were built underneath, providing 150 additional spaces…