New beginnings for Barton: Expanding facilities to enhance patient care
STATELINE, Nev. – It’s been more than 60 years since Barton Health first opened its doors to the South Lake Tahoe community. Since then, both the hospital and the community have grown, and its now overdue for a major upgrade.
The current South Lake Tahoe campus offers a mix of outpatient medical offices, ancillary health services (such as laboratory, imaging, and rehabilitation), and Barton Memorial Hospital and its 24-7 emergency department.
However, the hospital’s limited footprint, which is about 125,000 sq. ft., along with the aging infrastructure led Barton leadership to develop an action plan for the needed adjustments.
Some of these adjustments include expanded operating rooms, an emergency department and the inclusion of oncology, and cardiovascular departments.
“The triennial Community Health Needs Assessment identifies areas for health improvement in our community and continues to illustrate the need for more healthcare services like oncology (cancer) and expanded cardiovascular (heart) care, two leading causes of death nationwide,” Dr. Clint Purvance,CEO & President said in an Op-Ed to the Tribune.
This discussion coincided with the release of California’s 2030 seismic requirements, stating a hospital must be capable of remaining operational after a major earthquake, which is a standard the current site doesn’t meet.
Leadership began shifting its focus to building a new campus at the old Lakeside Inn & Casino site in Stateline, which Barton purchased after it closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Barton originally intended the site to be used for outpatient services expansion.
According to Barton, “The Lakeside parcel allows Barton to build a state-of-the-art hospital facility with no patient and service disruptions, in addition to significant cost and time savings (upwards of $100 million and three years respectively).”
The current proposal has the new facility sitting at about 230,000 sq. ft.
Even if the current site was big enough to house a facility that met all of the community’s needs, the current building would need to be torn down in order to build said hospital. That would mean some services at the current site, such as skilled nursing residency, would need to cease completely, while others would need to be moved to temporary trailers. Building a new facility will allow Barton to continue operating out of the old site while the new facility is being built.
While some community members have expressed concern with Barton moving operations to Nevada, Barton said, “Barton remains committed to patient care in California; the South Lake Tahoe campus will continue to offer robust outpatient services including primary care, specialty care, urgent care, which comprise roughly 90% of patient visits. The Barton Community Health Center will continue to expand services to better serve state-insured patients.”
Barton has shared and received plans at several community meetings. They are beginning the Environmental Assessment process.
Barton said input from the community will help guide changes to the plan before it will be presented to Douglas County and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
Editor’s note: The Tribune is working on a series of articles that will address other concerns and issues raised around the new project, including ambulance response times, environmental impacts of the new building, and more.

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