New Wellness Center to Boost Healthcare Access in Northern Nevada

By HCO Staff

RENO, Nev.—Neenan Archistruction, a leader in community-focused design-build projects, and Northern Nevada HOPES, an expansive nonprofit healthcare facility, have announced the grand opening of The Jerry Smith Community Wellness Center in Reno. The state-of-the-art clinic officially opened its doors this spring and has begun seeing patients. 

The clinic stands as a testament to the shared vision of Neenan Archistruction and Northern Nevada HOPES to make wellness accessible to all. 

Northern Nevada HOPES is dedicated to making people’s lives better, providing more than medical care alone, offering holistic wellness and wrap-around services for those with limited resources. The Jerry Smith Community Wellness Center provides services including primary medical care, behavioral health care, case management, resource navigation, support groups, substance use treatment, an onsite pharmacy and transportation. The clinic includes a first-floor walk-in clinic, designed to reduce emergency service calls by providing residents an alternative to ambulance-based medical care. 

Neenan and HOPES worked in lockstep to garner support from the local community, which was instrumental the success of this project. Additionally, the clinic was designed and built during HOPES’ active capital campaign, and the construction site became center state during all on-site donor tours. This required a high level of coordination between Neenan, HOPES and all project partners. 

The Jerry Smith Community Wellness Center was strategically located on Reno’s East 4th Street, an area recognized as a healthcare desert. In addition to serving low-income residents, the clinic was intentionally placed across the street from the CARES campus, the largest homeless shelter in the United States, ensuring that transportation would not be an obstacle to receiving care. 

“An alarming number of residents in our community do not have access to holistic medical services and the resources needed to help them thrive,” explained HOPES CEO, Sharon Chamberlain. “The opening of 4th Street Clinic represents a milestone for the community. When we can care for the health the most vulnerable among us, the community as a whole becomes healthier.” 

Neenan Archistruction was enlisted on this project because of their customizable design-build process. To provide the most holistic and accessible services available, the building required a meticulous design that would take the needs of both patients and healthcare workers into consideration. 

“We worked closely with HOPES throughout every stage of the design and construction to ensure the layout optimized patient care, all while ensuring we gave HOPES the highest quality result without surpassing the timeframe or budget,” said Dulcye Rodriguez, Vice President of Business Development. “HOPES’ mission to provide accessible healthcare to all is an inspiration to us, and if we can use our expertise to help them reach more patients, then we are honored to do so.” 

The Neenan team thoughtfully utilized design elements to enable co-location of services within the building, creating opportunities for warm hand-offs between providers and facilitating comprehensive, holistic care for patients. Features such as a walk-up pharmacy were incorporated to allow easy access for all patients, no matter their means of transportation. 

The innovative use of prefabricated paneling accelerated and reduced the cost of construction without compromising structural integrity, and ultimately enabled Northern Nevada HOPES to begin accepting patients on schedule and minimizing construction disruption to the community. It also allowed the parking structure to be fully erected within just 12 days, greatly reducing the traffic disruptions during construction. 

Thanks to the timely completion of the project, the clinic is now able to extend primary medical care, behavioral health services and substance use treatment to a staggering 12,000 additional northern Nevadans.