Cardiac medical director chosen

A Reno heart surgeon was chosen as the medical director for the cardiac unit at the Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center, which will open in December, hospital officials announced Wednesday.

Dr. Todd Chapman, who has worked as a heart surgeon in Reno for 15 years, said it is exciting to build a new program in a growing community.

The 49-year-old surgeon is a clinical assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine and is part of the Nevada Heart Surgeons group. He worked at the Mayo Clinic in the late 1980s and was chief of the department of surgery at Washoe Medical Center. Chapman and his wife, Peg, will move into a home in Washoe Valley.

"This is exciting at my age to get into something brand new like this," Chapman said.

He estimated that between 100 and 200 heart surgeries will be done annually in the cardiac unit. Another heart surgeon can be added to the team in a year if there is a need.

Not an option before in Carson City, there will now be eight operating units in which to perform cardiac surgery.

Annette Patellos, director of critical care, cardiology and respiratory services, said they will begin hiring staff for the unit in the spring. The ratio is one nurse to every patient who just comes out of surgery. The ratio goes up as the patient improves.

Heart surgery patients will have pre-surgery, recovery and post surgery done in the same room with the same cardiac team.

"We like the feeling this gives to patients," Patellos said. "It's more warm, less of a hospital feel."

The new hospital

While viewing a computer-generated aerial rendering of the medical center campus, complete with rolling landscape and a gurgling creek, Carson-Tahoe Hospital Chief Executive Officer Ed Epperson said the $132 million medical center will be a welcome entrance into Carson City to those driving on Highway 395.

Construction began in September 2003 and should be complete in September of this year. It was financed without taxpayer money. The 352,000 square-foot medical center will have 146 beds and three floors of services.

"We're on time and on track with it," he said. "We've had zero accidents on the job site despite hundreds of hours of manpower put in."

The regional medical center is Carson City's largest construction project ever and will include about 200 new employees, Epperson said. As Carson City's second largest employer, the hospital on Fleischmann Way will stay open as a long-term acute care hospital with a staff of 150.

Hospital officials launched an ambitious plan to make the new hospital off Eagle Valley Ranch Road the center of medial services for Carson City. The medical campus includes the $12 million Carson-Tahoe Cancer Center and the Sierra Surgery & Imaging center, which will be flanked by two medical office buildings. The 15-bed surgical hospital will begin seeing patients in mid-March.

Contact reporter Becky Bosshart at bbosshart@ nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.

Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center timeline

Scheduled completion of the Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center:

• 2005

March: Sierra Surgery & Imaging center

December: The main medical center and the first 40,000-square-foot medical office building

• 2006

First quarter: Carson Tahoe Cancer Center and the first seven Merriner Cottages

Fourth quarter: The second 40,000-square-foot medical office building