With Love, The Reno Healthcare Community

featured image showing Renown Medical and the Burning Man Love Sculpture

With Love, The Reno Healthcare Community

Spread the love

The world has had many different reactions to coronavirus. This is a uniquely challenging time for everyone. From the heroes on the front lines to each person at home, everyone has faced and responded to the current reality in their own way. While deeply trying, these events also have a beautiful way of bringing out the best in so many. 

In Reno, it’s been an honor to see how our small community with an enormous heart has come together to help prepare for and respond to the pandemic. Our medical teams and many others have come together in this crisis, not as competitors, but as partners. Across Reno, hospitals and healthcare providers move forward as a united front. 

Leadership at Renown Health, Carson Tahoe Medical Center, Northern Nevada Medical Center, Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center, and VA Sierra Nevada Health Care System are all working together to ensure the Reno-Tahoe community is properly prepared and cared for during this pandemic. Christopher Kozlowski, Renown Health VP of the Institute for Heart & Vascular Health, explains it this way: “It’s far better to be prepared than to be caught unprepared.” 

That belief motivated Renown Health to convert their parking garage into a temporary, alternative care site for coronavirus patients. Crews came together to bring this site from concept to reality in just ten days. Some contractors worked up to 16 hour days to create this “hospital” setting for patients. It can accommodate more than 700 people on the ground floor and the first floor can be quickly transformed if needed. 

While a parking structure may seem like an unlikely candidate for a hospital setup, the location allows caregivers to remain on campus with access to the existing hospital infrastructure, including the lab, pharmacy, imaging, food services and other critical services. It’s a proud moment, but an equally strange one for many who were a part of the project. While a true testament to the power of community and working together, everyone hopes the site will never actually need to be used.  

While the healthcare community continues to prepare, it’s simultaneously finding ways to spread encouragement and hope to its members and the community at large. In support of local arts and in an effort to show love and gratitude to their team and community during this challenging time, Renown is borrowing the “Love” sculpture made by Reno artist Jeff Schomberg that was originally at Burning Man. The sculpture will be at Renown between April 16 and July 16, bringing its simple encouragement to choose love, what unites and comforts us in the midst of crisis. Hospital spokeswoman Cassie Harris says, “The concept of love is at the heart of everything our healthcare heroes are doing to keep our community safe during the COVID crisis.”

In the midst of these hard and confusing times, the response of our healthcare community in Reno continues to be love and hope. We are in this together. To join our heroes on the front lines, submit your resume today and our Community Liaison will send it to hiring managers and recruiters. 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *