This two-story addition to the 1950-vintage hospital houses an Urgent Care Center on its lower level, with the second floor providing mental health individual and group therapy spaces, multi-purpose rooms, and offices. The mental health services level provides several group therapy rooms as well as private and semi-private consult rooms. The proximity of mental health to urgent care can also provide seamless assistance to a Veteran who may be in crisis.
The team worked with VA clinical staff and facilities personnel to create an uplifting, therapeutic environment inspired by nature. For example, the interior design leverages the use of luminous sky ceilings and local landscape murals to help create a calm, positive atmosphere for patients, staff, and family members.
The project team successfully overcame several technical challenges. The site for VA Manchester Clinical Services addition was initially proposed on the opposite side of the hospital. WBRC provided a master plan that better positioned the clinical services building on the medical center campus, relocating urgent care services to give Veterans direct access from the outside, including a patient drop off circle and a private ambulance entrance. The project included a separate HVAC system with an isolation room on the urgent care level. The addition connects with the Imaging Department located in the original building, allowing urgent care patients easy access to diagnostic imaging services.
Considerable site work was required to integrate this new asset on campus. The addition accommodates a large ambulance entrance along with a convenient drop-off drive for private vehicles. In addition to encountering the granite ledge beneath the building footprint, the challenge of providing VA-required blast protection and security made this project more complex than most.