El Camino and Stanford Health Care have both temporarily dropped Anthem at least three times over the last decade, along with MarinHealth last year and Sutter Health in 2019.

Rising health care costs are at the heart of these clashes, which are happening with surprising regularity. Courtesy El Camino Health.Įl Camino Health terminated its contract with Anthem Blue Cross last month over price disputes, suddenly putting the hospital out of network for those covered by the country's second-largest health insurer.īut it's not the first time and it's unlikely to be the last, as many Bay Area hospitals are finding it tough to live with Anthem's price-cutting tactics.

“I think the money that was allocated to this project speaks to how the hospital management are great stewards of place.” Their new building, with its pixilated facade, has a quiet shimmer that corresponds to the calming interiors within.El Camino Hospital is battling with Anthem Blue Cross over a new contract. Not that many health-care folks are going to make this kind of investment,” says Bryan Shiles, founding partner at WRNS Studio. But since zinc was not on the state health-care regulator’s approved list of materials, the architects went with anodized aluminum standing-seam panels, selecting them in a light champagne hue for their intrinsic color variation. Originally, they wanted the building to blend in with the trees by cladding it with greenish zinc panels, which they’d used to good effect at Boeddeker Park in San Francisco (record, April 2017). The architects also tried to counter the impression of a locked-down facility on the exterior. (Those in need of urgent psychiatric care are typically admitted through the emergency department, and come in through private side entrances.) It welcomes people to its outpatient programs, including support for youth, seniors, and addiction treatment, as well as visitors to the inpatient unit. To help destigmatize mental-health care, the lobby is a prominent glass-walled double-height volume. One of three courtyards, this glass-walled space allows patients to benefit from fresh air whenever they like, while staff can still monitor them visually from within. The door to each patient room is cleverly highlighted with a band of recessed linear lighting. For safety reasons, the interiors had to be designed to make ligatures impossible in lieu of pendant lighting, the architects placed glowing acrylic bars (which they dubbed “sticks of butter”) in low relief on the lounge ceilings. A palette of muted, dark finishes, including wood on ceilings and faux-wood vinyl tile on the floor, as well as cove lighting throughout, also helps to dispel a clinical atmosphere on the inpatient floor. Three glass-walled courtyards outfitted with seating, communal tables, and water features allow patients to go outside unaccompanied but remain in view of staff.

Seating areas along the corridor allow patients to spend time on their own or meet with visitors, who are not allowed into their private rooms. “We wanted to make it part of the living space, for a more open plan,” says Morshead. Instead of putting the facility’s 36 private rooms along double-loaded corridors, the architects organized them around the south and west perimeters, next to an exceptionally wide hallway that ranges from 12 to 14 feet wide, rather than the minimum standard width of 8 feet.

Social spaces are supplemented by tranquil courtyards. Adhering to the “onstage/offstage” model of hospital care, in which there are separate circulation routes for patients and employees, the floor is designed to allow staff to supply and maintain each neighborhood without disrupting the patients in place. For example, the 12-room unit for those with the most intensive care needs can expand to 16 or 24 rooms. The first-level inpatient unit is the more complicated part of the building: it is organized around three internal courtyards and divided into four “neighborhoods” that can expand or contract depending on the type of patients at any time, giving the hospital more flexibility. “It’s a low-spreading, cellular structure that fills the space, but the organization is also incredibly clear.” And this strategy obviated the long, straight stretches of rooms found in a traditional hospital. “It’s an interesting hybrid of a mat-building and a long bar,” says Morshead. They conceived of the new structure as a collection of volumes in a parklike setting, which aligned well with the hospital’s approach of caring for small groups of patients. Photos © Jeremy Bittermannīecause the hospital had to provide continuous service during construction, the architects designed an L-shaped building around the old facility (soon to be demolished and replaced by a secure ⅓-acre recreation yard). The facade’s organic striping (1) is echoed by the linear formats of the flooring and lights in a patient lounge (2).

El camino hospital mountain view