Providing Wellness for All

Health Center

Oregon State University


Contributing to OSU’s goal for the Reser Stadium Westside Completion project to provide year-round programs, a 25,000 square-foot health center clinic addition is located on the southeast corner of the stadium at a prominent connection point to campus. The new four-story facility will provide whole-student care, including primary care, counseling, and laboratory services. OSU is also leasing a portion of the building to community health partner, Samaritan Health Services, who will offer primary care and urgent care services to faculty, staff, and the broader Corvallis community.

Location

Corvallis, OR

Size

25,000 sf

Year Complete

2023

This project and collaboration with Samaritan Health Services addresses current and identified future needs on the Corvallis campus by offering a modern facility designed to provide more integrated health care. It will create a campus hub for health and wellness services, serving students, OSU employees and the greater community. Dan Larson, OSU's Vice Provost for Student Affairs

Supporting Students Holistically

To better support students who are often having to navigate the healthcare system by themselves for the first time, the new clinic will provide updated spaces and utilize a patient-based care model. This comprehensive approach includes everything from primary care to birth control, travel immunizations to mental health counseling. Unlike many clinics, this facility will have a primary care clinician that is able to decide when it’s appropriate to add on a nurse visit, vaccination appointment, mental health visit, or even dispense IV fluids under medical supervision—all during the same clinic visit.

The OSU Health Center includes both mental health and physical health services—both provided in the same size room, on the same corridors. This reduces the stigma of walking into a mental health clinic, ensuring students get the support they need, and makes it easier to refer patients back and forth.

Designing for Efficiency

The operating model of the clinic is a more flexible, need-based space assignment rather than having exam rooms assigned to each specific practitioner, some of whom are part-time. This means that clinicians are assigned the exam rooms they need to support their workload, on a day-to-day basis. Moving to this model contributed to a 37% square footage reduction over the original space request from 32,000 GSF to 25,000 GSF–while still including a full floor of the facility to be leased by a community health provider.

The site location allows integration with a nearby community-based clinic for additional outpatient services and diagnosis and treatment needed with radiology equipment, ensuring easy access and transport for students and the community.

Promoting Collaboration

The design features large multi-function staff space along the street front that supports greater collaboration between clinicians—including primary care physicians, OB/GYN physicians, nurse practitioners, and mental health professionals. A central break room also provides integration between all student health and community practice providers housed together within the facility. To support staff mental health, design strategies promoting health and wellness—including access to daylight—are prominent throughout these spaces.