MountainView Hospital opens first phase of $70 million expansion

With the results of a sharp strategy change six years ago showing improvement, MountainView Hospital formally opened on Wednesday the first phase of a $70 million expansion.

Although patients won’t occupy beds until Monday, the new wing on the hospital’s south side includes 23 new beds in the emergency room, 12 intensive care beds and 32 general rooms on the second floor. The third floor will remain a shell for the foreseeable future.

By midyear, 19 beds in the current ER will be renovated to eliminate the curtain barriers and place them in private rooms, matching the new wing, public areas such as the lobby and cafeteria will be made over, and some office space will be converted to a 34-bed rehabilitation wing.

All told, the hospital will grow from 253 beds to 339.

MountainView displayed a new robotic surgery unit for the people invited to Wednesday’s ceremony, and the hospital is pushing to step up its game in the northwest part of the valley compared to nearby rivals Centennial Hills Hospital and Summerlin Hospital Medical Center.

"Having an attractive facility is good medicine, and we want to make sure our infrastructure shines," said MountainView CEO Will Wagnon. "In Las Vegas, people tend to look at how shiny you are."

Since MountainView and the three other Las Vegas hospitals owned by Nashville-based HCA Holdings Inc. decided in 2007 to sever their ties with Sierra Health Services, the area’s predominant insurer, the financial results were closer to tarnished.

What was reported to state regulators as an $8.7 million operating profit in 2007 deteriorated to a $4.5 million loss in 2010. Not only did the MountainView feel the effects of dropping Sierra, but recession stung the results of almost all the area’s hospitals. The opening of Centennial Hills in 2008 and a subsequent new wing at Summerlin heightened the competition.

As a result, MountainView decided to orient itself toward specialties that would attract Medicare patients and the doctors who treat them.

During the first nine months of this year, 62 percent of the $927.6 million in total bills were sent to Medicare, compared to just 46 percent for all of Clark County.

Reflecting the deductions imposed by government and private insurance, the hospital’s actual revenue ran $187.2 million.

By contrast, 46 percent of MountainView’s billing in 2007 came from Medicare.

Sierra had squeezed its reimbursement rates to hospitals to the point where HCA felt it was no longer financially worthwhile.

As an analogy, Wagnon said, "It is not a good business to buy pretzels at five cents each and sell them for four."

Medicare is at least "consistent," he said. In addition, a sizable retired population resides in the Sun City portion of Summerlin.

That helped Mountain View rebound to a $4.5 million profit in 2011 and $2.3 million in the first nine months last year.

As the results improved, he said, the scope of the project expanded.

Although some parts of Las Vegas still have a medical glut, Mountain View’s occupancy rate ran 87 percent compared to a 66 percent average for all of Las Vegas.

The rehabilitation wing also fits into the Medicare strategy as a place for treating people after suffering strokes.

Contact reporter Tim O’Reiley at toreiley@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290.