New facility opens doors
Southern Nevada’s newest hospital opened Sunday with an appendicitis, some pneumonia and a few surgeries.
Even someone with psychiatric issues was brought to the hospital’s emergency room.
“Just what we expected,” said Dr. Marc Jeser, an emergency room physician at Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center. “There was a wide variety and the patients have been young and old. We had a few orthopedic surgeries, people with cardiac issues and some pediatric cases. We’re off to a good start.”
Situated at the northwest junction of U.S. Highway 95 and the Las Vegas Beltway off Durango Drive and Deer Springs Road, the hospital is the newest member of Valley Health System of Southern Nevada. The 165-bed, eight-story facility offers both inpatient and outpatient services including radiology.
It has a Women’s Center consisting of six labor, delivery and recovery rooms, 25 postpartum beds and a nursery. There are 41 beds in the emergency room and 108 medical and surgical beds.
Kevin Stockton, the hospital’s chief executive officer, said residents living in Centennial Hills now won’t have to travel outside their neighborhood for medical care.
“We see ourselves as a community hospital so we have to meet the community’s needs,” said Stockton, 37. “If you look around, this area is growing and we anticipate this growth to be mostly families.”
Stockton said the hospital has plans for two more floors as well as several areas within the Women’s Center for future expansion.
It also has room for Level II and Level III neonatal intensive care units. The Level II NICU might be ready to open in November. Most hospitals start with a Level I; the highest level of patient care is Level III.
One thing the hospital won’t be offering is a place for employees, patients and guests to smoke. Smoking is banned on the property, Associate Administrator Karen Faulis said.
That means you won’t find people in scrubs standing around smoking at entrances nor will you find patients are guests lighting up on the hospital grounds. Even the parking lots are off-limits to smoking.
“As a health care facility, we have an obligation to promote health and we believe having a tobacco-free campus is the right thing to do,” she said.
Faulis said the hospital’s administration does have some concerns about its smoke ban, though, such as “how are we going to enforce it?”
“We know we are going to have some challenge,” she said. “We are leaving it to the physicians to speak to patients, and our staff was told upon interviews about the policy.”
Faulis said hospital visitors will be asked not to smoke on the property or in their cars. Visitors who insist they need to smoke will be asked to go off campus, she said.
Although patients steadily streamed in Sunday and Monday, beds in the Women’s Care center remained empty as of Monday afternoon and nurses working that area appeared anxious.
“We are waiting for that first newborn,” one NICU nurse said as she showed off a labor and delivery room with a basket of baby goodies and stuffed animals on a bed. “We’ve got everything ready for them.”
As a promotion for Centennial Hills, Bank of Nevada is giving away a $100 savings bond to the medical center’s first 25 newborns.
Contact reporter Annette Wells at awells@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0283.
