Construction moving along on new Henderson Hospital

When St. Rose Dominican Hospitals scrapped plans in January 2013 to build an acute-care hospital in Union Village — a massive integrated health community pegged at $1.2 billion — the future of the development was uncertain.

“If a project is to be anchored by Home Depot, and Home Depot says we’re out, it’s a big thing,” said Doug Geinzer, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Las Vegas HEALS.

By the end of 2013, however, plans for Union Village — a self-contained community where residents can receive a full-continuum of health care — were once again underway as Valley Health System agreed to build its sixth hospital medical center in Southern Nevada.

“We’ve often said, a shopping center developer wants to get Nordstrom,” said Craig Johnson, co-founder of Union Village. “For an integrated health center, you need a hospital.”

Now, Henderson Hospital — the anchor tenant for Union Village located at U.S. Highway 95 and Galleria Drive — is slated to open Oct. 31.

“It’s exciting,” Geinzer said. “They’re adding much-needed beds to the Henderson area. They’re really building a true integrated health campus.”

Geinzer, who was involved with the early development of the Union Village project, said that when St. Rose Dominican was on board, plans called for emptying the aging Rose de Lima campus and moving its existing service lines to what would become the new hospital.

“When you build a brand-new hospital, you can build what you need,” he said. “They could have looked at the Siena campus to see, ‘What is Siena not doing?’ and then build that out.”

According to Geinzer, St. Rose Dominican’s analysis determined Henderson was under-bedded, but instead of new hospital construction, the hospital chose to add a five-story tower with 96 private rooms to its Siena Campus.

Valley Health System also determined that more beds were needed, and the project’s location in Henderson was the ultimate draw.

“We have five existing hospitals right now, and we did not have a geographic location in the Henderson market, which is a huge market,” said Henderson Hospital CEO Sam Kaufman. “And when we heard about Union Village and had the opportunity to be a part of it, we felt that that would be the best location.”

The 142-bed facility will create between 500 and 700 full-time, part-time and per diem jobs, Kaufman said.

The fact that it’s a brand-new hospital is the more obvious differentiator from others in Southern Nevada. It also boasts a UV-lighting system built into the ceiling to kill bacteria for purposes of infection control, and offers noise-reducing technology, which will bring a whole new definition to the idea of a “quiet” hospital.

The hospital also will strive to excel at birthing babies as Desert Springs — the closest Valley Health hospital within distance to Henderson Hospital — doesn’t provide maternity services.

But the hospital’s key differentiator will be the way it cares for patients, Kaufman said.

“The patient experience is the most important thing,” he said. “That, along with patient safety and high quality care. Those are the three things we’re going to try and excel at.”

Kaufman said achieving this goal begins with the people they hire.

“We’re trying to put together a dream team,” he said. “When you open a hospital, you get to build it the way you want to build it. You want to build it with an A-team, not a B-team. We’re trying to hire the best of the best, and people that really want to take care of patients. At the end of the day, the patient is in the center of everything we do.”

This goal aligns with the overarching idea behind Union Village, which Geinzer said is being built for “patient-centered care.”

The entities that will be located on the 155-acre campus will work with a unified electronic health care record system to be able to better coordinate care, and improve the transition from the hospital to another facility on campus, he said.

When patients are discharged from a hospital, the transition or the “handoff” to another facility can sometimes go awry.

“In the transition of care is where things can go wrong,” he said. “If you’re re-admitted back to the hospital within 30 days, then the hospital needs to deliver their care at no cost. So they’re really incentivized to make sure the patient does not return to the hospital.”

When the Union Village plan was first unveiled, it was called the “first integrated health village in the world.”

Geinzer agreed, saying it’s a model that other parts of the country will look to as a “best practice.”

With Henderson Hospital slated to open as the anchor tenant, the other pieces are now falling into place, Geinzer said.

“Union Village would not have succeeded without an anchor hospital,” he said. “This has allowed them to start building out the rest.”

The project is on its second phase of infrastructure development, Johnson said.

Union Village plans on selling 38 acres to a world-class apartment developer to build 1,000 apartments; a 40-bed long-term acute care hospital; a 140-bed skilled nursing facility; a 300-unit senior living community, which will include independent, assisted and memory-care living; a dialysis clinic; and a wellness center.

“These are all the components we hoped would be there,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of exciting for us. We’ve had historically not great health care. This will really move the needle and change that dynamic for the whole state.”

Contact Natalie Bruzda at nbruzda@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3897. Find @NatalieBruzda on Twitter.