Centennial Hills Hospital breaks ground on $98M patient tower

Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center plans to complete work on a $98 million, five-story patient tower by late 2021. The project will add 56 patient beds, bringing the hospital’s total to 318.

“I think it’s based upon need,” Centennial Hills Hospital CEO Sajit Pullarkat told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Oct. 29 about the project. It’s is a response to expected additional demand as more companies and master-planned communities expand or open in the area, he said.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held Oct. 17 at the hospital, on North Durango Drive in northwest Las Vegas.

It’s important to offer residents “quality care in their backyard” so they don’t have to travel farther in a high-stress situation, said Janet Wright, chief nursing officer at Centennial Hills Hospital.

The expansion also will increase capacity in areas such as the neonatal intensive care unit and intensive care unit. And the expansion will provide more space for departments such as inpatient pharmacy, surgical services and the post-anesthesia care unit.

“It’s really a master-planned project because it really hits every part of the hospital,” Pullarkat said.

The project will also include shell spaces. Eventually, the hospital could grow to include about 500 beds, Pullarkat said.

As a result of the new patient tower, the hospital will hire additional staff, including nurses, support staff and ancillary services, said Gretchen Papez, spokeswoman for the Valley Health System.

It’s not the first expansion for Centennial Hills Hospital, which opened in 2008 and is part of the Valley Health System. About 2 1/2 years ago, the hospital completed a $18.2 million project to build the final two floors of an eight-story tower, adding 60 patient rooms and 200 parking spaces.

“Those beds are already full,” Pullarkat said.

Since 2017, the hospital has added a wound care and hyperbaric center, an additional 12 mother-baby rooms to keep up with growth in labor and delivery numbers, and equipment to help treat patients who have a stroke or neurosurgical disease.

Here are two more of the changes one can expect when the patient tower opens:

Safety features

Patient rooms in the new tower will have enhanced safety features, hospital officials say. In each room, the bathroom will be more accessible — not in a corner. And a safety bar will lead from the hospital bed to the toilet so patients can hold on as they walk.

Rooms will also be arranged so a nurse who’s in the hallway can see into two rooms at a time and can see each patient in their hospital bed from head to toe.

Private neonatal intensive care suites

The hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit has an “open-bay” concept, in which babies are cared for in essentially a large room that can be separated into different spaces by curtains.

Hospital officials plan to turn old postpartum rooms into six or seven NICU suites.

“The parents will actually be able to stay with the babies,” Wright said, and will have a private space. And for parents who have twins or triplets, for instance, NICU suites will allow all of their babies to be in one room.

In 2018, Centennial Hills Hospital delivered 3,153 babies, and it currently has a 15-bed neonatal intensive care unit.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.

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Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center is at 6900 North Durango Drive in Las Vegas. More information and emergency room wait times can be found at centennialhillshospital.com.