UMC launches 3-year, $55 million renovation

University Medical Center has launched a three-year, $55 million renovation project, the largest in its 92-year history.

The UMC ReVITALize Project will modernize the county hospital’s facade and add two healing gardens. It includes new campus lighting, landscaping and signage. Parking will be upgraded, and vehicular and pedestrian access improved, according to officials.

“With your support, this project will continue to put UMC on the map, building on our strong reputation and position as Nevada’s premier health care leader,” CEO Mason Van Houweling said to attendees of a ceremonial groundbreaking Monday morning outside the hospital’s trauma center.

John O’Reilly, chairman of UMC’s governing board, praised the hospital’s level one trauma center — the only one in the state — and other services, including a children’s hospital and a burn unit.

“We’re going to make that promise on the outside of what we’re delivering on the inside,” O’Reilly said about the exterior enhancements.

In an interview after the ceremony, Van Houweling said that for eight years, the county hospital has had a positive cash flow, which allows the project to move forward without the need to take out loans.

Van Houweling, the hospital’s CEO since 2014, said UMC had been diligent in its finances and has made good business decisions.

“And the place is busy, too,” he said. “Every dollar that’s positive for the hospital, it gets reinvested right back in the hospital. And that’s what we should be doing for the next 100 years.”

The exterior renovation is the first phase of a construction master plan that also will include adding additional beds — UMC currently has 541 licensed beds — and consolidating services for women and children into one building, he said.

Also speaking at the ceremony was Clark County Commissioner William McCurdy II, chairman of the UMC board of trustees, who noted that in 1931, the hospital was one room on a dirt road, which was Charleston Boulevard.

Speaking directly to the staff present, McCurdy said, “You all are the ones who are on the front lines, who are ensuring that our constituents in their darkest times are receiving the world-class care that they need.”

The final speaker was Guy Martin, president of project contractor Martin-Harris Construction.

“Lives are saved, lives are changed and trust is built in the walls of this facility behind me,” he said.

Officials then signed a construction beam and ceremonially shoveled dirt, which blew across the site as high winds kicked up and the ceremony wound down.

Construction is set to begin Tuesday.

Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Follow @MaryHynes1 on Twitter.