Desert Springs chief quits as hospital merges

Bob Shemeligian

Tuesday, Feb. 3, 1998 | 10:49 a.m.

The merger of two local hospitals and a newly built medical center has led to the resignation of Tom Koenig, administrator of Desert Springs Hospital.

Universal Health Services Inc., the parent company of Valley Hospital and Summerlin Hospital Medical Center, combined with Quorum Health Group Inc.'s Desert Springs Hospital on Sunday to create a regional health care system. Their limited partnership employs more than 2,900 people and has 850 beds.

Bruce Wiggins, regional manager for all three hospitals, will serve as acting administrator at Desert Springs until the position is filled

Universal spokesman Kirk Gorman said the combined operations will have more than $300 million in annual revenue.

"We are now one of the largest health care networks in the Las Vegas Valley," Gorman said. "We and the Columbia hospitals are the same size in terms of admissions and patient days, but in terms of coverage of the market, we're larger."

Summerlin Hospital Medical Center, a 148-bed facility at 655 Town Center Drive, opened in October 1997. It specializes in women's, children's, senior and emergency care.

Valley Hospital is a 280,580 square-foot, 417-bed facility off West Charleston Boulevard at 620 Shadow Lane. It provides Flight for Life air ambulance service, a Level III neonatal intensive care unit and the Cardiac Institute. The hospital has been operating since 1972.

Desert Springs, 2075 E. Flamingo Road, is an acute care medical-surgical hospital with 241 beds that opened in 1971. A year ago, Desert Springs unveiled a 10,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art maternity center with seven labor, delivery, recovery and post-partum suites.

Gorman said the merged system is being managed by UHS, and there are no immediate plans to change the hospitals' operations.

He also said the merger will streamline hospital administration functions under one company, and will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of patient care.

"Through the coordination of the medical staffs of all three hospitals, there will be improvements," Gorman said. "Doctors will more easily see patients, and there managed care will be improved."

Koenig, meantime, said simply that Universal "chose not to come to grips" with the terms of his contract.

"It's a business and these things happen," Koenig said. "We (he and his family) are fine, and we're looking at several other opportunities.

Koenig served as chief operating officer at Desert Springs from 1983 to 1988 when he left to serve as vice president of hospital operations for Charter Medical Group in Macon, Ga. He then served as regional director with Universal, and after taking a position with another health care company, Koenig returned to Desert Springs 18 months ago.

"We had a lot of fun over the past 18 months," Koenig said. "Business was up 22 percent ... We opened the new maternity ward, and we worked on the preparation for the new heart catheterization lab that will open within a month."

Koenig said he regrets not being able to carry out his plans at the hospital to fruition, "but it's business and we all move on."

Quorum of Brentwood, Tenn., owns 20 acute care hospitals and has management contracts with 241 hospitals. Universal, of King of Prussia, Pa., is the nation's third largest public hospital management company. Founded in 1978, it owns 68 facilities nationwide.