St. Rose’s expansion to add second hospital

Art Nadler

Thursday, June 11, 1998 | 10:56 a.m.

Henderson residents will soon have a second acute-care hospital in their backyard.

St. Rose Dominican Hospital is scheduled to break ground Monday for a new 139-bed hospital, St. Rose Dominican Hospital -- Siena Campus, near the corner of Lake Mead Drive and Eastern Avenue.

The state-of-the-art facility will be about eight miles west of the present hospital at Lake Mead Drive and Boulder Highway.

The traditional Spanish mission-style Siena Campus will be designed around a 200-foot bell tower, utilizing space in a park-like setting. Inside, private rooms will include both family zones, where relatives can stay overnight, and adjacent caregiver zones.

"We will be getting away from admission desks," Lynn Davis, a spokeswoman for St. Rose, said. "You will be admitted to the room and fill out paperwork there. The hospital is also eliminating the overhead paging system."

The $85 million first phase is expected to be completed in early 2000. A second phase, at a cost of $100 million, will add 160 beds and is scheduled to be finished in 2006.

"All design efforts will focus on patient care and the uniqueness of each individual patient's needs," Rod Davis, president and chief executive officer of both hospitals, said in a written statement. "The environment will promote patient convenience and comfort and will allow the individual participation and responsibility for part of the task of caregiver decision making."

St. Rose Dominican Hospital on Boulder Highway will add "Rose de Lima Campus" to its name, a historic return to its original name.

Both hospitals are sponsored by the Adrian Dominican Sisters. They are members of the nonprofit Catholic Healthcare West national system of 37 hospitals, 6,400 physicians and more than 30,000 employees.

Siena Campus is named after Saint Catherine of Siena, a lay woman who lived from 1347 to 1380 and dedicated her life to prayer and caring for the sick and poor. She was canonized in 1461 and named a doctor of the church in 1970.

A groundbreaking and blessing ceremony is planned for 10:30 a.m. Monday at the southwest corner of Lake Mead Drive and Eastern Avenue.

Expected guests are Bishop Daniel Walsh of the Las Vegas Diocese, Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson and Daniel Foley, St. Rose Dominican Hospital Foundation chairman of the board. A choir from the St. Peter parish will perform.

A walkway will join the Siena Campus to a three-story medical office building called the Del E. Webb Medical Plaza. The Del E. Webb Foundation recently pledged $3 million to the St. Rose Dominican Health Foundation.

"The Del E. Webb Foundation has been a longtime supporter of St. Rose Dominican Hospital and is pleased to support its efforts to build a second full-service, acute-care hospital in the southern Las Vegas Valley," Robert Johnson, president of the foundation, said recently. "We applaud the hospital's mission to provide compassionate, high-quality health care and fully support this expansion."