New St. Rose Dominican branch strives for greater level of comfort

Greg Harman

Thursday, June 22, 2000 | 11:29 a.m.

Broken rock and plastic pipe are splayed around an unfinished fountain at the entryway to the $85 million Siena Campus of St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson.

Contractors wander in long, anonymous hallways removing the unintended specks of pale paint, checking the flow of air through numerous virgin vents, attending to exposed wiring.

But by this time next month, hospital officials hope to be a week into their work of mending broken bodies.

First the facility must weather a "long, dirty process," a series of state inspections, said Vicki VanMeetren, senior vice president of operations at the Siena Campus.

Already the hospital's pharmacy and kitchen operations have been approved by the state. On hold is the final inspection of the Siena Campus' laboratory, expected to get the OK in the first week of July.

"If that week goes well, we'll expect to see our first patient coming that Monday, the 10th," VanMeetren said.

The opening will be welcomed by the growing city.

"We've really had one hospital in Henderson, per se, since 1947," said Vicki Taylor, a Henderson spokeswoman. "If you look at how we've grown from then to now, you'll see it's definitely needed."

The suburban town featured in this month's Money magazine as one of the most popular retirement destinations in the country is also the nation's fastest-growing large city.

Henderson's population more than doubled in the past 10 years, from 69,000 in 1990 to just over 177,000 in 1999. It overtook Reno as the second-largest city in the state earlier this year, and some estimates place the city over the 200,000 mark by the end of the year.

And with Henderson's population expected to near 350,000 by 2020, hospital officials maintain they are expansion-ready.

VanMeetren said the hospital is prepared for "whatever the city demands happen."

Opening with 139 beds, the hospital could swiftly expand to care for more than 300 patients.

In fact, the fourth floor of the hospital has been "shelled," or left empty. Hospital officials expect 65 beds to be installed there in 2004.

A third phase of construction could add another 100 beds in a western wing by 2010, said Rod Davis, president and CEO of the nonprofit hospital system.

"It's not difficult to build a state-of-the-art facility with state-of-the- art equipment. But it's challenging to make a safe, warm environment to promote the healing process," Davis said.

That was the challenge behind the "healing" garden in the rear of the hospital, the homey nature of the numerous birthing rooms, the muted tones on walls and floors and the wide, expansive windows.

"We like to make sure families feel very comfortable, because they are more involved these days than ever," VanMeetren said.

Nurse-to-patient ratios tend to be better at not-for-profit hospitals such as St. Rose, VanMeetren said.

Intensive care patients benefit from a one-on-one relationship with the nursing staff, while the numbers in other wards fluctuate from 3-to-1 to 6-to-1.

The American Nurses Association in Washington, D.C., is working on a study comparing the level of nursing care at for-profit and not-for-profit hospitals, but had no data immediately available, said Hope Hall, spokesperson for the group.

But the hospital isn't designed solely for patients.

"We're really making it user friendly for the physicians," Ted Hoover, manager of radiology, explained.

Part of that process involves using the most up-to-date technology.

For example, the entire radiology department makes use of digital images only, doing away with film. No more waiting for pictures to develop. No more under- or over-exposures.

"When you take a digital image, you can pull it up on a computer screen, then enlarge the area of concern to see greater detail," VanMeetren said. "This ability ... can reduce the overall number of images we need to take, thereby reducing a patient's exposure to radiation."

As state-of-the-art as the equipment is, St. Rose officials admit it will be yesterday's technology before long, and they're planning for that.

"We're bringing a lot of younger technologists over here, because they're easier to train," Hoover said. "Two years from now this equipment will be obsolete and we'll be looking to upgrade."

Perhaps by the time those new orders are going out, maps will have caught up with the city's growth. Just maybe those looking for the new hospital on a map will be able to find it along the section of Lake Mead Drive from Pecos Road to Interstate 15 -- renamed by city officials this year the Saint Rose Parkway.