Vegas hospital operators agree to joint venture

Michelle Swafford

Wednesday, April 21, 2004 | 10:36 a.m.

Kindred Healthcare Inc. announced Tuesday it signed an agreement with Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas to provide long-term care in the hospital for patients with complex medical conditions who will need extended stays.

Louisville, Ky.-based Kindred Healthcare will lease 42 beds from King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services, parent company of Desert Springs. The beds are in one of the older patient units within Desert Springs that was closed in 2001 when a new patient tower opened. The long-term care unit is scheduled to open in the fourth quarter after renovations and regulatory approvals are completed.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Kindred will lease each bed, provide 150 employees and pay Desert Springs for some services.

The partnership enables both companies to broaden their presence in the Las Vegas health care market.

Kindred operates 144 long-term care beds at two freestanding Las Vegas hospitals at 2250 E. Flamingo Rd. and 5110 W. Sahara Ave. It also operates Las Vegas Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center, Kindred Pharmacy and Torrey Pines Care Center.

Linn Billingsley, executive director and chief executive of Kindred's Las Vegas long-term care hospitals, said her company will be responsible for the regulatory requirements, staffing and administration of the long-term care unit at Desert Springs.

Kindred will open the unit with nurses and support staff from Kindred's other two Las Vegas long-term hospitals, but expects 150 additional employees to be hired once the unit is fully functioning.

The registered nurses, technicians and licensed practical nurse at Desert Springs are represented by the Service Employees International Union Local 1107, but Kindred, which is not unionized, said it does not expect that its employees at Desert Springs will be unionized.

"It is our expectation that we will continue to provide management representation for our employees," Billingsley said. "It's not our expectation be unionized."

Kindred will purchase maintenance, housekeeping surgical and radiology services from Desert Springs.

Kindred has planned to expand in the Las Vegas market, but opted to lease space from Desert Springs rather than add 30 beds to its Flamingo Road hospital.

"We are running 95 percent occupied year round," Billingsley said. "It's a fairly cost effective and cost efficient way to expand our services that are needed already."

Desert Springs Hospital operates a 346-bed acute care hospital at 2075 E. Flamingo Rd. and has planned a long-term care unit for 1 1/2 years. The new unit will enable Desert Springs to focus on its core service lines: cardiovascular, critical care, diabetes and emergency care. The long-term care unit is one of several new services planned for Desert Springs.

The hospital has been trying to polish its image since rumors circulated last year that the hospital may close because the maternity and orthopedics departments closed and as Universal built a new hospital in the southwest suburbs.

Lori Harris, spokeswoman for Desert Springs, said the long-term care unit will provide convenience for physicians and continuity of care for patients because there will be no need to transfer critical patients to a freestanding long-term care hospital.

"(Also,) it frees up beds for us because we can transfer those patients that need long-term care to the LTAC unit," Harris said. "It's a hospital within a hospital."

Currently, if critical care patients need a long-term care bed and one isn't available, they have to stay at one of the 11 private acute care hospitals in the Las Vegas Valley. The average length of stay for long-term care patients is about 30 days.

The long-term care unit will accept patient transfers from all Las Vegas Valley hospitals, Sam Kaufman, Desert Springs chief operations officer, said.

Desert Springs is the first Las Vegas Valley hospital to offer a long-term care hospital within a hospital, but Kindred has similar arrangements in other cities.

Kaufman said Kindred was chosen because it best met the hospital's needs and will likely exceed its expectations.

"We already have a good relationship with Kindred because their facility is located across the street from us," Kaufman said. "The physicians we have on staff have privileges over there."

"With physicians choosing to go to fewer and fewer facilities, having an LTAC within our four walls will create one less place for a physician to have to go," he added.