Monday, July 26, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.
HCA Inc., already a big player in the Las Vegas-area hospital industry, intends to expand with a fourth local hospital. This one will be in Henderson.
HCA purchased 41.27 acres just north of I-215 at Stephanie Street and the proposed Wigwam Parkway. Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA also owns MountainView, Sunrise and Southern Hills hospitals in the Las Vegas area.
The hospital will be accompanied by a medical office building and outpatient surgery center, which are scheduled to begin construction after the first of the year, said Brian Robinson, president and chief executive of Sunrise Hospital and market president for HCA's Las Vegas-area.
"Las Vegas and the surrounding area is the fastest-growing area and it is incumbent upon hospitals to continue to add hospitals," he said.
It is uncertain how many beds the hospital will have, but it will be a full-services hospital that is likely to open in late 2006 or early 2007, he said.
The project is one of numerous medical industry investments planned for the booming Las Vegas area.
HCA plans to expand Southern Hills Hospital by adding an outpatient surgery center and additional medical office space. MountainView is adding 36 beds, which should open during the first part of 2005 and the hospital is also looking at adding a five-story patient tower. Sunrise is adding 60 beds to its children's hospital, bringing the total to 235 beds. It is also expanding hospital services for children and adults.
San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West, which owns St. Rose Dominican Hospital -- Siena Campus and St. Rose Dominican Hospital -- Rose de Lima Campus in Henderson, is building a new hospital in the southwest part of the Las Vegas Valley that is scheduled to open in June 2006 and is "aggressively pursuing" land to purchase in the north and northwest part of the Las Vegas Valley, said CHW's Las Vegas-area president and chief executive, Rod Davis.
"Some areas now have plenty of capacity and other areas are still under-served, so there needs to be more of a balancing of facilities in those areas such as the north and northwest," he said.
Davis said the company did not consider building another hospital in Henderson because both of its current hospitals have expansion plans that include a new patient tower for each hospital to treat the increasing population.
"We will be a very strong competitor, but we welcome the competition," Davis said, referring to HCA's move into the Henderson hospital market.
Universal Health Services Inc., based in King of Prussia, Pa., earlier announced plans to build its fifth hospital in the Las Vegas Valley.
Universal Health, which operates locally as the Valley Health System and owns Desert Springs, Valley, Summerlin and Spring Valley hospitals, plans to build Centennial Hills Hospital on 40 acres at the intersection of the Las Vegas Beltway and U.S. 95 in northwest Las Vegas.
The company has not released details about the hospital nor a construction time line.
Montecito Cos., which sold the land to UHS and is developing the area, reported in its May newsletter that Universal is to begin construction in early 2005 on a 280-bed hospital with room to expand for additional beds. Plans call for a 100,000 square-foot medical office building and a 10,000 square-foot cancer center.
Mike Tymczyn, spokesman for the Valley Health System, said there are several reasons why Universal Health continues to invest in the Las Vegas Valley, which he says is the company's "unofficial anchor."
"It is a matter of continued and sustained growth," he said. "We realize that the projections for the Las Vegas Valley's growth are going to slow and level out, however the future far surpasses any other market that we would want to be in."
IASIS Healthcare, which purchased North Vista Hospital, formerly Lake Mead Hospital, on Feb. 1, hasn't announced plans to build additional hospitals, but it is "a definite possibility," said Craig Preston, chief executive of North Vista.
"Look at what IASIS does in other markets," Preston said. "They do have more than one facility in other large markets. They look at areas that are growing population-wise faster than the national average where they can go in and have a market presence in those areas."
The Franklin, Tenn.-based company has three to four hospitals in each of its other markets: Arizona, Florida, Texas and Utah.
For now, IASIS is focused on sprucing up North Vista with $6 million in new diagnostic equipment and a $7 million expansion of its women's services operation, Preston said.
IASIS will likely gain some competition in North Las Vegas if a private group of investors, operating as Meadows Hospital LLC, goes forward with its plans. Meadows Hospital LLC announced plans to build a 212-bed hospital on 14 acres at the northwest corner of Tropical Parkway and Losee Road in North Las Vegas.
The company is seeking financing and has not broken ground on the $205 million hospital, which is supposed to be part of a larger development that would include a hotel, senior apartments, a nursing home, an assisted-living center and community businesses.
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