Valley Health building northwest hospital

Michelle Swafford

Monday, July 18, 2005 | 11:09 a.m.

The Valley Health System broke ground today on a community hospital in northwest Las Vegas Valley.

Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center is Universal Health Services Inc.'s fifth Las Vegas Valley hospital and is scheduled to open with 171 private beds in late 2006 or early 2007 at the intersection of Durango Drive and Deer Springs Way.

"There's such tremendous growth up there," Valley Health System Group Director David Bussone said. "That's where the need is. We're committed to providing for the health care needs of Southern Nevada."

The 354,000-square-foot hospital will feature 35 emergency room beds, 25 women's care and maternity beds, 108 medical-surgical beds, 32 intensive care beds and six level-two nursery beds for critical care babies. In addition to typical community hospital services, inpatient and outpatient surgery services, outpatient cardiology and endoscopy will be available.

"It's a true community hospital," Bussone said. "It has the features that we expect the predominance of that population will need."

Demographic reports show nearly 144,000 people live within five miles of the hospital site now and within five years 174,000 are expected to live in close proximity. The majority of those residents are under age 60.

The Valley Health System -- made up of Valley, Desert Springs, Summerlin, Spring Valley and Centennial Hills hospitals -- is currently soliciting bids for general contractors. That process is expected to be completed by Aug. 3 and at that point the hospital operator will know how many millions of dollars the hospital will cost to build. The hospital's architect is HKS Inc.

Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center opened in October 2003 and a month later the Valley Health System announced that it had purchased 36 acres in the Montecito Town Center to build Centennial Hills.

"You buy land because you believe something is going to happen from the standpoint of the marketplace," Bussone said. "If you buy it earlier than later it tends to be less expensive. It takes quite a bit of time before you have the drawings done; plus the community has to be there."

Centennial Hills is configured and designed similar to Spring Valley with some modifications based on lessons learned at that hospital, Bussone said.

One of the modifications is that the hospital will be taller than the other Valley Health System community hospitals at eight stories -- two of which will be unfinished initially. Spring Valley is a four-story hospital and Summerlin is a six-story hospital.

"A building that goes up tends to be more efficient," Bussone said.

Two medical-office buildings will accompany the hospital. The first one will be 100,000 square feet and is scheduled to open two to three months prior to the hospital opening to enable physicians to establish their practices and patients to select their doctors, Bussone said.

A second one will break ground once the first one is nearly occupied and will be 75,000 square feet, he said.

The Valley Health System has not determined how many employees it will need for the hospital but said it is continuously recruiting for nurses and other health care support positions, interim Valley Health System spokeswoman Gretchen Papez said.

"We are always actively recruiting as more people come to Las Vegas," she said. "Fortunately there are nurses who decide to relocate here."