Southern Hills CEO wants to provide spectrum of service

By Nicole Lucht

Friday, Feb. 20, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Southern Hills Hospital may one day be a one-stop shop for the southwest valley’s health care needs, the hospital’s new chief executive said.

“There are two things to think about: Where we are at now and where we are going,” Chief Executive Mike Johnson said. “What you’re going to find is that almost anything can be done at a hospital like this.”

I met with Johnson, who’s been the hospital’s chief executive since Dec. 1, at his office Feb. 13. He replaced Steve Dixon, Southern Hills’ first chief executive, who retired in October.

“You will see Southern Hills pretty quickly metamorph into a more sophisticated, larger community hospital,” Johnson said. “It is not our vision to be a downtown tertiary hospital, but we’re going to be a community hospital where the vast majority of someone’s health needs can be met — from women services and babies to pneumonia to almost any kind of surgery — pretty much the full spectrum.”

Although Southern Hills may never match its sister, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, in terms of trauma care, Johnson is confident his hospital will be able to provide almost as many services.

Sunrise Hospital and University Medical Center are the valley’s two trauma care facilities.

Southern Hills is one of four hospitals in the Las Vegas Valley owned and operated by Hospital Corporation of America of Nashville, Tenn.

The hospital opened in 2004 with expectations of a population boom in the southwest valley to support it and its two nearest competitors — Spring Valley Hospital and St. Rose Dominican Hospitals — San Martin Campus.

“That did create a little bit of an issue in terms of potentially some excess capacity,” he said. “Long term it’s probably good, because you’re going to need that level of care on this side of the community. There are some competitive factors, but there is also some synergy that goes along with

it.”

Already, the hospital has been certified by a national accrediting group as a chest pain center and is close to achieving a primary stroke care designation, Johnson said.

And in a matter of months, the hospital will begin performing nonemergency neurosurgery.

Operating room staff has already been trained by Sunrise, he said. Johnson expects a “tremendous” demand for brain surgeries, for such needs as tumor removals to alleviating brain pressure to correcting brain defects.

The fifth floor of Southern Hills isn’t being used, but Johnson is confident that as the hospital expands its services, the top floor will open up.

“I think Southern Hills is really perfectly positioned for growth, in terms of being able to support the patients and the residents that live in this quadrant of the city,” he said. “I feel good about it right now, but I’ll even feel better about it on a go-forward basis. There’s tremendous potential here.”

Johnson most recently served as chief operating officer at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., where he was instrumental in coordinating the development of the neurological service line. He also oversaw an increase in cardiovascular surgery and developed and implemented processes that reduced infections.

“I’ve always believed that hospitals ... are very important to the community because (for) people their health is very important to them,” he said. “We have a responsibility to the communities that we serve and I think we’re viewed as a community asset. And because of that, I think it drives us to be the best that we can be and meet the needs of the people that we serve.”

Southern Hills is a technologically advanced hospital.

When a patient checks into the hospital, he or she is issued a bar-coded bracelet. Anything that a technician, nurse or doctor does or gives to the patient is first scanned, tying everything known about the patient into the system. It reduces errors and prevents duplication of treatment.

“We really have a good group of physicians working here,” he said. “We have good employees and because of that, you’ve got a good hospital.”

In other news:

Sunrise Hospital and adjoining Sunrise Children’s Hospital were named among the top 100 hospitals to work for, as ranked by nursing professionals.

About 25,000 hospital nurses across the country were randomly selected and surveyed about their job satisfaction. The nurses answered questions about personal training and development, flexible working arrangements, and equality and diversity in the workplace.

“In the past two years, one of our top platforms has been to create a ‘voice-up’ culture, which encourages nurses to share ideas and have direct access to hospital leaders in order to improve quality, patient care and satisfaction,” Minta Albietz, chief nursing officer for the hospitals, said in a statement. “We have worked hard to provide a healthy work environment and are honored that nurses nationally have recognized Sunrise as a great place to work.”

Nicole Lucht covers health care, workplace and banking issues for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at 259-8832 or at [email protected].