Mike Johnson

By Nicole Lucht

Friday, May 22, 2009 | 3 a.m.

Southern Hills Hospital in the southwest valley was built when that area was thought to be the next big boom area. Instead, building stopped and projects were abandoned as anyone driving along Interstate 215 near Sunset Road can see.

But Mike Johnson, the hospital’s CEO since December, is optimistic. He thinks it’s only a matter of time before the economy improves and the hospital can capitalize on the expected growth.

Trained as a registered nurse, he has worked his way up the career ladder at both nonprofit and for-profit hospitals, primarily in Texas.

Johnson spoke with In Business Las Vegas about Southern Hills, health care reform and his expectations for the hospital’s future.

IBLV: You moved here recently from Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., where you served as chief operating officer. What drew you to Las Vegas?

Johnson: There were a lot of things. HCA (Hospital Corporation of America), as a company, has an excellent reputation and the Las Vegas market for HCA has a good reputation. I was particularly drawn to Southern Hills Hospital because a hospital of this nature just has an enormous potential for growth to serve the community.

I like the location of the hospital, I like the company, and I liked what I perceived to be the positive future for the hospital.

Can you describe Southern Hills Hospital’s role in Southern Nevada?

Sure. You know, this hospital is 5 years old. It opened up March 15, five years ago. It is quickly becoming a full-scale community hospital that will service this quadrant of the community. That’s important to people, to have immediate access to their hospital. Whether it’s medical, surgical, a very robust (emergency room), outpatient services, orthopedics, pediatrics. But now, with an expansion in spine surgery and soon to be neurosurgery, it will be a full-service community hospital.

Once again, that will be very advantageous to people who live in this quadrant of the valley.

What role does this hospital have within HCA?

That’s an excellent question. Let me talk about that from a market perspective. Within the Las Vegas market we have four hospitals: Sunrise, MountainView, Southern Hills, and then a dedicated Children’s Hospital. We work in tandem, and we are all full-service community hospitals. Obviously, Sunrise is our tertiary hospital, so it is very much focused on trauma and some of the big complex cases. And then clearly, the Children’s Hospital focuses on pediatrics.

Sunrise is a regional asset for our system. MountainView is in an area where there are a lot of retirees and, once again, a very well-respected hospital that services that area of the city.

This hospital, located on Interstate 215, is able to service Summerlin all the way down 215, kind of the midquandrant of the city and then down into Henderson. So, we actually get a fair amount of patients from Henderson and from Summerlin, and from Pahrump, actually. If you look at it on a map, particularly with 215 as a conduit for travel, we’re located in a good place.

Not only are you CEO, but you are also a registered nurse with a specialization in geriatrics. How does that benefit you in employee relations?

It is helpful. I’ve always thought to be the most effective leader and manager you can be, you need to understand many facets of the hospital. I do have a clinical background as a registered nurse, so I think it is helpful in terms of discussions with the nursing staff and some of the medical staff, just in trying to understand their issues a little bit more thoroughly.

How has the profitability of the hospital been for the past year?

We do reasonably well. Hospitals, by nature, are a different type of business. It’s not a commodity like a table or a can of Coke, because it’s someone’s health. Clearly hospitals do have to make profit to recapitalize themselves, to invest in their employees, invest in programs and services, and invest in equipment. We have been able to hit our budget. It’s a difficult environment for all businesses, including hospitals, but we are doing reasonably well.

How has that changed with the recession?

It’s the same situation. Across the board, all businesses are struggling a little bit. They’re having to make smarter decisions, tighten their belts, watch their expense structure and those kinds of things. We’re having to do that with our vendors and our suppliers and our employees. We are concerned with our air conditioning bills. My office has high-efficiency light bulbs. We’re doing the things that other people are doing, too.

How has Southern Hills adapted its business plan to work in this recession?

Similar to what I said earlier, we’ve had to tweak our business practices, watch our expense structure and then make sure we’re providing the services that our patients need and want. Once again, health care is a little bit different from that of commodities, but there are some things that are elective in nature, and some things that are an emergency and we have to do. We’re just trying to work smart.

Health care is one of the few industries that still has job growth. Why is that?

There is a whole host of factors. Part of it is just the aging of the population — there’s some organic growth in health care — as the population ages, people use more health care services. That’s probably the primary reason.

What new technology does the hospital have?

This is a very advanced hospital from a clinical perspective and from information (technology). We have very sophisticated imaging systems in radiology, for example, with CT (computerized tomography) scans and MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging). We have new information systems in the emergency department that help us manage our patients better. We have chemistry analyzers to more efficiently and quickly — and actually less expensively on a per case basis — allow us to run lab work. So there is a whole host of new equipment we have.

Then you have the patient identification bands.

The patient ID bands are great. That is a patient safety deal that compares the medication to the patient to the order. It helps ensure that everything is right.

What about the spine and neurosurgery programs?

There are several spine surgeons who practice here. Some are neurosurgeons, some are orthopedic surgeons. Dr. John Anson is a neurosurgeon here with Nevada Neurosciences Institute. He is doing some pretty sophisticated work relative to spine care, including stem cell implantation during the procedure. What that does is it essentially facilitates quicker bone growth. We want to be on the cutting edge for improving quality and outcomes for patients.

What new programs are in the works for the hospital? And also, can you tell me about the chest pain center and stroke?

There’s a lot of things. Fairly new is the accredited chest pain center. Those with chest pains, we have the systems and the people and the infrastructure in place so that people get care in an appropriate time and manner for chest pains. There’s a pretty rigorous process you have to go through to get that designation. We’re also in the process of submitting an application for primary stroke center designation, for the same reason. Patients with strokes will be able to receive care in an appropriate manner. We’re expanding out pediatric emergency services. More and more kids are (coming) to our emergency room with medical conditions and even some surgical conditions, so we’re expanding that.

Would that be something where they could be treated here instead of going to Sunrise Children’s?

To some extent. For the really, really sick kids who have congenital heart disease and those kinds of things, those patients will continue to be referred to our Children’s Hospital ... Once again, that’s the nice thing of being a system and having a Children’s Hospital for those patients who need that level of service, we can transfer them.

In addition to that, we’re expanding our GI services, gastrointestinal services, and offering a little bit more sophisticated imaging-type procedures. There really many new programs and services: Spine surgery is really expanding; so are orthopedics, stroke care, neurosurgery, pediatrics and cardiac.

What is the demographic this hospital primarily serves?

It’s interesting. It’s across the spectrum, but what we typically find if we do a ZIP code analysis is that there is a fair amount of younger families and that speaks to women’s services, OB/GYN, surgery and pediatrics. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, there is also a fair amount of older retirees in some of the communities that are around our hospital, and then everything in the middle. We really get a broad spectrum of patients, but it is a little bit weighted on younger and older, with the people in the middle, not quite as many.

What services are most sought after?

I would say our emergency room is very, very busy, and surgery, and then just general medical.

Over to health care reform: What would you like to see happen with reform as it’s being discussed?

That’s a very complicated issue, but I think there are some guiding principles. We need to be patient-centric so that patients get the right care at the right time. I think that’s important.

The other thing that is important is that we retain choice, so that patients can choose their hospital and their doctors and their providers. That is going to be important.

Another thing that is going to be important is that it is adequately funded so that we have the resources that we need to provide. I would say those are some of the larger issues. There are other things that are going to be very complex in terms of how does all that work relative to the relationship among hospitals and doctors and pharmaceutical companies and long-term care providers, so there’s a lot to that. But I think the fundamental things are access, patient-centric, choice and adequate funding.

What possible reforms would worry you the most?

To some extent, it’s going to need to be a private-public partnership. I would be concerned about the government trying to take over health care. That wouldn’t be good.

What role should hospital executives play in reforming health care, as in contributing to the dialogue?

As a resource, of having knowledge and expertise in the field, that we do, and need to, contribute to the dialogue, contribute to the solutions. Give thoughts and ideas in terms of what it should look like. We need to be part of shaping the evolution of health care.

What can you tell me about your hospital’s outreach efforts?

They’re pretty robust. First of all, we have information on our Web site about different programs and services that are offered here. We link to different resources, (such as) the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association. We have the lunch-and-learn (lecture), which is a monthly venue where patients and people from the community come to the hospital and get lessons from our staff and physicians about different disease processes. We have a whole host of newsletters. One’s called H2U, that is a community resource. It talks about diabetes and child care and different things.

But you bring up a good point. Hospitals, as organizations, need to be providers of health care information. We do that through a host of ways: Written materials, through the Internet, through the linkages and through lectures.

How does Southern Hills compete with neighboring Spring Valley Hospital and St. Rose Dominican Hospitals — San Martin Campus, and why would patients choose Southern Hills over the others?

It’s like any business. Those are two fine hospitals, and, yet, I think there are some distinguishing things in terms of programs and services offered here. I’m sure they do the same thing, but we try to focus on being a patient-centric quality service. I like to talk about clinical excellence, operational excellence and service excellence. That’s what we’re focused on. When patients come here, they get outstanding care, the right care at the right time. That’s clinical excellence.

Operational excellence — we try to take the hassle factor out, so you can park, you can go up and get your services; people communicate with you and you can go home.

And service excellence, just having an organizational mind-set where our patients feel like we treat them well and we care about them and we’re empathetic. That’s what we try to do as a hospital. I think we do a pretty good job of it.

Because of that, patients choose to come here and doctors choose to bring their patients here. And I’m sure the other hospitals do that, too, but hopefully we do it better.

The southwest valley has some of the highest office vacancy rates, including for medical office space. What are you doing to encourage health care businesses to set up shop near Southern Hills?

The economy is struggling a little bit and yet, patients and physicians will go to where they perceive the best place is. They’re going to go where they feel like they get great care and they get great service. We think we provide that. It’s kind of like you would drive another couple of extra miles to go to a really good restaurant versus one that is marginal. We feel the same way about (the hospital). More and more physicians are locating on this side of town and are establishing offices not only in the medical office building on the (hospital) campus, but also right around us, so we are seeing an in-migration.

There is an understanding that even though things have slowed down a little bit in Las Vegas, I think people understand that the next growth wave will likely occur in this quadrant of the city. Physicians are preparing for that.

Population near the hospital had high growth projections, but population stagnated and perhaps even declined. How has this affected the hospital’s projections?

Interestingly, not a lot. We would like to see Las Vegas continue to grow and we’d like to see more homes built out here, and those kinds of things. But, our volume projections, we’re meeting them.

We’re seeing people drive a little bit farther. We’re seeing people come from Summerlin, from Henderson, from Pahrump. Whereas the projections might have said (the patients) might have been a mile down the road, they might be six miles.