While working for Intermountain Health in Utah, Mitch Cloward saw firsthand the \u201cstaggering\u201d number of children who had to travel to the state from Nevada to receive healthcare.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only did we see it in southern Utah, but we also saw it with the number of children that were going from Nevada to Salt Lake City to Primary Children\u2019s Hospital,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Cloward said an estimated 20,000 children a year have to leave Nevada for complex healthcare.<\/p>\n
Intermountain Health is taking steps to solve this issue with plans to start construction this year on Nevada\u2019s first standalone children\u2019s <\/a>hospital<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to provide a solution for Nevada to help bring these children back home,\u201d Cloward said. \u201cWe have world-class entertainment. We have world-class sporting events and teams. We have world-class dining. We believed that Nevada could have a world-class children\u2019s hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n The Las Vegas Review-Journal sat down with Cloward, Intermountain Health\u2019s Desert Region president, to talk about new developments with Nevada Children\u2019s Hospital and the health system\u2019s growth in the Las Vegas Valley. Answers are edited for clarity and brevity.<\/p>\n What exactly will this new children\u2019s hospital include, and what is the size, cost and timeline?<\/p>\n It took us a significant amount of time to find land to build a children\u2019s hospital, but we\u2019ve secured land at the Harry Reid Research and Technology Park. We\u2019ve just finished the design of our hospital with Shepley Bulfinch and Gensler.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a large hospital. The entire campus really approaches a million square feet, and we\u2019ll have between 34 and 35 acres. We\u2019re going to start that with about 200 beds, with the ability to expand beyond that. The hospital would be built to accommodate current levels of demand, but also big enough to support future growth and development.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll break ground this fall, and it\u2019ll take us about four years to build it. Our plan is to open doors in 2030, so with respect to design and construction, we\u2019re on track. The project\u2019s going to cost us over $1 billion.<\/p>\n With a project cost of over $1 billion, what is the philanthropic side looking like?<\/p>\n Now we\u2019re a nonprofit health care system, so our aspiration and our goal is that every child \u2014 regardless of their ability to pay \u2014 will get care in our hospital. So philanthropy is going to be a significant component of our work as well as recruitment, developing the workforce and bringing the physicians here.<\/p>\n We have multiple people within Intermountain who are working on the philanthropic side such as David Flood, Intermountain\u2019s chief development officer and Andrew Bennett, the vice president of Intermountain Foundation \u2013 Desert Region.<\/p>\n Probably the most significant announcement we\u2019ve made recently is that Bill and Wendy Hornbuckle will be leading our philanthropic efforts here for this campaign, and we\u2019re incredibly grateful for them and their commitment to do this. They have been phenomenal at opening those doors.<\/p>\n What is recruitment looking like? What kind of specialties is Intermountain hiring for? How many doctors, nurses, and staff will it take to run this hospital?<\/p>\n To open the doors we\u2019re going to need a medical staff of around 200 to 300 physicians. That doesn\u2019t include advanced practice providers, with physician assistants and nurse practitioners.<\/p>\n Just in terms of caregivers who aren\u2019t physicians or advanced practice providers, we\u2019re probably going to have 2,000 to 3,000 caregivers. When you think about a hospital, what it takes to run it \u2014 It\u2019s 24\/7, 365 days, with housekeepers, radiologic technologists for imaging, medical technologists for laboratory work, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and more.<\/p>\n Then you start to turn to a pediatric medical or surgical subspecialist. We recruited Nevada\u2019s first pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Taryn M. Bragg. But, there\u2019s a whole, exhaustive list of them.<\/p>\n What are Intermountain\u2019s growth plans for this year and next year? Any new openings and why?<\/p>\n Besides our plans for a children\u2019s hospital in Nevada, we continue to focus on access to care through our clinics in Las Vegas. This summer we will open a 90,000-square-foot clinic, the Badura Clinic, which will be home to eight consolidated clinics and two new ones, in addition to a pediatric orthopedic practice operated, as part of a larger partnership, by Shriners Children\u2019s. Shelled space will allow for expanded services in the future.<\/p>\n Badura Clinic space will be home to 10 clinics currently scattered throughout the area. Among the offerings: primary care, women\u2019s health, endocrinology, medical and radiation oncology, and several others.<\/p>\n How is Intermountain trying to keep up with population growth?<\/p>\n We continue to work to recruit needed physician specialties, and general pediatric care, to improve the ratios of pediatricians to children in the valley.<\/p>\n Additionally, we have a large focus on seniors and our senior population. We want to continue to make sure they have access to the care they need and deserve, largely through our Medicare Advantage product.<\/p>\n We were excited to welcome Steinberg Diagnostics Medical Imaging to the Intermountain Health family earlier this year. As we move forward together, we\u2019ll continue to review and expand access to imaging services for our communities and our plan members.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the biggest thing you have learned about the valley since relocating here?<\/p>\n People here really care about our community. There are a lot of really good people here supporting a lot of good causes and working to make our community better, whether its through an investment of time, money or ideas.<\/p>\n Contact Emerson Drewes at edrewes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @EmersonDrewes on X.<\/p>\n Mitch Cloward<\/p>\n Title: Intermountain Health’s Desert Region president<\/p>\n Education: Weber State University, bachelor’s degree, health care administration; Texas Women’s University, master’s degree, health care administration<\/p>\n Favorite place for a business lunch: That is the hardest question of them all! I’ve only scratched the surface of the restaurants offered in Las Vegas, it’s one of my favorite things about living here. Everyplace I go is my new favorite location.<\/p>\n Favorite family outing: We love supporting our local sport teams and enjoying a great night out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While working for Intermountain Health in Utah, Mitch Cloward saw firsthand the \u201cstaggering\u201d number of children who had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-653966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}