Tahoe Pacific Hospital shifts location within Saint Mary's

Tahoe Pacific Hospital which operates long-term hospitals within hospitals last week moved its 21-bed operation from the fifth floor to the third floor at Saint Mary's, taking about 12,000 square feet.

The for-profit provider of long-term acute care, which also operates a 39-bed facility at Renown South Meadows, moved because Saint Mary's needed to expand its telemetry unit.

But the move allows Tahoe Pacific to revamp its operations to better utilize its space.

"Because we see some of the sickest patients in the community, a lot of times patients can't be placed in the same rooms because of their illnesses. We have to use a double room as a single room," says Chief Executive Officer Colin O'Sullivan.

Tahoe Pacific now has 13 large private rooms that can accommodate family members at Saint Mary's Tahoe Pacific, whose parent company, LifeCare Hospitals, operates 20 acute-care facilities in 10 states, entered the northern Nevada healthcare market 14 years ago at Northern Nevada Medical Center before it moved its operation to the other two hospitals.

Tahoe Pacific specializes in pulmonary, complex medical and wound care the three foundations of long-term acute care hospitals, says O'Sullivan. More than half of the long-term acute-care hospitals in the country utilize the HIH, or hospital-in-a-hospital, business model and lease space from a primary medical care facility.

"Over the last 20 years, for the short-term hospitals, a lot of the business has gone to outpatient they get them in and they get them out, shorter lengths of stay," O'Sullivan says. "So they have a lot of empty space. Rather than building a hospital and taking on all the associated overhead, long-term acute-care facilities lease unused space in hospitals on a long-term basis."

Helen Lidholm, chief operating officer at Saint Mary's, says the availability of the Tahoe Pacific facilities reduces disruption for patients and their families as they move from an acute-care facility.

Tahoe Pacific's revenues are generated primarily through MediCare since the facility mostly serves older patients.

Tahoe Pacific purchases most routine hospital services such as housekeeping, food service and laboratory work from Saint Mary's.

The two Tahoe Pacific locations employ 175 people, with staff rotating between locations as needed. O'Sullivan says that because the hospital oversees the most critically sick patients, staff often are the most well-trained nurses, occupational and respiratory therapists in the area.

"We have some of the highest trained skilled staff in this community," he says.

LifeCare Hospitals primarily operates facilities in the East; its Western regional presence includes hospitals in Denver and Boise.