NNMC casts wide health care net

Northern Nevada Medical Center is casting a wider net with two new services geared to patients both locally and nationwide.

A telemetry system for monitoring cardiac patients is now undergoing beta testing with patients in Pennsylvania while a mail order pharmacy located at NNMC is poised to serve both the hospital’s patients and prescription holders anywhere in the country.

The services, dubbed CentRX, are part of NNMC’s charter to be more than a 250,000 square-foot hospital on the east edge of Sparks.

“NNMC is just a piece of the pie of what Universal Healthcare brings to the community,” said Alan Olive, the medical facilities’ chief executive officer. “We offer a whole system of care to promote health and wellness.”

Universal Healthcare Services Inc. is the $8 billion King of Prussia, Pa., company that owns and operates 235 acute care and behavioral health facilities, including 33-year-old NNMC.

The 108-bed hospital, once known as Sparks Family Hospital, employs 600 people and has 450 physicians on staff.

It’s known for its orthopedics department, receiving the first gold award from the Joint Commission, an independent, not-for-profit that accredits hospitals nationwide, for its knee and hip replacement surgery and the only northern Nevada facility to receive the same award for its spine surgery.

The hospital also houses within it a long-term acute care hospital on its seventh floor — Tahoe Pacific, which is operated separately by LifeCare Hospitals — and a facility for geriatric psychiatric treatment, such as dementia and depression, called Senior Bridges.

Mental health is another point of departure where Universal Healthcare’s NNMC goes outside its doors both to serve the community at large and to collaborate with other medical institutions.

“Behavioral health is one of the biggest needs,” said Olive, an assessment backed up by studies that show the state falls below the nationwide average in availability of mental health services.

The hospital operates the West Hills Hospital for addiction treatment as well as the 116-bed treatment center for children and teenagers, Willow Springs Center, which attracts patients from all over the country. Both are located in Reno.

NNMC also operates Northern Nevada Medical Group, outpatient care in family medicine, cardiology, neurology, sports medicine and other specialities, in offices in Sparks, Spanish Springs, Reno, Winnemucca, Yerington and Fallon.

Universal Healthcare added health insurance to its local medical portfolio when it acquired St. Mary’s Health Plans and renamed it Prominence Health Plan, offering both an HMO or Health Maintenance Organization, and a PPO or Preferred Provider Organization to policy holders in Nevada and Texas.

The organization also is investing heavily in telemedicine. It offers stroke diagnostics within three minutes of arrival to emergency rooms in Battle Mountain, Yerington and other rural hospitals through a telerobot, said Olive.

That’s an example of the way Universal Healthcare’s NNMC works with other facilities. The patients are at non-affiliated hospitals and are often referred to bigger facilities in northern Nevada that might be considered NNMC competitors.

The new CentRX cardiac system outfits patients with monitors that can be tracked remotely around the clock. It can handle thousands of patients located anywhere in the country. The service will be rolled out locally in the next few months once testing of the equipment is completed.

CentRX Pharmacy has already launched and provides mail order drugs for NNMC patients as well as customers outside the area.

The services may serve parent company Universal Healthcare, but for Olive caring for those in the immediate vicinity is all that matters.

“I’m pleased we can play a part in the larger national role but my commitment and focus is on this community,” said Olive.