Making connections: It’s a core mission at Northern Nevada Medical Center

Its humble start as Sparks Family Hospital dates to 1983, but Northern Nevada Medical Center’s mission now goes way beyond its hometown’s city limits.

While it’s still the hospital on the hill, Northern Nevada Medical Center, perched above Vista Boulevard, serves a region stretching from rural Nevada to Northern California.

And while it operates alongside the other two larger hospitals in the area, Renown and Saint Mary’s, NNMC has one service they don’t: Every one of its rooms is a private room.

“One hundred percent private rooms,” said Alan Olive, CEO of Northern Nevada Medical Center. “People really enjoy that. Imagine sharing a hotel room with someone you don’t know, let alone a hospital room with all the noises, sounds, smells. It’s better to be private.

“We like it when people can choose a location based on quality of services,” he said.

Northern Nevada Medical Center is part of Universal Health Services Inc., one of the largest health-care networks in the country, which includes seven hospitals in the Las Vegas area.

In the Reno-Sparks area, Universal Health’s reach also includes the Willow Springs Center for youth in Reno, West Hills Hospital for mental health services, and Prominence Health Plan for health insurance.

In addition, Northern Nevada Medical Center has ongoing community partnerships with clinics, skilled nursing and nutritional services across the area and, Olive said, plans are in the works for additional rooms in 2018.

Ultimately, Olive said, it’s about staying healthy and the goals therein.

“We align what we do with those goals, but ultimately, when you make it to a hospital, that means something along the way hasn’t worked right,” he said, citing such pervasive conditions as diabetes, heart disease and other long-term deteriorations of good health.

“We can help get it back,” he said.

For a full-service hospital, which is the core of any health-care provider, it all comes down to quality of care, Olive believes.

And Northern Nevada Medical Center espouses more than just medical care through its motto: “Honoring Life’s Journey.”

“It talks not of health care, but of humans, people’s lives,” he said. “We give that as the mantra for all of our providers to all our patients. It speaks to life.”

Olive is not a physician by trade, but he knows the profession. A Reno native, he was born in Saint Mary’s Hospital and educated with dual master’s degrees in health care administration. He previously managed Renown Health’s South Meadows facility.

But even now, with four years as CEO at Northern Nevada Medical Center, Olive makes it a point to get out of his office regularly.

“I make rounds to our patients on a daily basis,” he said. “They just love the quietness of the rooms.

“We connect with them,” he said. “That’s our biggest success: connecting with our patients.

“This is my community. We all have our own ‘Why’ statements. For me, it’s getting back to service.”