Centennial Hills Hospital, Las Vegas, NV

Community Partner Description

Centennial Hills Hospital is a for-profit, 336-bed facility within the six-hospital Valley Health System (About Us, 2021). Found at the base of Lone Mountain near United States Route 95 Highway and Bruce Woodbury Beltway, this facility is easily accessed by clients from the immediate neighborhood as well as from throughout the valley. The hospital is known for providing a wide array of healthcare services and procedures particularly in the area of women’s health, neonatal intensive care, surgical services, as well as outpatient therapy.

Mission Statement

The mission of Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center is to provide to our community: excellence in clinical care that our patients recommend to their families and friends; that physicians prefer for their patients; that purchasers select for their clients; that employees are proud of, and that investors seek for long-term results (About Us, 2021).

The mission of Centennial Hills Hospital supports the use of program development through its focus on clinical excellence. Whereas, some hospitals focus on research or teaching, Centennial Hills is focused on providing exceptional clinical services for the local community. As women’s health is a particular focus for the facility, with options ranging from cesarean section (C-section) surgical suites and a level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to water birthing tubs and nurse-midwife attendants, the organization is likewise committed to providing a wide range of maternity services not typically found throughout the valley (Lopez, 2014; Maternity Services, 2020). In alignment with this aim, preventive interventions for mothers who have experienced traumatic birth stand as an important addition to the established holistic culture. Traumatic birth can range in form from an emergency C-section, an infant NICU stay, to a purely psychologically-derived traumatic birth; however, each of these modes of labor, delivery, and postpartum care require PP-PTSD prevention. Due to the diversity in maternity care found in this hospital, the potential efficacy of the proposed program will have an increased level of validity. Therefore, the mission of Centennial Hills Hospital results in an ideal facility for a program to be developed and sustained.

Vision Statement

“Treat everyone as a guest. Demonstrate professionalism and excellence in the things I do. Practice teamwork" (About Us, 2021). Centennial Hills Hospital’s vision of excellence and teamwork lends itself to a collaborative and visionary intersection. While occupational therapists are not typically found in hospital maternity or postpartum floors (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2018), they offer a rich and holistic focus that stands to fill longstanding maternity healthcare voids: psychosocial concerns, transition planning, and preventative treatments. The hospital’s focus on collaboration allows the basis for an OT and nursing partnership. Further, a search for excellence denotes a striving beyond traditional methods of healthcare. Centennial Hills demonstrates their vision in the maternity department through: being the only Las Vegas-area hospital to employ nurse midwives—who have a holistic focus by their profession’s nature; providing birthing tubs; offering a free mother-baby community support group; and employing a mommy concierge program with afternoon tea, a massage by Centennial Hills Aveda Salon and Day Spa, as well as a gourmet celebration meal (Lopez, 2014). As the hospital is already known for outpatient occupational and physical therapy (About Us, 2021), a rich, therapeutic focus can reasonably be lent to the sustainability of the program into perpetuity.

Population

While Centennial Hills Hospital treats a wide population of women through every socioeconomic (SES) group, race, and ethnicity; the population comes primarily from the surrounding urban and suburban areas.

Demographic 

In the Northwest area of Las Vegas, informally known as the Centennial Hills neighborhood, the population is made up of 52,160 people (Centennial Hills Demographic Profile, n.d.; Overview of Centennial Hills, Las Vegas, Nevada, n.d.). This neighborhood is composed primarily of families with 69% of the community designated as such. The male to female ratio reflects the family-nature of the area with a one-to-one ratio. The population density is relatively spread out with only 3,782 people per square mile compared to the national city average of 27,012 people per square mile (Center for Sustainable Systems, 2019). While Las Vegas is quite racially and ethnically diverse (Santos, 2018), Centennial Hills is less so with white residents making up 63.5% of the population, Hispanic residents standing at 14.8%, black residents constituting 10%, Asian residents totaling 6.4%, mixed racial backgrounds making up 4.3%, and 1% of the population denoting their background as other (Centennial Hills Demographic Profile, n.d.). Despite the decreased diversity in this section of the city, it is well above the national diversity average (Farrell & Lee, 2018). The median household income of the area is $77,100, in excess of the city’s $54,694 average (United States Census Bureau, 2018). Likewise, 38.3% of the area adults have attained a postsecondary degree, 55.4% a high school diploma, and 6.3% do not have a high school diploma (Overview of Centennial Hills, Las Vegas, Nevada, n.d.). Despite the increased level of education and household income, much of this skewed wealth and education reflects the high percentage of family homes in the area—which tend to carry with them a higher household income. Further, due to the level III NICU, many at-risk women travel out of their respective neighborhoods to give birth at this hospital. Thus, the actual demographics of the maternity care population is likely less well-to-do than reflected by the immediately surrounding area.

Age Range

The sprawl and decreased density of the Centennial Hills community is attractive to families of various ages; however, families with children under 18 account for 45% of the households in the area (Overview of Centennial Hills, Las Vegas, Nevada, n.d.). Further, the median neighborhood age is 39.7-years-old. Clearly, a large population of the area is of child-bearing age and in support of the maternal focus of the proposed PP-PTSD prevention program.

Nature of Disability

While Nevada does not maintain statistics on women who receive a PP-PTSD diagnosis, there are several troubling facts regarding mental health and postpartum services in Southern Nevada. Nevada is ranked last in the nation for mental health per Mental Health America’s 2020 national ranking. Based both on the number of various mental health diagnoses as well as access to resources. This ranking is telling in that there is a high risk of mental illness in the state and that decreased services are available for women who need them. Marcia Clevesy, a women’s health practitioner and University of Nevada Las Vegas assistant professor, states that screening for postpartum depression is still not the norm in Southern Nevada despite being the most common postpartum mental health diagnosis and the best understood (Bruzda, 2019). Unfortunately, trends of decreased maternal mental health are likely to occur in a post-coronavirus Las Vegas, as the city is widely touted as the city most financial impacted by the pandemic (Segall, 2020). Following the global economic recession of 2008 (Ng, Agius, & Zaman, 2013), mental health was severely negatively impacted in those areas hardest hit, and it is likely that the 2020 pandemic financial crisis will carry with it the same impact. Thus, the already neglected nature of postpartum mental health in the Las Vegas valley stands to be deepened by the impending economic crisis.

Geographic Area

While Centennial Hills Hospital serves primarily urban and suburban residents in the northwest portion of Las Vegas, women from other areas of the city do seek out birthing experiences at the hospital. This is particularly true among at-risk women who require a level III NICU secondary to advanced age or medical condition as well as women who prefer the safety of a hospital setting while still pursuing a natural birthing experience (Lopez, 2014). Further, the hospital serves a small population of women who live in rural communities as the hospital is on the edge of town, closest to these communities.

Funding

As part of the for-profit Valley Health System, the hospital is funded by insurance reimbursement and private payment options (Standard Services Price Guide, 2020). Additionally, the hospital partners with several entities which enable various programs that may not be available based on funding alone (Centennial Hills Hospital, 2018). Thus, the inexpensive nature of a potential proposed interventions is vital.

Future Direction of Funding

In order to meet the small financial needs required to sustain the proposed program into perpetuity, Centennial Hills Hospital may seek out tablet grants from Microsoft for Nonprofits (2020) or the Verizon Foundation (2020). Further, they may seek out funding from the Highmark Foundation (2020) which has a mission of preventing postpartum mental health conditions.

Current Programs

Offered As Centennial Hills Hospital is a for-profit institution, the hospital makes strides to attract business to their facility. This is reflected by the various offerings unique to the facility.

Currently Offered Programs

In addition to the birthing tubs, free mother-baby community support group, and mommy concierge program aforementioned (Lopez, 2014); the hospital also offers six labor, delivery, and recovery suites with homey touches meant to facilitate a relaxed mood for mothers; a 25-bed postpartum unit with an optional newborn nursery; lactation consultation; in-room accommodations for dads or birth partners; as well as infant room-in accommodations (Maternity Services, 2020).

Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT)

While Centennial Hills Hospital boasts an impressive range of birthing options for new mothers, including a focus on mother-centered care (M. Reyes, personal communication, June 7, 2020), they lack a clear birth specialty. Their status as the only valley-area hospital with a holistic focus is eclipsed by their level III NICU. Though it is not the highest level NICU in the valley, their higher than average level detracts from their natural-birthing focus. Four other area hospitals provide level IV NICUs; thus, Centennial Hills Hospital loses the highest risk group of mothers to competition. Accompanying this lack of specialty care is likely internal competition of programs for resources and advertisement. An associated lack of resources is evident in a holistic program that falls short—lacking transition planning and psychosocial practitioners devoted to preventing a litany of postpartum mental health conditions.

Keeping in-step with national trends, PP-PTSD research has increased and occupational therapists are increasingly joining women’s health practice areas (AOTA, 2018). Further, within the last year, Nevada state legislators have committed resources to tracking maternal death rates and women’s health issues in general (Girnus, 2020). Yet, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) threatens hospitals globally. Hospitals like Centennial Hills face the threat of a lack of adaptability built into current programing. Pre-pandemic offerings may not instinctively adapt to the virtual nature of the 2020 reality. These opportunities and threats open Centennial Hills Hospital to new holistic program areas that can adapt to the internet of things.

Community Resources Supporting Occupational Performance

As demonstrated in the SWOT analysis, COVID-19 stands as the greatest threat to mothers accessing community resources aimed at supporting their occupational endeavors related to new parenthood. Thus, newly developed programing must be digital and easily accessible by new mothers and healthcare workers alike.