Coming soon: Las Vegas’ first stand-alone children’s hospital

Nevada’s first stand-alone children’s hospital is coming to the Las Vegas Valley.

Intermountain Health unveiled the site of its future stand-alone children’s hospital on Wednesday at UNLV’s Harry Reid Research and Technology Park in the southwest valley, according to a news release.

Mitch Cloward, president of Intermountain Health’s Desert Region, which includes southern Nevada and southwest Utah, said in a statement that the hospital is the “first step toward our partnership with our community to bring this long-needed, stand-alone children’s hospital to Las Vegas.”

According to a study published by The Lincy Institute, Las Vegas is the only metropolitan area in the United States with more than two million people without a full-service children’s hospital.

Additionally, Nevada has only 267 pediatricians to serve 640,000 children under the age of 18, the study states. California has twice as many pediatricians per capita.

Intermountain Health said the hospital’s design, clinical activities and workforce planning, which includes recruitment, are currently underway.

Though details about the hospital’s capacity have not yet been revealed by Intermountain Health, the UNLV-published study states a 150-bed stand-alone children’s hospital is the “most feasible and financially viable option for Southern Nevada,” and that construction alone on a potential stand-alone children’s hospital could generate an economic impact of $2.1 billion and create 11,575 jobs.

The study, written by consulting firm Tripp Umbach, also said a potential children’s hospital could open as early as 2030, and expand to 250 beds by 2040.

The Harry Reid Research and Technology Park, located at Sunset Road near the 215 Beltway, is expected to create 25,000 jobs and roughly $2.6 billion in economic impact for Las Vegas, the Review-Journal reported in April.

The park hosts a variety of high-profile businesses, and includes the T-Mobile Business Customer Experience Center, which serves as a center for the company’s sales, customer support and other teams; the NBA Summer League and Oak View Group, the developer of a possible future Las Vegas NBA stadium project.

The park may also be the future home of the Nevada Studios Campus which could bring more movie and television production to the valley as early as 2027.

Contact Taylor Lane at tlane@reviewjournal.com.