Centennial Hills Hospital chief executive officer talks about what drew him to career in the medical field
david becker/viewCentennial Hills Hospital Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Kevin Stockton smiles while talking about how he became interested in a career in health care.
david becker/viewKevin Stockton, chief executive officer and managing director of Centennial Hills Hospital, 6900 N. Durango Drive, stands outside the eight-story facility, which opened earlier this year. Stockton was formerly the chief operating officer of Spring Valley Hospital and Valley Hospital.
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Kevin Stockton, 37, is the chief executive officer and managing director of the newest hospital in the Las Vegas Valley, the Centennial Hills Hospital and Medical Center. Formerly the chief operating officer of Spring Valley Hospital and Valley Hospital -- all facilities within the Valley Health System network -- he and his wife, Leslie, moved to Las Vegas in 2004 from Arizona, where he grew up in Tucson and developed his career in health administration in Phoenix.
Opened in January in northwest Las Vegas at 6900 N. Durango Drive, Centennial Hills Hospital has been busy since day one.
Did you always plan on a career in health care? No, I had other plans. I worked in a hospital all through college and graduate school, and I got to know the CEO there. He really took me under his wing, and I got to follow him around to different events. It really helped me get a feel for hospital administration. He kind of mentored me in this profession, and I ended up changing my major to health care administration and policy administration. That's what steered me in this direction. Also, my mother was a nurse, my cousins were nurses, and my aunt was a nurse, so I guess I have that in my blood.
What brought you to Las Vegas from Arizona? They had just opened Spring Valley Hospital at that time. It was about six months old, and you don't usually get a chance to work at a brand-new hospital.
What were your impressions of Las Vegas before you moved here? I had only come here a couple of times before as a tourist, so I didn't know much. As I started to do some research, I found it wasn't too different from Phoenix.
If you take the Strip out of the center of it, it's really no different from a lot of big cities in the southwest. It's growing fast, and there are a lot of new people starting new businesses. And it's 10 degrees cooler than what I was used to.
Was there anything that surprised you about the city? I was surprised at the magnitude of the shortage of health care workers and facilities. In Phoenix, we had a shortage, as well, but Las Vegas was much worse off than what I was used to. It was not just nurses, but physical therapists, pharmacists, a lot of health care positions that aren't always taken into account.
You live in northwest Las Vegas. Did you look for a home in this area because you were hoping to work at Centennial Hills Hospital? No. We moved here, and we were looking for a home in either the southwest (near Spring Valley Hospital) or the northwest, and after about eight offers for homes that we didn't get, we made sure on the ninth. The northwest has a lot to offer. But I didn't know I'd end up (at Centennial Hills).
Already being internal (with Valley Health System) and being local helped, but I had to interview and apply. Of course, I jumped at the chance. I thought Spring Valley was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and then this came up, to have the chance to hire 500 people and take it from the start through all the different stages, and working with the staff here to obtain accreditation.
Spring Valley was a very new hospital when you joined the staff. Has this been a similar experience? Spring Valley was about six months old, so I missed a lot of the early process. You do so much to get to the stage where you're able to serve patients, and then there is a whole new set of steps.
It's a big difference. The benefit of being in the system is that we weren't trying to do it on our own; we have four other hospitals to lean on and learn from. And you can take those people that helped open Spring Valley Hospital, that lived through that experience, and implement a process that will guide you.
What was the biggest challenge in trying to build Centennial Hills into a community hospital? Our biggest challenge was the reception from the community. We based expectations on Spring Valley, but when we opened here, we were a lot busier than we expected.
Since we've opened, we've been able to hire 150 new employees and 80 to 90 new nurses, and we've opened a new nursing floor about a year early. We've been able to hire so many quality, experienced people. We've been very fortunate.
Why do you think the hospital has seen more patients than expected? Part of it is the growth in this community. It has built up over the years because of the lack of medical services available up here.
Also, we opened during peak respiratory season in January. Traditionally, it's the flu season, so that's when all hospitals are busy, although we are still seeing higher volume now in June.
But Las Vegas is really under bedded, from a hospital perspective, especially in this area. We have patients coming from the areas we expected. I haven't been surprised about that. We do have patients coming from the 215 and North Las Vegas.
Do you ever get a chance to go home and get some sleep? Even though my wife doesn't think so, I do. You know, we're in a 24-hour business, and we have to work nights, we have to work weekends.
But I usually see my kids (a 3-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter) in the morning and on the weekends. We like to go to the park on Saturdays or Sundays.
What parks do you like? What kind of recreational spots does your family enjoy? We like to go to Floyd Lamb Park. They have lakes, and they have ducks and peacocks and horses, and the kids like to chase the ducks around.
There are a lot of great parks in the area. They also like to go to the butterfly park (Centennial Hills Park). One great thing about Centennial Hills is, it's a new and growing area, so there are a lot of new places to go.
Where do you think the hospital fits into all the planned development in the northwest? Do you see it as a hub, a starting point for Centennial Hills becoming its own community? We've heard that a lot, from talking with neighbors at our health fairs and other events. It really is its own distinct community, and I think, and we've heard, that having the hospital here is kind of validating for the northwest and Centennial Hills.
It's a big step in creating something where you don't have to leave your own neighborhood to get the services you need, and as more development adds more of those services, it will just continue to come into its own.
We're just trying to leave an impression on residents that it's our duty to provide quality care and high levels of service, and our entire staff is committed to that mission. That's why we're here.
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