Injuries are part of work.

Missing work because of illness is part of life.

With workers compensation claims continuing to increase along with employee downtime due to recovery from injuries, and absenteeism rising thanks to illness, corporate America—including gaming companies—is searching for ways to keep its staff members healthy and more productive.

“You can’t win when your best players aren’t on the court,” said one gaming executive of his front- and back-line employees. “And, it can impact the bottom line.”

Changing the culture of health isn’t easy.

Most employees value their health and prefer not to miss work with injury. For some, it costs them more money to miss work. But, Americans have been conditioned to live unhealthy lifestyles, which contribute to injury and illness.

With both management and staff on the same page when it comes to health and wellness, Casino Connection searched the Las Vegas Valley for facilities, products, and innovative approaches to improved care and prevention.

Hospital Systems
As one of the fastest growing industries in the valley, the medical community has more than doubled in recent years. From adding staff and services to new clinics like the Nevada Cancer Institute and St. Martin Hospital, there are now more than a dozen hospitals in the Las Vegas Valley.

Although most hospitals accept most types of coverage, gaming employees should always check with their human resources department about their type of health coverage, co-payments and provider options.
The most recognized facility in the Las Vegas Valley is University Medical Center (702-383-2000), which has been caring for area residents for more than 70 years. What started as a one-doctor and one-nurse facility with 30 beds, the facility—located at 1800 West Charleston Boulevard—has grown into a full-service, comprehensive medical center.

Catering to the needs of North Las Vegans, North Vista Hospital (702-649-7711) has 185 licensed patient beds and nearly 600 employees. Located at 1409 East Lake Mead Boulevard, the hospital is a full-service facility and part of the IASIS Healthcare Corporate.  

Here are some more of the Las Vegas Valley’s medical options starting with the Valley Health System of hospitals:

• Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center (702-733-8800), located at 2075 East Flamingo Road, offers a 286-bed, acute care facility. From diabetes treatment and nuclear medicine to podiatry and the sleep center, the center also has three full-service catheterization laboratories. Desert Springs, which has a reputation as a leader in cardiac care, also offers 24-hour emergency services.

• Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center (702-853-3020), located in southwest Las Vegas at 5400 South Rainbow Boulevard, offers quality healthcare through medical, surgical, maternity, intermediate and intensive care services. The facility also has
24-hour emergency care.

• Summerlin Hospital Medical Center (702-233-7000), located at 657 Town Center Drive, is an acute-care facility with nearly 300 beds and more than 1,100 employees. From open-heart surgery and cancer to neonatal and pediatric intensive care, the facility handles a variety of health problems. The hospital even has a surgical weight loss program.

•Valley Hospital Medical Center
(702-388-4000), located at 620 Shadow Lane, offers 24-hour emergency services along with a chest pain center, surgery and maternity care. Near both the Las Vegas Strip and downtown Las Vegas, Valley Hospital also has a stroke center.

With facilities across the valley, Sunrise Health features four hospitals in its system including:

• Mountainview Hospital  (702-255-5000), located at 3100 North Tenaya Way, handles a variety of health problems with offerings including MRI, urology, orthopedics and women’s services. The facility also provides men’s, mental, food and nutrition health in its wellness center programs.

• Southern Hills Hospital and Medical Center (702-880-2100), located at 9300 West Sunset Road, provides emergency services and 22 treatment areas including women’s and surgical services. The facility also provides state-of-the-art technology in patients rooms.

• Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center (702-731-8000), located at 3186 South Maryland Parkway, offers more than 1,500 physicians and 700 patient beds and specializes in various disciplines including cardiac surgery, women’s health, spine surgery and cancer through the comprehensive cancer center.

• Sunrise Children’s Hospital (702-731-KIDS) offers a pediatric intensive care unit, maternal-infant unit, a pediatric dialysis and outpatient area along with a labor and delivery triage. There is also a program for transport, heart problems and oncology. It also has private rooms with sleep facilities for families.

    Henderson-based St. Rose Dominican Hospitals provides services along the valley’s southern corridor:

• St. Rose de Lima Campus  
(702-564-2622), located at 102 East Lake Mead Parkway, offers a myriad of inpatient and outpatient services including an emergency department, surgical and obstetrical services and rehabilitative services. With more than 130 patient beds, the hospital has been a staple in Henderson since 1947.

• St. Rose Dominican Siena Campus
(702-616-5000), located at 3001 St. Rose Parkway, is an acute-care facility with more than 200 patient beds. With pediatric emergency beds and an open-heart surgery center, the campus also has neurosurgery and obstetrical services.

• St. Rose Dominican San Martin Campus (702-492-8000), located at 8280 West Warm Springs Road, is a four-story, acute-care facility in southwest Las Vegas. The hospital offers a full range of surgical and rehabilitative services along with cardiac and cancer services.

Programs & Facilities
Several valley hospitals and clinics provide unique services dealing with everything from wellness and nutrition to specializations in particular segments of health and disease.

For example, Desert Springs Hospital now offers targeted support for diabetes patients thanks to the Diabetes Treatment Center. Joyce Malaskovitz, director of the center, warned Nevadans of the disease.

“The key is prevention and early detection,” she said. “People with pre-diabetes are generally overweight and lead sedentary lifestyles. Behavior change is the real key.”

The center also offers education on the condition and tips for altering its course, she said.

Other hospitals have special focus areas including Valley Hospital’s Babies Are Beautiful program. Designed for pregnant women without maternity health insurance, the program allows the women access to prenatal care. The facility also offers childbirth education classes.

St. Rose’s Siena Campus features a healing garden with flowing water, sun light and plants. The three-quarter acre garden is designed to help patient recovery time through mind and spirit. Siena’s sister campus, St. Martin, also features a healing garden.
Sunrise Hospital features a Nevada neurosciences institute, while Southern Hills Hospital also provides healthy cooking information along with several health and wellness educational opportunity courses.

Keeping up with its surrounding area’s growth, Summerlin Hospital is readying itself for a $100 million expansion that will bring more patient rooms and expand emergency room care.

“We’re growing to meet the needs of the community,” said Tim L. Hingtgen, CEO and managing director at Summerlin Hospital. “Our upcoming expansion project has been carefully planned to incorporate the types of medical services our community needs and will not only add rooms, but will allow us to expand our services as well.”
    
Health & Fitness
The Las Vegas Valley has a variety of health clubs including Gold’s Gym (www.goldsgym.com). With six area locations, including 4180 West Craig Road, Gold’s Gym features an array of weight-training opportunities, group exercise, personal training, cardio-vascular equipment and even Pilates and yoga classes.

According to several industry experts, nutrition services also play an important part of health and training at the facility.

Gold’s Gym also has programs for corporations. Its business comprehensive program is already in use by dozens of big-name companies including Coca-Cola, Dell, Target and more.

24-Hour Fitness (www.24hourfitness.com) is another option for gaming workers. With 14 locations from North Las Vegas to Henderson including its Tropicana-Sport club at 5035 West Tropicana, the facilities feature a variety of training opportunities including a five-component program for cardio, resistance training, food intake, vitamins/supplements and professional assistance.

The clubs also provide corporate wellness programs in addition to core and water classes for the mind and body.

Pain Relief
Pain-relief specialists provide scores of products to assist industry workers with a wide range of alignments.

According to Lauren Newmann, owner of Z-CoiL Pain Relief Footware retail store at 4581 West Flamingo Road, casino employees can “stand longer and walk farther” by wearing the specially-designed, long-lasting product (www.zcoil.com).

“It reduces impact helping a variety of physical health problems,” she said of the customized shoes, which are engineered to relieve foot, leg and back pain.

Newmann said her business is popular with employees in the health care industry, but her largest client base is gaming workers with customers from Wynn Las Vegas, Red Rock Casino, Harrah’s and Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino, just to name a few.

Created by Alvaro Z. Gallegos, the product has a coil designed into the heel, which features a shock-absorbing design.

Another pain-relief expert is Jon Petrick, D.C., who owns Las Vegas Pain Relief Center, located at 4161 South Eastern Avenue.

Despite having more than 2,500 professional athletes as clients, Petrick credits nearly 20 percent of his business to gaming-industry workers. He said his clients continue to benefit from the center’s services for treating lower back pain and stiffness, shoulder and elbow pain, and repetitive strain injuries.

Petrick uses Active Release Techniques (ART) to treat patients.  

“Dealing with scar tissue is the one part of healthcare nobody talks about,” he said. “Repetitive strain injuries in the gaming industry are very common. It seems to come from a formula of frequency of motion, repetition, force and resting time between actions. We see people on their feet all day and in pain because of the stress on the body.”

After clients are pain free, Petrick said preventative care becomes a top priority. “From proper stretches and exercises to post-treatment tips, we are the most pro-active center in town,” he said.

Cosmetic Options
Rainbow Medical Centers (www.rainbowmedical.com) offers a new “Health at Work” program designed to assist companies concerned about employee absenteeism by comprising a wellness education curriculum.

The program encourages employees to adopt healthier lifestyles, according to Dr. Anthony Pollard, founder and director of the centers.

“Many businesses invest substantial time, money and effort to ensure their technological systems and facilities won’t let them down,” he said. “Smart companies make the same investment with employee health.”

Created to help companies protect their valuable human resources, the program focuses on stress management, nutrition, exercise, safety, preventative health tips, managing chronic pain and more.

The program gives employees, “a better understanding of the risk factors affecting their health,” said Pollard, who operates six Rainbow Medical locations throughout the Las Vegas Valley.

Gaming workers, especially dealers, cocktail servers and those on the front line, know the importance of smiling and creating a friendly environment for customers.

From a health and wellness standpoint, dental care is often overlooked by the typical employee. With recent technological advances in cosmetic dentistry, employees can now have a great new smile, according to Gregory Welch, DDS, and a partner in Sunstone Dental Care (www.sunstonedental.com).

Located in Henderson, Sunstone offers a new Zoom! In-Office Whitening System for which gaming-industry workers are already taking notice. “We have a lot of casino workers, showgirls, bartenders and others in the industry come to us for cosmetic dental work,” Welch said. “A smile can go a long way for individuals relying on tips for their compensation.”

A revolutionary tooth whitening procedure, Zoom! delivers fast and effective results. Its newest version can even whiten teeth nine to 12 shades during one 45-minute procedure. The facility also teaches proper teeth cleaning care.

Located at 1701 North Green Valley Parkway, Sunstone Dental Care can also camouflage crooked, chipped or missing teeth for its clients with the use of veneers, bridges and implants and more.

Valley Health Systems’ Michelle Swafford said the best way for gaming workers to improve health and wellness is “stop smoking, limit alcohol intake, watch their diets, eat more fruits and vegetables and less refined sugar, and participate in a regular exercise program.”

By Tann Summers

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