HealthCare Partners unveils new Pahrump facility

One of the biggest health care providers in the Pahrump area completed its new large-scale medical facility in the area at the end of 2017.

The completion brought in new medical equipment and services, along with a more streamlined process in visiting a medical provider, to area residents.

HealthCare Partners opened its 57,000-square-foot medical facility in October 2017, consolidating its roughly five locations and putting them under one roof. The new space also included an urgent care, imaging services and an integrated retail pharmacy.

The HealthCare Partners label went through some large-scale changes in 2017—with DaVita Medical Group, which houses HealthCare Partners under its wing. It was set to be acquired through an agreement with mega-insurer United Health Group Inc.’s Optum unit for roughly $4.9 billion.

The deal, entered into by DaVita Medical Group’s parent company, DaVita Inc., included nearly 300 clinics in a half-dozen states, including in Nevada, across the Las Vegas Valley and Pahrump, California and Florida. The deal also included DaVita Medical Group’s 35 urgent-care centers and six outpatient surgery centers. The agreement does not include DaVita’s dialysis unit.

“I am so proud of the DaVita Medical Group’s accomplishments, including our excellent clinical outcomes as reflected in our star ratings performance, our strong emphasis on growing physician leaders, our teammate engagement and advancing the care model,” said Kent Thiry, chairman and CEO of DaVita Inc., parent company to DaVita Medical Group, just after the agreement in December 2017. “The combination of DaVita Medical Group and Optum should lead to even higher levels of performance.”

What the deal meant for patients in Pahrump

“Optum’s data, analytics, technologies and clinical expertise will help DaVita Medical Group physicians deliver even higher quality care more effectively to the patients they serve,” a news release from Optum stated.

Desert Radiology also brought in new services as part of the new HealthCare Partners facility at 1397 S. Loop Road, just north of Highway 160.

During the October 2017 groundbreaking event, officials spoke of several offerings at the new medical facility: X-ray, CT and ultrasound and other offerings.

Prior to the agreement, Optum already held a major medical provider under its wing, Southwest Medical Associates. Southwest Medical is physician-led with primary and specialty care services, urgent care and also has a footprint in outpatient services.

“The physicians and clinicians of DaVita Medical Group provide outstanding patient care, and we look forward to supporting their continued success in serving their patients and communities,” said Andrew Hayek, CEO of Optum Health in a written statement following the announcement of the deal. “We also look forward to working closely with the leadership team of DaVita Medical Group to combine our capabilities and, supported by the data analytics and technology capabilities of Optum, enhancing patient care and the value we provide to the communities we serve.”

Upon closing, the group was set to be housed under Optum’s OptumCare division, which contains 30,000 affiliated physicians across hundreds of care facilities, according to Joe Mello, CEO of DaVita Medical Group.

The HealthCare Partners facility also houses a 2,000-square-foot Humana neighborhood location. Humana opened a new, integrated retail Humana Pharmacy in the building, which is open to the public.

Dixon Keller, regional director of sales and marketing for Humana, said an advantage to an integrated pharmacy was that prescriptions could be sent with a push of a button, instead of having to bring a paper prescription in.

Contact reporter Jeffrey Meehan at jmeehan@pvtimes.com