Las Vegas needs more pediatricians, says president of Nevada Children’s Hospital

By 2030, Nevada’s first standalone children’s hospital is expected to open in Las Vegas, but the executive who will lead the facility has already been named.

Intermountain Health selected longtime health care leader Lawrence Barnard as the new president of the upcoming children’s hospital, following a national search. He previously served as associate vice president of Intermountain Children’s Health in Nevada.

“Larry’s extensive experience in health care leadership and deep connections to Nevada and Las Vegas make him the ideal first president of the Intermountain Health Nevada Children’s Hospital, which is expected to start serving patients and families in 2030,” said Katy Welkie, vice president of Intermountain Children’s Health, in a statement.

Barnard will guide the hospital through construction and oversee operations after its grand opening. He recently sat down with the Las Vegas Review-Journal to discuss the need for the hospital, construction and more.

When and how did you come into your role as president of Nevada Children’s Hospital?

It was sometime in May. But really, I’ve been doing the work since I started here about two years ago. It really was just a title change to fit where we were in the project. When I started, I was assistant vice president of pediatrics, and so this is kind of just adding an additional piece to it. So, I’m still doing AVP of pediatrics for the hospital and it’s kind of more all-encompassing of what I’m doing.

I came from being a CEO in Los Angeles. I was the CEO of University Medical Center, and I really enjoyed it. Moved over to be the CEO of (Dignity Health-)St. Rose (Dominican), San Martín (Campus), then ultimately became the regional president for St. Rose. At a certain point, I wanted to go do something mission-oriented. St. Rose is mission oriented. It’s not for profit, but I wanted to do something different.

So, when I got a call from someone I work with saying: “Would you like to interview for the children’s hospital?” I thought, this is the first time I’m happy where I’m at. So, when I came back to do the interview, the first thing I was able to say was, “I’m happy where I’m at. I really want to interview you guys.” I really understood Intermountain after I met the team, and was like, “I want this job.”

Many have expressed the dire need for a children’s hospital here in Nevada. What are some of the gaps in pediatric care this project will fill? Are there any specialties you are trying to bring in here?

One thing is access. We don’t have enough physicians to take care of all the kids that are here, so that’s a big thing. General pediatricians, we need more of them. We’ve got the ones that are working and are doing a great job trying to take care of what they can, but there’s not enough doctors to see the access that we need.

Sub specialists. There isn’t an active pediatric ear, nose and throat group right now; one that just sees kids. Pediatric neurosurgery is a good example. We have one pediatric neurosurgeon. If you think about that, that’s one person that’s on call 24/7. They can’t take vacations. They can’t take breaks. There’s no one to back them up. We have doctors coming from Utah to help support them when they need to take some time away.

We don’t have genetics. We don’t have enough rheumatologists. We have two groups that are doing general surgery. It’s really a matter of not only does it not exist, but there’s also just not enough of those physicians.

Cardiology will be a big one we’re trying to bring in. Neurosurgery, general surgery, oncology and orthopedics will be kind of the cornerstones. We’re also going to be a Trauma Level one (center), and that is something that doesn’t exist right now for pediatrics. So, we want to make it as much as encompassing as we can.

What’s recruitment looking like? When is it starting? Has it already started? How many people are you trying to bring in?

It has already started. I’m super excited. I can’t share a headcount, but it’s a large number. It’s going to create jobs.

It is one of the biggest challenges, because historically, Nevada hasn’t been known for health care. There are some really great pockets of things, but this is an opportunity to change the narrative. Creating something from scratch is a lot different than trying to turn a ship around. This is a way to create a practice the way health care professionals think it should be done. This is a way to start from the beginning.

A lot of times when we go to a company, we’re just doing what has always been done. With this, there are opportunities for us to change it a little bit. This will be from the ground up. This will be, for a lot of people, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to give care the way you’ve always thought it should go. That’s the aspect that brings people to the table.

We really want to make sure we focus on the staff and the caregivers as part of this, not just the children in the family, which is the top focus. If you’ve got caregivers that are tired, don’t feel like they have a voice or aren’t being treated well, they’re not going to be able to give their best to the families. So, we really want to make this a place for staff members to be proud of and want to be going or want to go to work every day.

Academics are on there as well. We want to partner with UNLV, UNR (University of Nevada, Reno), Touro (University Nevada), Roseman (University of Health Sciences) — that piece is a big part of it. In a city like this that has not had a dedicated standalone facility the amount of difference it’s going to make day one will probably be one of the biggest boosts to health care that we’ve seen in the state in a long time.

Have you heard of any stories of people having to travel out of state? What are some of the main places that people go to?

You’ll see them go to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and Arizona. Utah is far enough, and you have to fly most of the time. If you can’t afford that, you have to drive, and it’s a long drive, same for Los Angeles.

There was an Air Force gentleman, I met with his family, whose son passed away (on the highway) at Baker, Calif. (while traveling to a children’s hospital.) When he told me the story, it just brought more to light how horrible this (the pediatrician shortage) is or can be for people. He said “the I-15 takes more children than we recognize.” That quote kind of stuck with me. If a child does pass away, it shouldn’t be on the side of the road in Baker. It should be in a hospital bed surrounded by family. It should be in an environment that is supportive. So, the intent is really just to keep people here and not have to leave.

What are your hopes and goals for the hospital?

I want it to really feel like it belongs in Las Vegas — that it has the personality of Las Vegas, but at the same time I want us to be able to provide some respite for children who, in some cases, can’t be a child anymore. Children who are dealing with something that you, as an adult, wouldn’t even want to deal with, and they’re dealing with it as an 8-year-old. I want them to be able to feel like children again. I want us to focus on the experience for them. Not just four empty white walls, but how do we incorporate fun things?

How do we incorporate XBox tournaments in there? How do we look at Legos? Legos actually sent us the design for a Lego MRI. Kids that go into the MRI could build it before they go in to understand what’s happening.

It really is about the entire experience, not just the disease state. These are human beings. Not just the kid in room 206 that has diabetes. I want to bring that humanity back to something that’s difficult, that affects not just the kid, but the entire family.

There has already been the site unveiling, when will a groundbreaking be? Are there any construction timelines?

We’re hoping to do groundbreaking by the end of the year and complete it around 2029 for opening. Right now, it’s just dirt. I’m the president of dirt right now.

We’ve been working on the design with Gensler and Shepley Bullfinch, and it just looks exciting. We did some tours of some other hospitals in the in the U.S., just to kind of get a flavor of what they’re doing now. We also did a tour of some of the casinos here to just really look at the customer service aspect, and how do they take care of their staff.

We asked Chelsea Bishop, president and co-founder of Act4Kids, to be a part of the design and kind of be the voice of parents. We have an event coming up where Act4Kids are going to get some families together, get in front of the architects and talk about some of the challenges they’ve seen, or talk about things that they hope to see in this.

We’re not just going to build it and plop it down. We’ve already had a couple of meetings with the physicians here to say, “if this is going to be your hospital or your clinic, how would you set it up?” They’ve talked directly to the architects. We’re trying to do it differently than what we’ve historically seen here in Vegas.

Is there anything else you want to add?

It’s just an honor to be here. I was in the military (served as a captain in the U.S. Army from 2001 to 2006), and my dad was in the military, I followed after him. To me, that was service to the nation. When I got out, I needed to figure out what to do. I met someone who said, “hospitals are the closest thing to service that you can get in in the U.S.” So, I went into that with the idea of being able to serve a community and serve the people.

My role is to make life better for the people smarter than I am, the people that have more talent than I do, so they can do their role to really help people. That’s what my job is. I’m just honored to be able to be a part of this and to serve the community and serve these wonderful caregivers that are going to, every day, try to change the life of a child and their family.

Contact Emerson Drewes at edrewes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @EmersonDrewes on X.