Mayor Oscar Goodman joined Summerlin Hospital officials on June 25 at a special ceremony to break ground on the hospital's new patient tower.

The new six-story patient tower is the third and final phase of the hospital's $100 million expansion project. The new tower will add an additional 180 private patient rooms bringing the total number of rooms to 480. "We're growing to meet the needs of our community," says Alex Villa, Chief Operating Officer at Summerlin Hospital.

The project includes more labor and delivery and recovery suites, antepartum and postpartum suites, and more rooms in a number of key areas including neonatal intensive care, medical telemetry, and post surgery.

Completion of the project is scheduled for early 2010.

For information on parking and construction areas, click here to view current map of Summerlin Hospital Campus.

Summerlin Hospital recently added a new 64-slice computed tomography(CT) scanner to its Radiology and Imaging Department, an upgrade from the  hospital's previous 32-slice scanner.

The Diabetes Treatment Center outpatient program at Summerlin Hospital Medical Center was recently awarded The American Diabetes Association (ADA) Education Recognition Certificate for a quality diabetes self-management education program.
                     
The ADA's Education Recognition Certificate ensures that educational programs have met the national standards for diabetes self-management education programs. Programs that achieve recognition status have a staff of knowledgeable health professionals who can provide participants with comprehensive education and training about diabetes management. Education Recognition status is verified by an official certificate from the ADA and is awarded for three years. Programs apply for recognition voluntarily.
                                                               
According to the ADA, there are 20.8 million people in the United States, or 7 percent of the population who have diabetes. While an estimated 14.6 million have been diagnosed with diabetes, unfortunately about one third are unaware that they have the disease.  
                                                                                               
Self-management education is an essential component of diabetes treatment. Recognized programs provide training in the following areas as needed: diabetes overview; stress and psychosocial adjustment; family involvement and social support; nutrition and meal planning; exercise and activity; medications; monitoring and use of results; relationships among nutrition, exercise, medication and blood glucose levels; prevention, detection and treatment of acute and chronic complications; behavior change strategies, goal-setting, risk factor reduction and problem-solving.

For more information about diabetes self-management training, call the Diabetes Treatment Center at Summerlin Hospital at (702) 233-7225.