In this article, we explore the growing population of Las Vegas, the economy, and its effect on the field of healthcare. Since the early 2000s, the population in Las Vegas was approximately 500,000. Today, that number has reached roughly 640,000. This has been attributed to the growing economy, and, thus, the expansion of healthcare within Nevada’s largest city.
In 2017, the NHL planted their feet in Las Vegas by adding the Vegas Golden Knights. Another professional team will be relocating to the city, as the Oakland Raiders plan to call Las Vegas home in 2020. With this, it is expected that the healthcare industry will continue to grow.
Another contributor to the healthcare industry is Tesla in Norther Nevada. Through the support of Nevada’s governor and the Office of Economic Development since 2011, there has been a great deal of progress in the Gigafactory. The Gigafactory is responsible for producing all of Tesla’s electric cars and energy storage systems.
These leading industries have resulted in a race to meet the demand for healthcare services. As a result, Las Vegas has seen a rapid number of major developments in recent years. For example, you now see partnerships between healthcare providers and the local medical schools. The school of UNLV also has a role in medicine. There’s now UNLV School of Medicine and other medical expansion schools. The expectations set at UNLV School of Medicine is there help with producing more doctors. They’re looking to address a continued shortage of healthcare providers in the city.
Recruitment is also another key factor into the community. There’s collaboration with Southwest Medical Associates, a part of Optumcare. In 2018, the joint effort between the two welcomed 95 new healthcare providers. Southwest Medical’s program has been aggressive with their training. For example, they’re recently brought in Touro students to do their clinical year training at the company’s facilities. They’ll be the clinical site for UHS. An approved family practice and internal medicine residency that’s expected to produce 60 new family practice doctors and 120 internal medicine interns. The residency program pays its clinicians in advance with a stipend during their training.
In 2019, the healthcare industry is expected to continue grow. This is based on 2018 results. In 2018, Optum had one of the best years for adding healthcare providers.
