Our History

The Dignity Health -St. Rose Dominican hospital system, and the town where it originated, has an amazing history.

The town of Henderson rose out of a dusty spot of desert in the early 1940s, and its lifeblood was Basic Magnesium Inc., a plant that pulled water and electricity from what was then called Boulder Dam to produce magnesium, a material used for munitions and airplane parts during the war. In 1942, Basic Magnesium Hospital was founded by the U.S. government to provide health care to area industrial workers and their families during the war.

When World War II ended, magnesium production was no longer needed for defense purposes, so many of the 14,000 employees moved away. Basic Magnesium Hospital was put up for sale.

1945-1946- The government looks for a buyer. Mother General Mary Gerald of the Adrian Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Michigan, agrees with Bishop Thomas K. Gorman that the Order should purchase and manage the hospital.

1947- The hospital is sold to the Sisters for $1 a year with the stipulation that they assume the debt and operate the hospital for 25 years. The facility is named Rose de Lima Hospital.

1955- Rose de Lima Hospital is the first in southern Nevada to be accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals.

1956- The hospital is the first medical facility in the area to obtain a radioisotope (nuclear medicine) laboratory and the first fully accredited cancer treatment center.

1960- The hospital opens a three-story patient wing, emergency room, surgery suites and obstetrics unit.

1961- A new 20-bed neuropsychiatric unit is established. Rose de Lima becomes the first private hospital in the area to have a contract with State Mental Health.

1972- The hospital celebrates its 25th anniversary as a 100 bed facility with intensive care, physical therapy, inhalation therapy and diagnostic x-ray units.

1974- The word "Saint" is added to the hospital's name, making it St. Rose de Lima. The government awards the final land title to the hospital.

1988- St. Rose de Lima joins in co-sponsorship with Catholic Healthcare West, the largest Catholic healthcare organization in the west.

1989- The hospital changes its name to St. Rose Dominican Hospital in honor of the founding Sisters.

1991- A $25 million, four-story expansion is completed with new medical facilities, including maternal child suites.

1992- St. Rose becomes the first hospital in the U.S. to install the GE Vectra 1.5T MR breast coil which tests the viability of silicone breast implants and questionable lumps found by mammograms.

1994-1995- The hospital expands to include a cardiac catheterization laboratory and the Wiegand Cardiac Rehabilitation Center.

1998- Ground is broken and blessed for the $185 million St. Rose Dominican Hospital - Siena Campus, an acute care facility that will eventually have 300 patient rooms.

The current hospital is renamed St. Rose Dominican Hospital - Rose de Lima Campus. Two surgery suites and 20 beds are added to the Rose de Lima Campus. Project Investment: $1.3 million.

The hospital opens the $17 million Parkway Medical Plaza, a three-story medical complex dedicated to ambulatory care, which includes The Barbara Greenspun WomensCare Center of Excellence. The facility also features rehabilitation services and the Parkway Imaging Center.

1999- The Greenspun Family Foundation donates $3 million to The Barbara Greenspun WomensCare Center of Excellence. The center addresses women’s unique wellness needs from a mind/body/spirit perspective, emphasizing education and informational resources.

The hospital opens the Hartwell Medical Center at Warm Springs and Shadow Crest/Spencer. The $3.4 million center serves residents of southeast Las Vegas and Henderson with physicians’ offices.

2000- The hospital completes a $2.5 million expansion of its Rose de Lima Campus Emergency Department, increasing its size from 5,999 to more than 9,600 square feet and featuring 9 additional patient beds, increasing the current count from 14 to 23; an expanded waiting room and a larger, lighted helicopter pad.

With the opening of a second campus, the hospital system is renamed St. Rose Dominican Hospitals.

The first phase of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals - Siena Campus opens with 141 patient rooms and the Del E. Webb Medical Plaza. In November, the Joint Replacement Center is introduced at the Siena Campus.

2001- In late December 2000, the State approves St. Rose’s Open Heart program at the Siena Campus. The first open heart surgery is performed on January 2, 2001. During the spring and summer of 2001, St. Rose introduces three new units at the Siena Campus. The Chest Pain Unit monitors patients in the emergency room for up to 24 hours to determine cause of pain and an appropriate care plan. The Oncology Unit provides focused care in a separate area for oncology/cancer patients, their families and friends. The Post-Angioplasty Unit closely monitors and attends to the needs of patients who have just undergone an angioplasty in the hospital's Cardiac Catheterization Lab.

At the Rose de Lima Campus, the Transitional Care Unit is modified into an Acute Rehabilitation Unit, providing specialized care, including rehab services, to patients who have suffered a severe or extended illness or injury.

2002- The Rose de Lima Campus celebrates its 55th anniversary and is the first hospital in Nevada to introduce the PillCam camera in a capsule technology, which enables physicians to view the entire small intestine. This allows them to better detect/diagnose conditions such as Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome and celiac disease.

2003- St. Rose Dominican Hospitals - Siena Campus' fourth floor build out is completed. The expansion includes 66 private patient rooms, including a Pediatrics unit and a Pediatrics ICU unit, an additional C-section surgery suite, an expanded pharmacy and numerous facility enhancements. St. Rose also introduces a new Cath Lab at the Rose de Lima Campus, featuring the Innova 2000 with InnovaSpin technology.

2004- Ground is broken and blessed for St. Rose Dominican Hospitals' third acute-care facility, the San Martín Campus. The hospital will be located in southwest Las Vegas.

2006- St. Rose Dominican Hospitals opens its San Martín Campus in southwest Las Vegas. The first phase of the four-floor hospital opens with 111 beds, a three-story medical office building and shelled space for an additional 90 beds.

2007- St. Rose Dominican Hospitals' Rose de Lima Campus celebrates its 60th anniversary with year-long festivities including a formal rededication ceremony. Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Units open at both the Siena and San Martín Campuses; an Open Heart Surgery Center opens at the San Martín Campus; and the hospital acquires the CHW system's first da Vinci® Surgical System.

2008- The year starts off with the opening of a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Siena Campus which allows the hospital to provide the highest levels of care for the tiniest of patients. St. Rose also begins the first in-home hospice services in Henderson. The San Martín Campus' Open Heart Surgery Center adds the Volcano Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS) system. St. Rose partners with Nevada Imaging Centers with its five locations continuing to operate under the same name.

2009- The Wound Healing Center at the Rose de Lima Campus was the first in Nevada to receive UHMS (Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society) certification. A Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine Center was opened at the San Martín Campus with the only PAHI Hyperbaric Chambers in the valley. Inpatient Hospice Services began in May when St. Rose Dominican Hospitals' Hospice Services partnered with the Henderson Senior Center. All three St. Rose Dominican Hospitals campuses went entirely tobacco and smoke free (inside and out) in July. The San Martín Campus’ electrophysiology lab became the first in Nevada to offer the Allura Xper FD10/10 Cardiac Imaging X-ray System. St. Rose held its first annual Rose Regatta Dragon Boat Race and Festival to raise funds to benefit breast health services.

2010- The San Martín Campus began using the new HALO360 and HALO90 Systems to treat Barrett’s esophagus, a heartburn related problem, before it becomes esophageal cancer. St. Rose began offering WIC Program services through its Barbara Greenspun WomensCare Center in Henderson. The emergency and operating rooms at the Siena Campus were expanded to provide more efficient patient care. Physicians at the San Martín Campus begin offering minimally-invasive heart surgery (MICS CABG). The Siena Campus received certification from the Joint Commission on its Primary Stroke Center and its Joint Replacement Unit. The Rose de Lima Campus became the first hospital in the world to receive GE’s new Wide Bore 450w 1.5T MRI machine with a 70 centimeter bore. The Siena Campus acquired a new 64 slice CT scanner that provides faster and better images with less radiation exposure.

2011- Rose de Lima Campus begins using the Innova® 4100IQ system from GE Healthcare, an advanced digital X-ray imaging system. Rose de Lima Campus completes an expansion/renovation of its Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility doubling the number of beds from 14 to 28. Siena Campus receives Chest Pain Center Accreditation from the Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC). Siena Campus opens St. Rose Center for Neurosurgery in collaboration with Stanford Hospital and Clinics.

2012- Catholic Healthcare West, the fifth largest health system in the nation, announced that it changed its name to Dignity Health as part of a governance restructure that will position the organization to succeed in a changing health care environment. A new hybrid operating suite opened at the Siena Campus. One of the first in Nevada, it provides a state-of-the-art setting where a patient’s multiple health issues can be diagnosed and treated in one place and at one time. St. Rose successfully completed its first SAPIEN Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) procedures on several patients in the Hybrid OR, which allowed those patients a non-surgical option when surgery could not be performed. Construction of the five-story hospital tower and four-story parking garage began in July. The St. Rose Quality Care Network (SRQCN), a physician-driven, physician-led clinical integration program launched in October with 600 participating physicians. In November, St. Rose successfully deployed a fully-integrated electronic health record (HER) system, which allowed clinical staff to share access to patient medical records.

2013- The St. Rose|Stanford Clinics affiliation expanded to include the Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery Program. The Level III NICU expansion (increasing number of beds from 19 to 30) was completed in July. Rose de Lima Campus opened an expanded catheterization lab with the first Ocelot System in Nevada for treating PAD. Two Dignity Health Medical Group Nevada health care clinics, associated with Dignity Health – St. Rose Dominican, opened: The Dream Fund Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic in Henderson and Dignity Health Medical Group – Peccole Plaza.

2014- Ground was broken on the new Siena Campus five-story, 220,000 sq. ft. tower, which will add nearly 100 private rooms as well as expanded adult and children's emergency departments, operating suites, and expanded space in a variety of departments. The San Martín Campus becomes the first hospital in southern Nevada to earn the prestigious Baby-Friendly Hospital designation. Two additional Dignity Health Medical Group locations opened - one near the San Martín Campus and another in the Del Webb building adjacent to the Siena Campus.

2015- St. Rose Dominican partnered with Mayo Clinic on a "telestroke" program to augment the already robust certified stroke centers at all three hospitals. The Siena Campus joined San Martín as a Baby-Friendly designated hospital - the only two in southern Nevada. Siena's Dominican Tower opened in August adding nearly 100 additional patient beds,new "twice as large" adult and children's emergency rooms, six new operating suites, and more, bringing the number of patient rooms to 326.

2016- Dignity Health - St. Rose Dominican announced a joint venture partnership with Emerus to build multiple neighborhood hospitals throughout southern Nevada. Ground was also broken on a new Medical Pavilion to house a Dignity Health Medical Group Clinic, Dignity Health Urgent Care, Steinberg Diagnostics, and Quest imaging. 

2017- Select Medical and Dignity Health form a joint venture to build an acute inpatient rehabilitation hospital on the Siena Campus. Four Dignity Health - St. Rose Dominican neighborhood hospitals open in Las Vegas (the first in June and the last in December). Dignity Health - St. Rose Dominican's Rose de Lima Campus celebrates its 70th anniversary. Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) and Dignity Health signed an agreement to combine ministries and create a new nonprofit Catholic health system that would provide services across 28 states.

2018- Dignity Health Urgent Care opened at the Pavilion in Henderson. Clean, renewable energy also came to the San Martin and Siena Campuses with the installation of solar panels covering 720 and 430 parking spaces, respectively. The projects offset the environmental impact of 533,857 gallons of gasoline or nearly 1,016 cars each year.

2019 - In early 2019, the Rose de Lima Campus transition continued resulting in a scaled down hospital with a 24/7 Emergency Room and limited inpatient beds along with the relocation of 100 Dignity Health administrative professionals. The San Martin Campus completed the $2.5 million construction of two new state-of-the-art operating rooms. Three new Community Wellness Centers opened in 2019, expanding services to areas throughout Las Vegas.

2020 - In early 2020, St. Rose Dominican became the first hospitals in the state of Nevada to offer mothers the option of usinig nitrous oxide for pain relief during labor. The Siena Campus celebrated its 20 year anniversary of serving the Henderson community, and Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican was recognized as one of the top 10 best employers in Nevada, as part of Forbes annual list of "America's Best-in-State Employers" 2020.

2021 - The first-in-Nevada newly-approved shockwave procedure (intravascular lithrotripsy or IVL) treatment option for patients with severely calcified coronary artery disease was performed at the Siena Campus early in the year. The Siena Campus also achieved the first-in-Nevada Center of Excellence in Robotic Surgery accreditation by Surgical Review Corporation.