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Published Tuesday, March 4, 2008 | 12:35 p.m.
Updated Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008 | 2:14 p.m.
This morning Henderson city officials suspended the business license of Gastroenterology Center of Nevada at 2610 West Horizon Ridge Parkway, citing a public health emergency and failure to allow a business license officer access to the building.
It’s the third government agency to shut down a practice owned by Dr. Dipak Desai, who’s problems are mounting in the wake of a public health crisis that started at his ambulatory surgical center, Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, located at 700 Shadow Lane, Las Vegas. There, a health investigation showed nurses were using syringes more than once on single patients, which contaminated single-dose medicine vials, and then they were using the vials for more than one patient, which passed along infection. Six patients have been diagnosed with hepatitis C because of the procedures and health officials said last week that 40,000 more must be tested.
The city of Las Vegas shuttered Endoscopy Center Friday and upheld an appeal by the clinic officials Monday. Clark County officials shuttered two other related ambulatory surgical centers Monday — Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center and Spanish Hills Surgical Center, and one of the six Gastroenterology Center of Nevada locations.
In a written statement, Henderson Councilman Steven Kirk, chairman of the Southern Nevada Health District, said the closure of the Henderson office was the result of clinic officials failing work with the city to ensure safety of residents, which is “unacceptable and cannot be tolerated.”
There is currently a criminal investigation underway into the practices at Endoscopy Center, as well as probes by the Nevada State Board of Nursing and Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners.
I am a practicing gastroenterologist and what happened at this endoscopy center is absolutely criminal! The physicians and the staffs who knowingly reuse syringes and vials should be prosecuted and have their licenses permanently revoked. As a physician I am ashamed of these people (I refuse to call them "Doctors") who compromise the health of patients who put their trust in their hands.
There are still good physicians, ambulatory surgical centers and hospitals in the state of Nevada. Patients should do their due diligence. Go and check physician records at the state medical board (available online), check JACHO score of your hospital, check for up to date State license, Medicare license and AAAHC licence for any ambulatory surgical center. By doing so, you will know if your physician and facility that cares for you have lived up to the standards of State, Fed guidelines.
As for tort reform, there will always be two sides to the story. Patients deserve to be compensated for treatment and pain/suffering. No one will disagree with that. But just look at this board and the advertisements made by various law firms on a google seach should tell any intelligent person that lawsuits and ambulance chasers are major problems in this society. Perhaps if we make lawyers and people who bring about frivolous lawsuits responsible for the TOTAL COST (ie. in many counties, the lawyers and the losing clients are responsible for total cost of the lawsuit and compensate the other side) we maybe able to increase the limits of compensation. If the lawyers truly have patient's best interest in mind, they should take a reasonable flat fee instead of the 40% of the awarded sum. After all, if they feel like their clients deserves $1 million dollars for their suffering, why are they taking $400,000 of that $1 M??