Editorial: This one deserves hard look

Friday, March 24, 2000 | 10 a.m.

A consensus is growing that the Las Vegas Valley should build its first-ever children's hospital. Some physicians contend that existing pediatric wings of area hospitals don't have enough beds and treatment centers, causing children to wait hours to get treated. In even worse situations, children must travel to other states to receive care because local hospitals don't have the capability to provide the needed treatment. So on Tuesday the Clark County Commission voted unanimously to conduct a feasibility study for a 152-bed children's hospital to be run by University Medical Center, which is the county-owned hospital.

Still, several Clark County commissioners were right to question whether UMC has gotten ahead of itself by making its plans public before the feasibility study has been completed. As the Sun's Adrienne Packer reported Wednesday, Commissioners Yvonne Atkinson Gates, Bruce Woodbury and Myrna Williams all said that if the Arthur Andersen feasibility report isn't positive, they will vote to reject a new hospital. "We don't even know if this will pay for itself," Gates noted. "We don't want everybody to get excited to build a hospital we can't even pay for." Indeed. To get an idea of how far ahead the hospital staff is, not only have they already projected that a children's hospital would have six operating rooms and 152 beds, they also have prepared an artist's rendering of what the hospital would look like.

County elected officials can't gloss over the fact that if the hospital can't pay for itself, then county taxpayers would have to subsidize the facility. UMC no longer runs in the red as it once did, but officials need to ensure that they have explored all possibilities, including what the financial impact might be if the projections don't pan out. Maybe a children's hospital will be a moneymaker as its supporters assert, but the feasibility study should take a hard look at this project, ensuring that not only is there a genuine need for a new hospital, but also that this won't be a drain on the county's budget.