Voters to decide on kids’ hospital

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2001 | 11:07 a.m.

After a lengthy debate about whether Clark County needs an $80 million independent children's hospital -- and whether that will be the final cost -- commissioners left the project's fate with voters.

The board voted 6-0 to forward a request for an $80 million tax-neutral bond issue to the county's Debt Management Commission. The bond question will ultimately be placed on June's municipal election ballot.

Consultants with the Innova Group and Arthur Anderson, which conducted feasibility studies, tried to allay commissioners' concerns about the cost of the project, but their efforts weren't entirely successful.

Commissioner Myrna Williams abstained from the vote, saying not all of the questions regarding the hospital, staffing and type of care it will provide had been answered.

She said, for example, children's health organizations have listed mental health care and dental care as the highest priority needs for children both statewide and nationwide.

"Those are not addressed by a free-standing hospital," Williams said. "I don't feel I have answers to some very critical questions."

The majority of the board voted last spring to delay placing the bond issue on a ballot until a task force had an opportunity to study the project. The task force presented its report to the board Tuesday and recommended an independent hospital to be operated by University Medical Center.

UMC administrators assured commissioners that Clark County will be able to staff the hospital despite a national nursing shortage. They also said the county could afford the facility because children's hospitals make money.

What neither administrators nor county staff could guarantee is that the final cost of the 256,000-square-foot facility would be $80 million.

But Dr. Kenneth Misch said whether the hospital costs $80 million or $100 million, it will be worth the money.

A children's hospital will provide a special environment, it will attract specialists and it will prevent children from having to leave the state for certain treatment. A nonprofit hospital will also treat children regardless of their insurance status.

"I can assure one thing and one thing only," Misch said. "No one will ever come back and say building a children's hospital was a bad idea. People care about kids more than anything in this world."

The primary opposition to the children's hospital has been administrators at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center's Children's Hospital, a for-profit facility on Maryland Parkway.

Representatives from Sunrise, who participated in the task force, were noticeably absent from Tuesday's meeting.

Commissioner Erin Kenny, who was heavily involved in helping UMC administrators organize their campaign for a free-standing hospital, has said all along that Sunrise opposed the idea because it feared the competition.

"The only reason there is any organized opposition to a free-standing children's hospital is because it makes money," Kenny said. "It's very, very clear. The for-profit hospital in this community makes money off sick kids."

UMC officials said it will take three to four years to design and build the 152-bed hospital if the bond initiative passes. The facility will likely be built on the UMC campus on Charleston Boulevard.