UMC trauma center to lose 31 surgeons in insurance crisis

Thursday, June 6, 2002 | 9:56 a.m.

The toll of the medical malpractice insurance crisis on the Las Vegas Valley continues to climb -- University Medical Center's trauma center officials say they are losing five trauma surgeons and 26 specialty surgeons as a result.

The trauma center is the state's only federally designated Level I facility, which means it stays open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The resignations and requests for leaves of absence by the 31 surgeons will not force the center to close, but will mean fewer specialists on call, said Dr. John Ellerton, UMC's chief of staff.

The most seriously injured victims of car wrecks and other accidents are brought to UMC from Nevada, as well parts of the surrounding states. Surgeons and specialists, sign up for shifts at the trauma center assisting the hospital staff.

Some of the surgeons plan to leave at the end of the month while others have given July 31 as their departure dates, Ellerton said.

"We're certainly going to do the best we can to keep the trauma center open," Ellerton said this morning. "We hope the doctors will stick with us during this difficult time, and we'll be working to look for any solutions to the short-term, and of course the long-term, problems."

Doctors in high-risk specialties such as trauma and obstetrics have been hit the hardest by the skyrocketing costs of malpractice insurance. When Minnesota-based St. Paul Cos. pulled out of the business of medical malpractice insurance, about 40 percent of Nevada's doctors were left scrambling for coverage. The Minnesota-based company said for every dollar received in premiums they were paying out $1.88 to settle claims and jury awards against Nevada doctors.

Other insurers have either refused to cover the doctors or demanded premiums as much as 500 percent higher, according to members of the medical community. Nevada, unlike neighboring California and many other states, has no cap on jury awards for damages in medical malpractice cases. Doctors say the lack of the cap encourages frivolous lawsuits. Trial attorneys have countered that there is no proof that caps reduce insurance premiums or health care costs.