Friday, June 21, 2002 | 11:28 a.m.
Seventeen physicians plan to resign from University Medical Center, joining the ranks of health care providers who say they are fed up with Nevada's rising medical malpractice insurance costs, a top medical official said today.
Dr. Raj Chanderraj, president of the Clark County Medical Association, said another 50 doctors have applied for a leave of absence.
"And next month will be more critical because that is when a lot of the (insurance) policies become due," Chanderraj said. The doctors are among the more than 1,400 staff physicians affiliated with the hospital.
The hospital has received sporadic but undisclosed numbers of written resignations in recent weeks in response to the insurance dilemma. Most notable are surgeons and other specialists who have either left or plan to abandon their on-call duties at the hospital's trauma center.
Dale Pugh, assistant administrator of UMC, said the county-operated hospital has enough staffing to operate all departments through the end of the month and will know within a week if the same can be said for certain about all of July.
"We have all of our call schedules complete through the end of this month and call schedules are being prepared for July," Pugh said. "We feel we will be able to staff the trauma center and other areas of the hospital through July."
UMC staff physicians, most of whom are in private practice, typically volunteer for on-call duties. But each hospital department has a chief who can mandate that physicians take calls, Pugh said.
"Our hope at the hospital is to do everything possible to keep our services up and functioning," he said.
The Clark County Commission, meeting as the UMC hospital board Tuesday, rejected requests by more than a dozen hospital physicians for leaves of absences. The doctors had made the requests as a way to duck the insurance crisis.
Gov. Kenny Guinn has formed a committee to see if a compromise can be worked out on the medical liability laws so a special legislative session might be called.
"(The committee) is talking but they are so far apart," Chanderraj said.
The committee is composed of trial lawyers, doctors and insurance representatives.
Larry Matheis, executive director of the Nevada State Medical Association, said if the physicians leave the UMC trauma center, they will lose staff privileges at the hospital.
That means they would not be able to have their private patients at UMC. But, he said, the doctors also have agreements with other hospitals in Las Vegas.
Dr. John Ellerton, chief of staff at UMC, said he did not know the exact number of doctors who have resigned from the hospital to date.
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