Editorial: Quick Care centers are invaluable

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2003 | 8:46 a.m.

If the 10 surviving Quick Care centers operated by University Medical Center can remain in business, the public will have been saved from one of the major potential consequences of the hospital's financial crisis. The centers, located in neighborhoods throughout the Las Vegas Valley, provide a convenient service for people in the event of minor household accidents and nagging conditions such as eye infections or the flu. The centers also serve the public hospital, by helping to unclog its emergency room and to bring in revenue to offset the free and low-cost care provided to indigent and uninsured patients. And they can do that without expensive marketing campaigns -- word of mouth and referrals from social-service organizations are about all that's needed.

Earlier this year Clark County, which subsidizes the hospital in the years that it loses money, took a number of cost-cutting steps in response to staggering losses. Unemployment in the wake of Sept. 11, rising amounts of employed people whose benefits do not include health coverage, increasing demand from indigent patients and the medical malpractice crisis (which forced the cancellation of many profitable surgeries) had combined to create a $38 million deficit and monthly losses in the $3 million range.

The county closed two Quick Care centers and there was talk of closing more of them. Fortunately, before it took such drastic action, the county implemented some immediate accounting reforms to stem some of the losses and then appointed a task force to make recommendations. The County Commission will discuss the recommendations next month -- among them is one to keep the Quick Cares open. We would like to see unanimous approval on that recommendation.