Just one medical measure will be sent to Legislature

Michelle Swafford

Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 | 10:49 a.m.

After the Legislative Committee on Health Care held its fifth and final meeting between legislative sessions Wednesday, members decided to write only one bill to send to the full Legislature despite agreement that Nevada is facing a crisis in many areas of health care.

The committee members unanimously agreed to write legislation to support continued funding for the mobile crisis team, which visits Las Vegas Valley hospital emergency rooms to evaluate mentally ill patients that are awaiting beds in mental health hospitals. The legislation would also support recruitment of additional psychiatric staff and a recommendation that psychiatric evaluations are preferred at the psychiatric hospitals when the mentally ill patients do not require medical treatment for physical ailments.

Dr. Dale Carrison, emergency department director at University Medical Center, said as of Wednesday, Las Vegas Valley hospitals have more than 70 mental health patients awaiting psychiatric evaluations in the acute care hospitals' emergency rooms, taking away beds from other patients needing medical care.

"It's past time for the legislature to step up to the plate and do something," Carrison said

Assemblyman Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City; Assemblywoman Ellen Koivisto, D-Las Vegas; Assemblywoman Kathy McClain D-Las Vegas; Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas; Sen. Bernice Matthews, D-Reno and Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, could not reach a consensus on how to solve access to affordable health insurance or the nursing and pharmacist shortages in Nevada.

"The problem with many of the issues that come before this committee is in order to solve them, it requires money," said Koivisto, the committee's chairwoman. "There's not consensus. If there's not consensus coming out of the committee we'd be going ahead with two strikes against us."

Some committee members said they would individually write legislation on various health care topics. For example, Rawson said he would create a bill to establish a statewide office within the University and Community College System of Nevada to collect and analyze health care work force data so the state better understands employment shortages and conditions. The office would be part of an advisory committee that would be made up of legislators, representatives of the state's licensing boards and representatives of the educational field.