Sunrise given green light on trauma center

Dan Kulin

Friday, July 16, 2004 | 11:03 a.m.

In a move that surprised and upset some local officials, the state has given Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center conditional approval to open a trauma center for a 12-month trial period after Jan. 1.

Stephanie Smith, a County Health Board member and North Las Vegas City Councilwoman, said Thursday she was "outraged" that the state acted on the matter before hearing recommendations from the board.

Smith said the state action "made a mockery" of the Health Board and the citizen task force that spent months reviewing the trauma care issue.

The task force recently recommended the creation of a trauma system to oversee trauma care issues, but did not say whether Sunrise's offer should be accepted or rejected as University Medical Center officials wanted.

The county Health Board is scheduled to discuss the task force's recommendations on Thursday.

Alex Haartz, administrator of the state Health Division, said his decision did not undermine the county's efforts, and he is still waiting for the county board's recommendation on the matter.

Haartz said his Wednesday letter to Sunrise officials offers them a way to open a trauma center for 12 months, but does not guarantee Sunrise will ultimately receive trauma center designation once the trial period ends.

"This allows the process to continue," Haartz said about the county review of the matter, "without causing a delay in providing additional trauma services for the residents."

Haartz also noted that the permission to temporarily open a trauma center is contingent on Sunrise's ability to bring together the necessary trauma doctors and other staff, and on the hospitals and County Health District agreeing on which trauma patients would be brought to a Sunrise trauma center.

To qualify for a full trauma center designation, Sunrise will have to show the state that it can handle trauma patients, and the American College of Surgeons will have to review and recommend Sunrise's operation.

Sunrise Chief Executive Officer Brian Robinson said he expects the hospital to be ready for trauma patients in January.

Robinson said the decision shows that state officials recognize the need for additional trauma services.

Sunrise officials have been working for more than a year for permission to operate a high-level trauma center, saying Southern Nevada's rapid growth has created the need for another trauma center, and that the center would give the area the security of having two centers in case something happened to close the first.

Now, the area's only trauma center is at UMC. Officials from the county hospital have said opening a second high-level trauma center near UMC -- Sunrise is about 3 1/2 miles away -- would drain too many patients from UMC, and possibly cost UMC more than $2 million a year.

UMC has supported an offer from St. Rose Dominican Hospitals to open a low-level trauma center at its Siena campus in Henderson.

UMC CEO Lacy Thomas said it was "unfortunate the state did not wait for the report from the Health Board."

Thomas said it was too soon to say to what extent UMC would be affected by the state's decision.

"But we do believe it will have a negative financial impact," he said.

One reason the impact is unknown, Thomas said, is because the hospitals and the Clark County Health District will have to decide which trauma patients would go to Sunrise if it begins taking trauma patients.

Sunrise has been asking to become a Level II trauma center, which hospital officials have said would increase the overall level of care at Sunrise and enable the hospital to launch more care-intensive specialty programs.

UMC operates a Level I trauma center, which is similar to a Level II except that a Level I centers also do teaching and research.

St. Rose is offering to open a Level III trauma center, and will formally apply to the state for a temporary designation soon, a St. Rose spokesman said.

At a Level III trauma center the trauma doctors are required to be on call, whereas the doctors are always in the hospital at Level I and II trauma centers.