Task force takes pass on trauma call

Dan Kulin

Wednesday, June 23, 2004 | 10:50 a.m.

To the chagrin of some Clark County Health Board members, a task force on Tuesday decided not to make a recommendation on whether two area hospitals should be allowed to open trauma centers.

Health Board Chairman Gary Reese, a Las Vegas city councilman, and board member Steven Kirk, a Henderson city councilman, said they were disappointed the task force did not weigh-in on whether Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center or St. Rose Dominican Hospital should open trauma centers.

Kirk said the board was looking to the task force for advice on whether they should recommend the state approve or deny the requests from the hospitals. However, following six months of meetings, a majority of task force members on Tuesday agreed they do not have enough expertise or information to say whether Sunrise and St. Rose should open trauma centers.

"This group of community experts doesn't think they have the expertise, and now we're going to rely on the expertise of the politicians," Kirk said.

The nine-member task force includes many who have been active in health care issues or worked in the medical field, whereas 10 of the 13 Health Board members are local elected leaders.

The state has the final say in what hospitals are trauma centers, but Kirk said he thinks the state will go along with the recommendation from the county Health Board.

Sunrise is asking to become a Level II trauma center, but that request has been opposed by county officials and representatives from University Medical Center, the county hospital that now has Southern Nevada's only trauma center. Officials have said a Sunrise trauma center would take enough patients to financially hurt UMC and leave the county hospital without enough patients to stay busy.

UMC officials have supported St. Rose's offer to open a Level III trauma center at its Siena campus in Henderson. A Level III trauma center has trauma staff on call, while Level II and Level I trauma centers have trauma doctors at the hospital around the clock. A Level II trauma center would also send its worst-injured patients to a higher-level trauma center after stabilizing them. UMC has a Level I trauma center.

Although it didn't make a recommendation to the Health Board, the Trauma System Assessment Citizen's Task Force on Tuesday approved several recommendations that if adopted would essentially reinforce or support the group's earlier recommendation that the Health Board ask the state for an agreement to transfer power over trauma care matters to the county. The task force also called for the creation of a local trauma system to oversee and evaluate trauma care.

On Tuesday, the task force members voted to recommend the county ask the state for the power to: say what hospitals can become trauma centers, and what areas they can draw patients from; find money to fund a trauma system; ensure any new trauma centers come with a long-term commitment to stay open; and eliminate state laws on trauma centers to give the county more freedom in dealing with trauma care issues.

Task force member Danny Thompson, executive secretary-treasurer of the Nevada AFL-CIO and a former state assemblyman, suggested the task force endorse a consultant's report that recommended against opening a trauma center at Sunrise and supported starting a low-level trauma center at St. Rose's Siena campus.

But task force co-chair Rose McKinney-James said she didn't think the group had enough information or was qualified to say who should have a trauma center.

McKinney-James said that while she originally thought the task force would make a recommendation on the hospitals' requests, by the end of the task force's final meeting Tuesday she wasn't comfortable making such a decision.

Fellow co-chair Robert Forbuss, a business and political consultant who once owned Mercy Ambulance Co., agreed and said the task force took some big steps in recommending development of a trauma system, and moving the power over trauma care issues from the state to the county.

The Health Board is scheduled to discuss the task force's work on Thursday, at which time the board could also decide whether to ask the state for an agreement to give the power over trauma center issues to the county.

Kirk said he expects the Health Board will discuss, and possibly decide, whether to endorse one or both of Sunrise's and St. Rose's offers during its July 22 meeting.