Legislative briefs for April 5, 2005

Tuesday, April 5, 2005 | 11:04 a.m.

Panel passes bill on hospital waits

A bill aimed at alleviating the problem of the long wait endured by some patients delivered to the emergency rooms at some hospitals in Clark County, won approval Monday from the Senate Human Resources and EducationCommittee.

The bill establishes a standard of 30 minutes from the time the patient arrives in an ambulance to the time he or she is accepted by the hospital for emergency care. There have been complaints that patients sometimes must wait several hours before being admitted to the hospital and ambulance attendants cannot leave to return to the street to handle more patients.

There is no penalty for the hospitals that fail to meet the 30-minute standard, but a study will be conducted by Clark County to determine how many patients must wait long periods and what can be done to correct the situation.

Senate Bill 458 originally called for the state Health Division to do the study, but the agency said it would cost more than $700,000 during the next two years. .

The bill is a compromise between hospitals and emergency technicians. The 30 minutes is a national standard.

Sen. Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said, "We don't need another study," and Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, said a one-hour waiting time was more realistic rather than the 30 minutes.

SB458 goes to the floor of the Senate for a vote.

Assembly approves notary public bill

The Assembly unanimously passed a bill Monday that would require notary publics to advertise their positions in English, instead of the Spanish translation of notario or notario publico.

Assemblyman Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, said notario publico means a specialized attorney to some people from Latin America.

Some immigrants have gone to notary publics thinking they could get legal help on immigration paperwork, he said.

"People are getting deported because they're not filling it out correctly," Denis said.

Several states are cracking down on the notary publics, Denis said. By outlawing the notary publics from falsely advertising themselves, the secretary of state can more easily crack down on the scams, he said.

Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, also spoke in support of Assembly Bill 227.

Some notaries have told immigrants they could legalize their immigration status for $2,000 or $3,000, Buckley said.

"It's really a shame to see this victimization of people," she said.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

Daylight-saving ban proposed

Assemblyman Bob McCleary, D-North Las Vegas, pushed a bill Monday that would stop Nevada from using daylight-saving time.

McCleary noted that similar bills have died five times before in the Legislature, but he argued that Nevadans would save money on energy costs without daylight-saving time.

By extending daylight another hour, people have to crank their air conditioning more when they return home from work than they would if it were dark an hour earlier, he argues.

It also takes people at least two weeks to adjust to the change, he said.

The Assembly Government Affairs Committee did not act on Assembly Bill 18 but is expected to take up the bill again at a future meeting.

The Assembly unanimously passed a bill

Monday that would create the official portrait of Gov. Kenny Guinn. The Legislature is set to allot $20,000 for Guinn's portrait, which will hang with other gubernatorial portraits in the Capitol. Assembly Bill 97 will now go to the Senate.