Plans for medical center advance

Dan Kulin

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 | 11:10 a.m.

Plans for a downtown Las Vegas academic medical center took a significant step forward Monday when representatives from the city, state medical school and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center agreed to submit a proposal for their potential partnership to their respective governing bodies.

Leaders from the three organizations, including Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, City Manager Doug Selby, and Dr. John McDonald, dean of the University of Nevada School of Medicine, agreed to push for a partnership that will closely resemble the proposal put forth by the Pittsburgh center on April 11.

That plan called for the Pittsburgh group to essentially own and oversee a proposed medical center that would offer a variety of health care programs including organ transplants and cutting-edge research into stem cells and organ rejection.

The Pittsburgh center would be responsible for paying for the day-to-day operations of the Las Vegas center, which Selby and McDonald estimated would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

But officials still don't have a plan to pay for the construction of the $250 million center, which Goodman has described as a teaching hospital.

"This gives us the framework to proceed," McDonald said. "It's one step in a series of steps, but it's a step forward not a step sideways."

McDonald said the funding question is one of the "big hurdles" to overcome.

The Las Vegas medical center, which would be anchored by an Alzheimer's research center, is expected to be a key component of development on the city-owned 61 acres on the west side of downtown. A performing arts center, and possibly a new City Hall and baseball stadium, are also being planned for the land.

The Related Cos. and city officials are currently negotiating a development agreement for the 61 acres. The development plans are expected to be submitted in June to the City Council, which must OK any development deals for the land.

At their Monday meeting in Las Vegas, the Pittsburgh officials offered to prepare a memorandum of understanding that would lay the framework for the creation of a center. The memorandum of understanding would then go to the university regents and City Council for approval. Selby said the document is expected to be on the council's May 18 meeting agenda.

Selby said the significance of moving ahead with a memorandum of understanding is that it will bring all the parties together with a formal agreement stating how they will work together.

"It's very noteworthy, but there are still a lot of challenges ahead including the financing," Selby said.

The mayor said he is "very optimistic" about the project and the latest developments.

Pittsburgh officials who attended the meeting were unavailable for comment Monday afternoon. In the past, Pittsburgh medical center representatives have declined to talk about the ongoing negotiations.

Two weeks ago, Goodman and others said the final agreement with the Pittsburgh center would probably be very different than what the April 11 proposal called for, and tempered their optimism for the potential partnership.

On Monday, both Goodman and McDonald said one of the positive aspects of the proposed partnership is that the new center would be an "open" hospital, meaning use of the hospital would be open to local doctors.

By contrast, a previously discussed plan to have the Cleveland Clinic open a facility on the 61 acres would have brought a "closed" hospital to the 61 acres, where only Cleveland Clinic staff would have been allowed to see patients, McDonald said.

"This will be good for the public because it embraces local physicians and will give local patients access to a state-of-the-art hospital," McDonald said.