Editorial: County owes explanation

Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007 | 7:10 a.m.

Despite having been approved twice now by the Clark County Commission, a new cardiology contract for University Medical Center continues to raise questions.

Chief among them is: Why, precisely, was a new contract being sought? What's known, so far, is that officials and employees at the public hospital overseen by the County Commission expressed displeasure with the service provided by Nevada Heart Center under the old contract.

But that is about all that is known. The new acting administrator of the hospital would not provide details, even under questioning from a commissioner, before the new contract with Nevada Heart and Vascular Center was approved for a second time on Tuesday.

The new contract was first approved Dec. 20. Last month, however, Las Vegas Sun reporters Tony Cook and Marshall Allen disclosed that one of the commissioners who voted yes on the contract, Yvonne Atkinson Gates, had a conflict of interest that she did not disclose. A new vote was taken Tuesday and she abstained.

Before this vote was taken, newly elected Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani sought to learn what had gone wrong with the contract with Nevada Heart Center. The question was relevant because the hospital's administrator since 2003, Lacy Thomas, was fired by County Manager Virginia Valentine last month, and is now being investigated by Metro Police for the way in which he negotiated hospital contracts.

This question was also important: Had patient care at the hospital been affected?

After acting hospital administrator Kathy Silver declined to speak publicly about the issues surrounding the old contract, Dr. Dale Carrison gave a general explanation.

Carrison, chairman of UMC's Emergency Medicine Department, said there were many occasions when Nevada Heart Center cardiologists did not respond when needed. He said he had experience with this lack of responsiveness in his own department.

We agree with Giunchigliani, who said the public is entitled to know precisely what went wrong.

Was there a problem with the way the contract was written? Is there documentation proving what Carrison said about Nevada Heart Center? Were patients affected? How long did the alleged problems persist? Why wasn't the County Commission informed, in public meetings, about the problems, if any, under the contract?

The county should prepare a report to the public that would answer these questions.