Editorial: Unthinkable cuts at UMC

Tuesday, May 8, 2007 | 7:40 a.m.

The recently expanded and upgraded Lions Burn Care Center keeps coming up as a possible facility to eliminate as county officials discuss possible cuts to University Medical Center to overcome its budget deficit.

Although it is common for public officials to suggest deep cuts or even elimination of essential or popular programs to provoke the public into accepting higher costs and the higher taxes that pay for them, administrators at UMC say they are not playing that game.

With that denial, it can then be assumed that discussions between the public hospital's administrators and county commissioners are serious. If that is indeed the case, the talks are seriously off base.

The Lions Burn Care Center was established in 1968. Just this year it was relocated to a brand-new hospital tower, where its space was more than doubled and its technology was modernized. It is the only burn center in Nevada and it serves a regional role, accepting patients from neighbor states.

Hospital officials and county commissioners are also discussing the elimination of the neonatal intensive care unit, various clinics and some of UMC's 11 Quick Care centers in the Las Vegas Valley.

The Clark County Commission, which oversees UMC, was not paying attention over the past couple of years as the hospital's administration acted too independently. We hope the necessary shake-up at the hospital earlier this year, resulting in the firing of the administrator and the resignation of other top officials, has taught the commissioners to keep better tabs on UMC's finances.

But that unfortunate period should not result in gutting the hospital's services, which are indispensable. Given our growing population, there is a need for expanding UMC's services, not reducing them.

In our view, the county should place UMC at or near the top on its priority list and pay off the current deficit, drawing from other, less essential accounts if it must.

The County Commission should then begin budgeting for the true cost of UMC, which includes in its mission the responsibility for providing most of the valley's indigent care. That in itself would eliminate a lot of the so-called deficit.