Lesson from UMC fiasco

Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008 | 2:09 a.m.

Last week’s indictment of Lacy Thomas, 13 months after he was fired from his job as chief executive of Clark County’s public hospital, has provided insight into one reason why the hospital was experiencing inordinate losses.

University Medical Center, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006, lost $34.3 million when the county had anticipated in its budget a loss of only $12 million.

In late 2005 and extending through 2006, Thomas stopped providing the Clark County Commission with written financial statements, opting instead to deliver oral reports that UMC was doing OK financially.

He was fired in January 2007 by County Manager Virginia Valentine when major irregularities at the hospital including the lack of documented financial statements could no longer be tolerated.

Thomas, who was hired by Clark County in October 2003 from his job as director of Chicago’s Cook County Hospital, approved several high-priced, no-bid and no-work contracts while at UMC, according to a 10-count indictment handed down Feb. 20.

Thomas must be presumed innocent unless proven guilty, but evidence gathered by Metro Police and the Clark County district attorney’s office over the past 15 months is well-documented and bolstered by testimony from UMC employees.

Deputy District Attorney Scott Mitchell told Las Vegas Sun reporter Marshall Allen that he estimates UMC lost $10 million because of alleged malfeasance by Thomas.

One contract alleged by investigators to have been approved by Thomas went to a consulting company run out of a garage in Chicago. Police established personal ties between Thomas and the company’s owner. Although work assigned to the company has been dismissed as next to worthless by UMC employees, the company received at least $673,288 through August 2005.

The indictment details other similarly suspicious contracts.

We hope the long-term lesson for the County Commission and the county manager is that University Medical Center is not a fiefdom. Its top officers no matter how impressive their backgrounds cannot be granted almost total trust and authority, as was the case with Thomas.