Wed, Mar 26, 2008 (2:08 a.m.)

It was anger that drew 200 people to a meeting Monday of the Legislative Committee on Health Care.

They were angry at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, where medical staff had administered unsafe anesthesia injections, apparently as a cost-cutting measure.

One of the faces in the crowd belonged to Reuel Williams. He was as angry as anyone who had received one of 40,000 letters sent by health officials to past Endoscopy Center patients.

The letters, sent this month, launched a statewide health care crisis. They brought notification that the past patients might have been exposed to hepatitis or HIV.

When Williams told the committee the doctors who committed the errors should be “criminally prosecuted,” the crowd broke into applause, according to the Las Vegas Sun’s Marshall Allen and David McGrath Schwartz.

The health care committee has the job of channeling this anger into long-term regulatory reform. The Endoscopy Center had not gone through a state inspection since 2001, partly because there were too few inspectors.

The Endoscopy Center fiasco could well become known as the defining moment when the standard anti-tax scream by conservative candidates began playing to less receptive ears.

Already being heard are calls to increase the power of state oversight boards, of which there are dozens. At Monday’s meeting, for example, Dr. Jim Christensen, a board member of the Southern Nevada Health District, spoke out.

As the law reads now, he said, the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners must evaluate whether the public is in “immediate danger” after an allegation is brought against a doctor. Its only disciplinary option is to suspend a doctor’s license pretty harsh if the evaluation and allegation prove unfounded.

He said the law should allow for a more immediate, nonjudgmental option a pause in the doctor’s practice while the facts are sorted out.

Monday’s hearing was just one of many public forums that will be held as the health care crisis unfolds. Many suggestions for better protecting the public will be offered. The Legislature should listen to them all and aggressively act on those that have merit.