Poll finds ill feelings on health care

Taken after the hepatitis C scare, it reveals mistrust and cynicism — and a desire for stricter regulation

Leila Navidi

A packed hearing room watches Gov. Jim Gibbons comment by video link from Carson City during a special hearing on the hepatitis C outbreak held by the Legislative Committee on Health Care on March 24 in Las Vegas.

By Marshall Allen

Tue, May 27, 2008 (2 a.m.)

A UNLV survey of public opinion about the hepatitis C crisis shows a high level of mistrust of the health care system, and a willingness to pay for better oversight.

73 percent of respondents would pay more or higher taxes for stricter regulation.

78 percent agreed or strongly agreed that the health care system puts making money above patients’ needs.

72 percent agreed or strongly agreed that the health care system covers up its mistakes.

65 percent agreed or strongly agreed that the health care system lies to make money.

67 percent of respondents said they would be less or much less likely to give blood because of the hepatitis C outbreak

57 percent said they were less or much less likely to get a colonoscopy in Las Vegas.

93 percent of respondents were aware of the hepatitis C crisis.

Hepatitis Scare

A UNLV survey — the first of its kind — of public opinion in Clark County about the hepatitis C crisis shows a widespread distrust of health providers, a demand for accountability and, perhaps most surprising, a willingness to pay higher taxes for stricter regulation.

In a state where taxes and regulation are anathema, about three of four respondents said they’d reach into their wallets if it would lead to stricter regulation of outpatient surgery centers like the one that caused the hepatitis C outbreak.

More than 80 percent of the respondents said the doctors and clinic owners responsible for the crisis should be punished.

The survey was paid for by UNLV’s School of Public Health and Cannon Survey Center, and conducted by the center.

A survey company computer-generated a list of random phone numbers — listed and unlisted, business and residential. It took about 4,800 numbers to conduct the 400 interviews. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent. Pollsters finished gathering the data May 14 and are now analyzing the results.

Interpreting the broader implications of the poll’s findings is limited because the demographics of the group surveyed do not mirror the community. For instance, 61 percent of respondents were female; the Census estimates that 49 percent of county residents are female. Additionally, about 6 in 10 respondents made at least $60,000 — 40 percent made more than $80,000 — compared with the county’s median family income of $53,536. And 42 percent of respondents had at least a four-year college degree, compared with the census estimate of 20 percent.

Common sense would say that wealthier and better-educated residents would hold opinions about the hepatitis C crisis.

Beyond their anger over the hepatitis C outbreak, the respondents showed great cynicism toward health care providers.

• About 78 percent agreed or strongly agreed that the health care system puts making money above patients’ needs. “It’s all about the cash and co-pay,” one respondent said.

• About 72 percent agreed or strongly agreed that the health care system covers up its mistakes.

• Nearly two-thirds agreed or strongly agreed that the health care system lies to make money. Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, a Reno Democrat who leads the Legislative Committee on Health Care, said she was shocked by the overwhelming sentiment that the health system is corrupt.

“What it does is shatter the myth of the doctor in the health care system being above reproach,” Leslie said. “This shows that people are extremely cynical about the for-profit health care system.”

Holly Sweetin, a registered nurse who also works as a patient advocate, disagrees that doctors, hospitals and other providers value profit above patients, and suggests the survey results reflect anger over the hepatitis C outbreak.

About 50,000 people in Southern Nevada have been advised to be tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV, the largest patient notification of its kind in U.S. history.

The warning followed the discovery that patients at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, a outpatient surgery center, were infected with hepatitis C when anesthesia was administered by staff who reused syringes and single-use medicine vials.

More than 8 of 10 survey participants blamed doctors and the clinic’s owners for the outbreak and said they should be criminally punished for it, even though certified nurse anesthetists administered the injections.

Still, the nurses didn’t get off the hook. More than two-thirds of the respondents said the nurses’ licenses should be revoked and more than half said criminal charges should be pursued against the nurses. (Five nurses voluntarily surrendered their licenses pending the outcome of the investigation.)

“The excuse that ‘I was just listening to orders’ does not fly with our respondents,” said Pamela Gallion, director of the Cannon Survey Center.

About two-thirds of respondents said they would probably not give blood because of the hepatitis C outbreak, and about 57 percent said they were not likely to get a colonoscopy in Las Vegas.

“This gave us insight into what people are thinking and how they might act in the future,” Gallion said. “It’s a scary picture” — both because of the effect on the community’s blood supply and the risk to people who aren’t checked for colon cancer.

Leslie said the sentiments expressed in the survey mirror many of the policy discussions taking place now among legislators. She said she’s surprised but pleased to see how many people are willing to pay for better regulation because it shows they understand the connection between their taxes and government regulations to protect the public.

The state needs to start by performing the inspections required of outpatient surgery centers, Leslie said. Regulators also need to be more aggressive, she said.

Sweetin said she’s not sure higher taxes would help the problem because there are already agencies that should be conducting regular inspections and enforcing regulations. Nevada needs competent people in those positions, not higher taxes, she said.

Discussion: 10 comments so far…

By localcitizen

5/27/08 at 5:59 a.m.

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Where have Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie and Holly Sweetin been living? Health care is a business, pure and simple. The doctors need to make a living just as the rest of us. This isn't the 1950s and doctors are no longer viewed as mythical creatures with God-like behavior. Despite any other motivation, they certainly want to make money, as do the rest of us. Of course we're cynical...a lot of us don't have health insurance and the insurance that we have isn't very good. I don't believe that the sentiment that health care providers value profit over patients is due to the anger over the hepatitis-C outbreak. When your doctor limits your questions to 3 per visit or has her hand on the door while you are talking, trust goes out the window and it is obvious that the dollar is more important than the patient. The health care system is sick and has been for a very long time.
By Eddie

5/27/08 at 6:46 a.m.

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The statement 'I was just listening to orders' is so disgusting to me. It shows that our world is full of to hell with everyone else. What happened to concern for our neighbors and community?
By casinokid

5/27/08 at 9:05 a.m.

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More tax money!
How will this help theirs no inspectors in the room when i get a shot so how will that help?
these tax dollars also pay the salaries of those that are supose to protect us but they dont protect us they look out for the doctors who make those decisions to reuse these items. More Taxes = rewards for those who didnt do what they were already being paid to do.
Inspectors are just that some not all but some will falsify records just so they can go home early or make it an easy day, we need more pride in our care givers to report these people even if it will cost them their jobs, The whistle blowers should have proctections under the good Samaritan Act And receive three times there pay as an incentive to come forward.
If you take away the benefits of this route of savings then other avenues will have to be explored, perhaps one that wont kill.

Casinokid
By GOD

5/27/08 at 10:17 a.m.

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First, you have doctors who only care about the almighty dollar, putting the patients at risk, or worst yet, sicker than when they came in.

Then you have county regulators that DON'T regulate and protect the public from harm. They only run for cover to protect themselves.

Lastly, you have a DA that won't come down hard on these "doctors of death" after looking at overwhelming evidence of the malpractice that took place over years.
By hecklejeckle

5/27/08 at 11:24 a.m.

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The health care in this country is a cess pool. There is no regulation to speak of. It's equivalent to those ARMs that have so many Americans financially ruined. How could national health care be any worse??? My husband has been waiting three weeks for a referral. When I finally was able to speak to someone on the phone with Sierra Health and HPN, they told me there was nothing they could do. The doctor's dictation hadn't come back from the transcription service in ... get this ... INDIA! People here are out of work, the economy's in the toilet and these "healthcare" outfits are outsourcing to India? And you wonder why you can't understand anybody you speak with on the phone??? I'm sorry, I'm not proud of my country. It has its citizens on their knees.
By Launce

5/28/08 at 5:46 a.m.

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The health care system is not "a business, pure and simple." It is literally a matter of life and death - and when it is profoundly disfunctional, as it is now, it means people are dying, and dying unnecessarily.
In the United States, we pay more for health care of lower quality than any other industrial nation.
Yes, the very rich can afford the best health care in the world. The middle class, however, are increasingly getting the dregs, and paying the price. And the poor are simply left to drift into disease and early mortality.
The answer for the "social" conservatives is to foist the costs for emergency health care for those on death's door onto the middle class while shoveling tax benefits to the gilded elite.
We can do much better.
By NVMakz

5/28/08 at 8:03 a.m.

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To take the temporary anger over the very few and smear the whole of health care is typical of the socialist Sun.

"Launce's" word about paying more for less is bunk. America's HCS IS at the top in the world. There are too many taking "health care vacations" here to deny this FACT. Universal H/C around the world says it all for itself with rationing, government-decision-making about IF YOU get what you need, shortages of almost everything and the suffering of millions under UHC who "pay but don't get"(mq).

Class warfare is the basis of UHC. UHC simply and completely is not the "American Way".

The doctors, nurses and the clinic itself should be punished through and through. To smear the BEST health care in the world based on this isolated incident is ignorant at least and destructively socialist at most.
By rightsman

5/28/08 at 9 a.m.

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It would seem that the owners of the endoscopy center probably were "just in it for the money", but what about the nurses, and others "on the ground", doing the work?
If the re-use of syringes caused the problem, the worker is culpable. The owners were too busy tying up the loose ends of their political connections to actually get their hands dirty.
As far as the attorneys advising their clients to be less than forthcoming in the investigation, that is the job of the attorney. Protect the client.
My first stop in looking for health care is to my own books, then the health food store. It's simpler, easier, and less expensive, it works and is quite educational.
By thebs

5/28/08 at 10:08 a.m.

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Well, of course NVMakz gets it all wrong.

Yes, we're at the "top of the world" in COST. When you look at the percentage of GDP spent on health care, 15.3%, we're well above what other nations pay.

And while we pay the most, the WHO ranks us #37, behind such evil socialist regimes as France, Japan and the U.K.

See, that's an actual, quantifiable fact... as opposed to your spurious (your vocab word of the day) "FACT" about health care vacations. Want to back that "FACT" up with some actual numbers?

Meanwhile, the cost is tied to the Republicans' love of the health care lobby. They ensured we can't negotiate lower drug prices and the Republican lap dogs barked with glee.

But let's get back to the central point of this article, shall we? The greed and need for profit is what drove the entire endoscopy debacle in the first place. The inefficiency inherent in the Republican system is an unnecessary corrosive tax on our society... to the tune of 1 trillion dollars a year, when compared to Japan's 8% model.

1 trillion dollars that could be used to wean us off terrorist oil... but the profiteering Republicans would never allow it.
By Beezie

5/28/08 at 12:30 p.m.

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Hmmmm...If US health care is so good then why does the US rank 2nd in infant mortality in the developed world? Just currious.