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Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun
Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid speaks at a news conference detailing his cost cutting proposals for the county Monday, January 4, 2010.
Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Rory Reid news conference
Kathy Silver became CEO of University Medical Center in April 2008. Since then the public hospital has been plagued by gaffes, oversights and poor quality care, some that brought national embarrassment.
Sun Archives
- Commission Chairman Rory Reid unveils cost-cutting plan for county (1-4-09)
- Clark County cost-cutting ideas center on salaries (12-30-09)
- UMC faces criticism from within medical field (12-23-2009)
- UMC suspends 6 staff members pending investigation(12-11-2009)
- At UMC, audits show privacy lapses are not new(11-24-2009)
- FBI looking at UMC records leak(11-21-2009)
- Hospital privacy leak could harm patients(11-20-2009)
- Grant to restore cancer programs at UMC (5-28-2009)
- Fighting for its life, UMC program loses patient (4-14-2009)
- A black eye in medicine brings posturing, again (4-9-2009)
- UMC CEO: Bill to open cancer center doesn't address funding (4-8-2009)
- State measure could force closure of UMC, county says (3-31-2009)
Sun Coverage
The call for Clark County to unload University Medical Center is framed by a string of scandals and mismanagement at the public hospital.
Rory Reid, chairman of the Clark County Commission, called Monday for UMC to be turned into a nonprofit or teaching hospital or some other financially viable model, and for an examination of UMC’s quality of care.
His proposals come after a string of embarrassments at UMC dating back to January 2007, when Metro Police officers hauled out boxes of documents to investigate whether Lacy Thomas, then the hospital’s CEO, had awarded millions of dollars in no-work contracts to his cronies in Chicago.
Thomas was indicted on five counts each of theft and misconduct of a public official and is currently awaiting trial. The alleged malfeasance could have cost the county up to $10 million, prosecutors said.
Kathy Silver’s tenure as the current CEO has been loaded with gaffes, oversights and poor quality care — some that brought national embarrassment to the Las Vegas medical community.
In late 2008 UMC almost lost the Medicare funding for its kidney transplant program. The hospital’s appeals for leniency did not mention that the kidney transplant center had more than twice the expected death rate and dozens of recent failures to meet announced standards of patient care.
In one case, a hospital social worker did not meet with a patient after a May 2005 transplant, as Medicare requires, and the patient committed suicide days later.
Silver acknowledged failures in management of the program, even as she argued that it should remain open.
“I’ll be the first to admit that over the years not enough resources have been applied to this program,” Silver said at the time.
In November 2008, Silver shuttered UMC’s outpatient cancer center, throwing Las Vegas’ beleaguered health care in the national limelight with coverage on the CBS News program “60 Minutes.”
The program told of how several patients were suffering from cancer because they were uninsured and couldn’t get treatment at UMC. The hospital blamed the closure on state budget cuts.
Local oncologists say the closure occurred without consulting local physicians and UMC’s letter to patients made it sound as if uninsured patients would be welcomed by other providers.
UMC is now working to restore the cancer services.
In November, the Sun reported that private information about accident victims treated at UMC had apparently been being leaked to ambulance-chasing attorneys for months.
Sources told the Sun that someone at UMC was selling a compilation of the hospital’s daily registration forms for accident patients. The confidential information — including names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and injuries — could be used for identity theft. Releasing it is a violation of federal privacy laws.
Silver knew of rumors of the leaks since the summer, but said she doubted there was a problem until provided evidence by the Sun.
Even though the FBI quickly launched an investigation, hospital officials took almost four weeks to notify patients that their private information had been leaked.
UMC now faces a federal lawsuit for forcing a 25-year-old pregnant woman, Roshunda Abney, to wait more than five hours without treatment Nov. 30 while going through labor in its emergency room. Abney did not know she was pregnant and eventually left, stopping by Valley Hospital Medical Center before going home and delivering a premature baby who died.
An investigation by the Nevada State Health Division found that UMC failed to screen the woman in a timely manner, a violation of state laws that parallel the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, better known as EMTALA.
Abney is suing UMC and Valley in federal court. Her attorney said the hospital is not protected by any caps on damages under the federal law.
The UMC critics now include the hospital’s own doctors, two of whom told the Sun they are pulling their paying patients from the county hospital because of ongoing mismanagement. Surgeon Dr. Joseph Thornton offered records to the Sun showing his practice was bringing about $9 million in annual charges to UMC. He and his partner began diverting patients in recent months to other facilities.
The reason, Thornton said: “There’s no leadership over there. It’s gone from bad to worse.”
Correct me if I am wrong, but don't all "healthcare" providers ask us slaves to sign a release anyway up front? You know, the one with the fine print that says complications... "including death".
Silly me, reading things I sign.
The reason, Thornton said: "There's no leadership over there. It's gone from bad to worse."
He is referring to the County Commissioners???????
That what it sounds like to me.
Perfectly describes the fiscal incompetent Reid Jr and his pals.
Rory has the right idea here and the guts to do it. Make UMC a teaching hospital, which will also shore up the university system and the medical school in ways that haven't been possible before.
Rory Reid is trying to build up a positive image for his run as a future Nevada governor. I don't buy it. I wont vote for him regardless because he: 1) is the son of Harry Reid;
Sorry, you will not get my vote...I don't believe you regardless of what you say, I don't like your father and I just happen not to like you, either.
You need to get the HELL of politics and try a real job where you will really have to work for your wages.
UMC's reputation has been in the toilet for years. Many experts have recommended that the county commissioners find someone else to manage the hospital or change its status. They should have done that before they hired Lacy Thomas.
"Rory Reid, chairman of the Clark County Commission, called Monday for UMC to be turned into a nonprofit or teaching hospital"
First, it is a nonprofit....has UMC ever turned a profit?
Second, a teaching hospital is a good idea. UMC can teach other hospitals what not to do.
This man is incompetent as County Commissioner. Another Reid that needs to retire and move out of state.
THIS is what happens when you have to pay for the people who live here illegally and have no money and no health care. The American taxpayer can not continue to subsidize any and all social programs. There is a cost and we are seeing the breaking point. The government gets their money by taxes. Federal, gas, etc.... With the down turn in our economy and the taxes not being collected like they once were, where do people think this money is going to come from? (We can not keep borrowing from China) Rory Reid is so out of touch. Tax the wealthy to pay for people who will not and do not want to work. We have so many social programs designed to uninspire people it makes me sick. We should be an economy that encourages people to be RESPONSIBLE FOR THEMSELVES. It should be shouted from the White House that families need to help each other in desperate times and NOT THE FEDERAL and STATE/LOCAL governments. That would be change I could believe in!
Thank you, Marshall Allen, for your commentary presented as reporting. It is interesting that you have tarred Kathy Silver with issues in the transplant program that occurred in 2005 (when Lacy Thomas was CEO).
I am equally impressed that you have not included one single achievement of UMC during Ms. Silver's tenure as the CEO, such as:
- UMC was designated as a Certified Primary Stroke Center
- UMC is the only hospital in Nevada to earn double Gold Awards for Cardiac Care from the American Heart Association
- UMC is the only hospital in Nevada certified as a Children's Hospital by the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions
I suppose that I could go on and on with the achievements that would undercut your premise that Ms. Silver's tenure has been "loaded" with poor quality care. However, my adding balance would not come close to undoing the damage that your slanted "journalism" consistently seeks to do to the reputations of UMC and Ms. Silver.
For your next "column", you might want to just abandon all pretense of objectivity and go straight to the Op/Ed page.
Marshall are you related to the "Borden Family"? You just gave UMC and its CEO " 40whacks". You call that reporting???? What about the letter of support from from the Medical Staff that was recently published in the "Letters to the Editor" section???? (NO MENTION OF THE OVERWHELMING SUPPORT FOR KATHY SILVER) Your agenda is clear. You function as a "mouthpiece". I can only wonder whose "mouth" you are speaking for. Your agenda is not reporting news. It is an agenda of slander and destruction. There is a reason the Sun operates only by the courtesy of the courts. That reason is that you DO NOT REPORT THE NEWS! The entire "Sun" section should be labeled OP ED! You have no shame.
UMC does have its' problems, but so do other local hospitals. The difference is their problems are not splashed across the media. UMC is a teaching hospital. UMC is a level 1 trauma center, they have the only burn care unit in NV, and provide services for the indigent population. The indigent and uninsured population are growing. Try going to Sunrise with no insurance and no money. See what kind of care you receive. They will likely tell you to go to UMC. Think about that.
Commissioner Reid is thinking right. You cannot do the same thing by plugging in new administrators and doctors with different names and expect different outcomes.
And further, if UMC has the "only" of anything in Nevada, then that is much more to the point of the problem. Nevada's market needs a cost structure to support a branded hospital and clinic provider that can salary doctors to do the work of medicine in Nevada. UMC is NOT the right physical facility and NOT the right healthcare provider partner for the University of Nevada Medical School.
UMC is NOT a first choice for many of Nevada's citizens who need healthcare and are set up to go other places. Nevada needs Cleveland Clinic, or "___", to come in and become contracted with employers in Southern Nevada in such a way that gaming employees and retirees can have real access to real quality care without leaving the State, which brings big healthcare plan coverage problems to most Nevadans.
Many of Nevada's leading citizens in business have been too busy making big money with their heads down to pay attention to glaring quality of life issues festering in Nevada for several years, behind the growth curve.
Do it now, do it right, and make it on a scale where there is accessibility to the most people possible, not boutique care for the privileged elite.
8 years in the County Commission, accomplishing nothing that I can think of, and Junior suddenly has all of the answers now? And this article is slanted because of Brian Greenspun's obsession with Democrats, and the Reids in particular; in all fairness, the Review Journal is rabidly Republican. Both of these newspapers are on a par with Fox News for impartiality.