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Jim Rogers, second from left, County Commission Chairman Rory Reid, second from right, and Commissioner Steve Sisolak at Wednesday’s news conference.
Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010 | 2 a.m.
THE JIM ROGERS FILE
- • Personality: No-nonsense problem solver.
- • TV mogul: Founded Sunbelt Communications, which operates 16 television stations in five states.
- • Generous: Donated $137 million to the University of Arizona, recognized by Time magazine in 2002 as one of the nation’s top 12 philanthropists.
- • Nevermind: Promised a $25 million gift to UNLV, revoked it and then gave it back.
- • Nevermind II: In 2007 he quit his chancellor’s job, then changed his mind the next day.
- • Memos: Directed angry missives at Gov. Jim Gibbons for proposed budget cuts.
- • Leadership: Prodded UNLV into raising $500 million.
Wednesday news conference
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Sun Archives
- Rory Reid announces effort to make UMC a teaching hospital (1-13-10)
- Why troubled UMC is in County Commission chairman’s sights (1-5-10)
- Rory Reid’s county rescue plan serves to deflect political opponents’ jabs (1-5-10)
- Commission Chairman Rory Reid unveils cost-cutting plan for county (1-4-09)
- Clark County cost-cutting ideas center on salaries (12-30-09)
- Regents approve new chancellor for higher education (6-18-2009)
- Rogers calls for Ashley’s ouster (6-17-2009)
- Rogers: UNLV President Ashley should be fired (6-16-2009)
- College students band together, rally against budget cuts (1-22-2009)
- Rogers adds own incentive for president (5-6-2006)
- Rogers shares wealth of experience (5-13-2005)
- TV mogul is willing to serve as chancellor (4-20-2004)
- Praises pour forth for interim chancellor (4-6-2005)
In tapping Jim Rogers to attract a prestigious health care partner for University Medical Center, Clark County gets a messenger with big ideas, a big profile and a big personality.
Although that didn’t always work to Rogers’ advantage as the state’s chancellor of higher education, those who have worked closely with him said it might be the right combination for this job.
Thom Reilly, a former Clark County manager whom Rogers tapped as vice chancellor of the university system health sciences arm, said the task plays to his strengths. As a former chancellor, a successful businessman and a prominent philanthropist, Rogers has connections in academia and business that could be key in luring a top-tier academic medical organization to Southern Nevada.
“As a visionary, he’s a good choice,” said Reilly, now a professor at San Diego State University and a Harrah’s vice president. “He has enough contact with the major health care players out there, he’ll be able to bring in different models — teaching hospitals that work. In some respects, he’s the logical choice.”
Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid announced Wednesday that the county will seek to transform the financially troubled UMC into a “top-flight teaching hospital,” with the dual goal of improving medical care in Southern Nevada and the public hospital’s budget. To accomplish that, Rogers will study successful hospitals nationwide and draw on the expertise of the education and medical communities.
The proposal is just beginning to take shape, but it could involve UMC entering a venture with a prestigious academic medical institution such as Johns Hopkins or Cleveland Clinic.
Bringing people together “is what I’ve done for 40 years,” Rogers said after the announcement. “When I was chancellor, I had to get those eight institutions together, and we did that.”
Indeed, Dr. Maurizio Trevisan, executive vice chancellor and CEO of the Health Sciences Center for the Nevada System of Higher Education, said Rogers is an expert at surrounding himself with knowledgeable people and finding solutions.
“He doesn’t stop at obstacles thrown in his way,” Trevisan said. “He has energy and he has vision and he has passion for this thing.”
People scoffed when, several years ago, Rogers challenged UNLV to raise $500 million to improve its research and education activities. The “Invent the Future” campaign reached that goal in November.
But that’s not to say it wasn’t sometimes a bumpy ride. Rogers’ tenure as chancellor was marked by several public spats.
A type-A personality, Rogers came to figurative blows with Gov. Jim Gibbons as he defended the university system against proposed cuts of 36 percent in the run-up to the 2009 legislative session. Rogers called Gibbons, among other things, a “greedy, uninterested, unengaged human being.”
Some regents said the remarks were counterproductive. Others, however, said it was Rogers’ relentless fighting with Gibbons that led to the higher education cuts being reduced to 10 percent.
In January 2007, after two regents asked him to resign, Rogers, who volunteered his time as chancellor, sent a two-word memo: “I quit.” He returned to the job 36 hours later.
Rogers owns Sunbelt Communications, which operates 16 television affiliates in five states, including KVBC Channel 3 in Las Vegas. (In October, Sunbelt and The Greenspun Corporation, which owns the Las Vegas Sun, entered a news-sharing partnership.)
Rogers has given about $275 million of his fortune to higher education and often talks about the importance of education to the state economy and its overall well-being.
“No one in the state of Nevada has a greater passion for education than Jim Rogers,” Reid said in a statement Wednesday.
His connections in academia will be helpful, said Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who served on the university system’s Board of Regents during Rogers’ tenure as chancellor. Rogers “knows these people — he can get a hold of these people at Johns Hopkins or the Cleveland Clinic, and he can get them here.”
Rogers also “has access to an enormous donor base who are friends of his,” Sisolak said.
Donor money might be needed if the plan calls for hiring top-notch but expensive doctors, who could drive more paying customers to the hospital. That, in turn, could ease the hospital’s burden of caring for the indigent, the uninsured and the underinsured.
Rogers, who is providing his services for free, said he wants a preliminary plan for UMC in place within 90 days. He doesn’t think it is far-fetched to envision having a final plan in place by fall.
He promised to be tireless.
Right after the 10:30 a.m. news conference, Rogers said he had set up meetings with County Manager Virginia Valentine and others.
“I’m going to be all over the place, I’m not just going to have a meeting today and then go back in 10 days and go over the same things again,” he said. “We’re going to go hot after it.”
Sun reporters Marshall Allen and Emily Richmond contributed to this story.
What, no plaid shirt?
Great vision. Take the only trauma center in the region and fill it full of students where the term oops should become a felony. The article is about UMC and the picture has not one medical professional in it. They are going to save UMC without anyone on their side who has practical experience in the related fields. Quit giving illegal aliens free medical care. I recently heard that we provide about 2 million dollars worth of dialysis each week or month to illegal aliens. I wonder how many anchor babies we paid for???? UMC is for the citizens of Nevada, not for the runny nose of a citizen from another country who is residing in Las Vegas who is taking the job a citizen could have and milking our system dry.
Wow "Consultantd" I could not have said better myself. But are they (umc) now on unlv payroll and are they not still county payroll?
UMC could be a fine instituion. The problem IS the teaching component of the care provided there.It is NOT the solution. How it is cost effective to have marginal surgeons train other marginal students and residents and be cost effective escapes me. Let's see would you rather have your gall bladder removed by a resident in 2-3 hours with a high risk of complication and post operative hospitalization or have a private surgeon remove it in 30 minutes and go home that day? Now multiply those decisions by thousands and you see why this is a bad idea.
The other idea would be to bring in a third party to run it like the Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic and have the staff MD's sit around sipping coffee and not seeing medicaid and medicare patients.
Blleeeeaaahhhh!!!! Jim Rogers. Now they're going to find out how screwed up something can really become. Don't worry, he's putting Perry in charge of this project!