Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun
Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak talks to reporters after testifying before the Assembly Government Affairs Committee on the third day of the 2011 legislative session Wednesday, February 9, 2011 in Carson City.
Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011 | 11:21 a.m.
Sun Archives
- Report: Without major changes, UMC could be forced to close (2-2-2011)
- 11 appointed to UMC Hospital Advisory Board (11-22-2010)
- Commissioners OK contract to study UMC transition (8-18-2010)
- Call for help overseeing UMC fails to drum up many volunteers (7-8-2010)
- Lawsuit filed over UMC patient records leak (7-3-2010)
- Man indicted in probe of UMC privacy leak (4-28-2010)
- Source may hold key in solving UMC patient data leak (3-8-2010)
- Another UMC breach surfaces with theft of computer hard drives (3-5-2010)
- UMC’s financial condition spurs talk of sale (8-12-2010)
CARSON CITY – There is a “real possibility” that University Medical Center could close due to financial problems, Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak said today.
The hospital is losing money and the county can’t afford to raise its subsidy, he told the Assembly Government Affairs Committee today. Sisolak said he doesn't want to see the hospital shut down, but he outlined its problems to the committee and later to reporters.
He said UMC is a "safety net," adding that paying patients and those with insurance are going to other hospitals. Another problem is collecting payments from insurance companies, which Sisolak said he has talked with the district attorney’s office about.
“UMC will never be a profit center but it can only lose so much money,” he said. Residents in Clark County fund the hospital and pick up the shortfall.
The hospital takes up 5.7 percent of the county’s $1.2 billion 2011 budget. Sisolak said an effort is being made to get private financing in place.
“This can’t continue to function the way it has been,” he said.
Asked why other hospitals are profiting, Sisolak said their labor is cheaper and there is no collective bargaining. But he added that employees helped last year in working to solve financial problems.
Sisolak and Clark County Manager Don Burnette briefed the committee on the functions of the county and its financial condition.
Burnette said the proposal by Gov. Brian Sandoval to shift more duties to the county would cost another $75 million. He said he was “very concerned” and added, "we don’t have the ability to absorb those expenses."
The shift in revenue hits at the county's health and human services, he said. The county reduced its general fund spending by $122.4 million from fiscal 2010 to 2011.
“We’re getting close to breaking,” Burnette said.
Comment removed by moderator. Comment was in all caps.
I feel safer already.
So....the only reason that the hospital is losing money is due to the unions? Very shortsighted. His agenda is clear.....
This would be a huge loss to the Valley. UMC maintains the only level 1 trauma center in Southern Nevada. Patients requiring level 1 trauma care would have to be helicoptered to California or receive inadequate care. Not a pleasant thought.
Sisolak,
Maybe some of that $25 million that you sued Clark County taxpayers for could become "private" funding for UMC.
Get this; the hospital isn't going under because of the workers there like Sisolak would have us believe, it is failing because it treats people who don't pay for services received. In other words, it has little to no income.
Boy, if only this country had a viable health insurance system that would allow everyone access to healthcare and not turn them into debtors when they get sick.
But noooo, that'd be socialism and that is just evil.
It is not ALWAYS the fault of Unions! Find something else to blame.
There is so much waste and fraud. Running tests that are not needed. People not taking responsibilty for their own life and relying on the rest of us to pay out the nose.
What is UMC's policy? No hospital is obligated to treat anyone unless it is an emergency. The problem is, there are a lot of people w/o insurance who have emergencies but make too much to be covered by Medicaid. My insurance will not pay for me to go to ER unless I am at risk of losing my life or may suffer great bodily harm.
Maybe we should let the county turn part of it into a casino-hotel with a medical theme.
If there is one thing that is anathema to a Republican like Sisolak, it's a union employee with a living wage and decent benefits. The union employees have NOTHING with to do with the financial failure of UMC. The real problem is years of mismanagement by the Clark County Board of Commissioners combined with overall exploding medical costs. UMC is not a bad institution (as Las Vegas hospitals go), and it's employees are not demons, Repugnican Sisolak's comments not withstanding. And as pointed out by another reader, it is the only Level 1 Trauma Center in this region, and we lose it our extreme peril. Sisolak is just a mini-me Sandoval: cut, slash, burn, and destroy as much public service as possible, all the while bad mouthing unions and public employees who earn a decent living with benefits. This is always done in the name of the 'balanced budget'. What cut-off-your-nose to spite your face shortsightedness!
Well it "would" be refreshing to see the Unions joining with Sisolak and explaining what the real issues are. Their silence is deafening.
Send the illegals back to their country of origin for any necessary medical treatment. They come here and wave their flags and try to turn the U.S. into little mexico as if it's so great, but when they need anything who do they turn to? Our system. Fly the red, white, and blue and go legit or go home.
Also, my understanding is that UMC is the only level 1 trauma center in the entire state, not just southern nevada.
Close it and we can cement our place as #51 in health care.
#Desert_Vu
Steve Sisolak is a Democrat.
A thankless task being sent to Carson City to explain the mess that is UMC. If only it were as simple as some union contracts. You get the sense the commission is in way over its head with this one. The County has to get out of this business or at least its commission does.
UMC's Level 1 Trauma Center and Pediatric Trauma Center is an absolute necessity. It is the ONLY ONE in this ten thousand square mile area. I can't imagine anything more important that this. Yes, it has the burden of caring for the poor, the uninsurable and the uninsured. But woe be to you who are hoping that this hospital closes, if one of your sons suffers a brain or spinal injury on the football field, or one of your daughters is T-boned by a drunk driver or any one of hundreds of other life threatening situations befalls you or one of your family members.
There is a Golden Hour for intervention during a catastrophic medical event. To waste that hour in an air ambulance to Los Angeles is a moral obscenity.
I would like to suggest that everyone in the valley get on board to find a way to save UMC. Your very life may very well depend on it.
stephenrblv:
Unions are responsible for negotiating pay and benefits for their employees with the employer. The union isn't responsible for managing the business. The business managers need to explain what the problem is, not force the workers to explain the failure of a business.
I always learned that a leader was responsible for both the successes and failures of the organization they lead. It is a terrible example of leadership to blame one's underlings for an organization's failures.
Here's a clue about why UMC is going under (and it isn't the workers):
It spends more money than it takes in. As a non-profit county run organization, it carries a different mandate than the for profit hospitals against which it competes in that UMC cannot turn away the poor and uninsured as easily as for profit institutions.
A single payer medicare for everyone system would eliminate this problem, but "conservatives" would rather hospitals close and people die. It is nice to know our priorities are straight in this country.
Just one Mell of a Hess. Who is in charge here? Is there anyone in charge of UMC? or is this just one big free-for-all with doctors, nurses and insurance claims adjusters wandering the halls in search of the next emergency?
Gad Zooks.
"It spends more money than it takes in"...on what pray tell? To say Unions have no say in business ignores the fact they spent a huge chunk of their members money on Politics. We know who signed off on these salaries. Salaries I suspect recommended by other Union people inside the County Government. What do they care if the numbers don't work, bill the Taxpayer! Well those days are over.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/mar...
If the Unions do not step it up there won't be any Union jobs to worry about. Btw AB382 passed, and along with provisions in the Obama HC Bill, UMC is in the ICU. Guess who benefits from all this?
The illeagals have bled our system dry! That includes all forms of aid in any form!
Close the hospital, sell it or lease it out. Open a quick care type of operation for the level 1 trauna unit to work out of. Any patients that need to be admited get farmed out to other hospitals on a rotating schedule so the losses are shared. Indigent care as well as care for other country nationals is somthing that must be done within this new PC America so not treating them is not an option. The threat to close UMC is actualy a cry for help (money) because as someone stated, this level 1 trauma unit is the only one for thousands of square miles and one would think that the feds would eventually step in some contorted way. Empathy is learned young and is one of the building blocks to becoming a loving, caring, empathetic adult but sometimes (probably to often) children grow into adulthood minus this trait.
He should have answered honestly - the other hospitals might be self-sustaining because the people they admit have insurance and/or they pay their bills.... OTOH UMC takes care of all the illegals who are bleeding this system dry....
This place should be phased out and closed over the next few months. Ten years ago or even five years ago, closing UMC, would have been unthinkable, but, the surrounding hospitals have expanded to a degree that they can absorb all the services provided by UMC, without any perceivable deficit or damage. UMC, is acting as a sponge for the For-Profit hospitals, in absorbing, the uninsured and the indignant.Collectively, they have a stake (and an indirect hand) in this facility being kept open. UMC, should be converted to a mental facility. Mental health services are clealy lacking and direly needed in Southern Nevada. County, cannot afford to throw good money over bad money-Period.