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By Kyle B. Hansen (contact) 
Wednesday, March 16, 2011 | 8:30 p.m.
A nearly three-hour meeting on the future of University Medical Center came to no final conclusion Wednesday, but county commissioners said they want to proceed with building a medical school if the state’s higher education system will cooperate.
Clark County commissioners, who are also the hospital’s board of trustees, joined the hospital’s new advisory board for a special joint meeting to discuss the advisory board’s role and the future governance of the region’s only public hospital.
Much of the meeting was spent discussing the operations of the new 11-member board, with sometimes-passionate discussion from some members.
But talk from county commissioners got heated only when discussing the hospital’s relationship with the state’s medical school, part of UNR.
The hospital is already affiliated with the medical school and more than half of the school’s residents and clinical faculty are in Las Vegas, interim Dean Cheryl Hug-English said.
But commissioners said the school has not been responsive to their requests for a partnership to make the hospital a true teaching facility.
“You can call it what it is, but there’s a north-south rivalry,” said Commissioner Steve Sisolak, a former regent for the higher education system. “There is not a pride of ownership when there’s a sense that it’s UNR coming into Las Vegas, when UNR doesn’t even have a presence in Las Vegas that they don’t want to take the time to station people down here.”
Sisolak said when discussions about the hospital first began, he called UNR’s president and never got a response.
“I question the commitment of UNR to this whole process when he’s not willing to go that far,” he said. “There has to be a buy-in from the medical school. I’m not seeing it from UNR.”
Hug-English said the school is committed to Las Vegas, and making UMC a teaching hospital would be a win-win for the hospital and school.
“There is a strong commitment to having a strong presence in Las Vegas,” she said. “I do believe there is a strong commitment from the president’s level, the provost’s level, certainly the dean’s level, to this process.”
Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said the interim dean’s words weren’t enough and the new dean, who was recently selected, needs to live in Las Vegas instead of just visiting a few times a week.
“It’s time to build a facility down here, and the thing starts with the dean locating here,” she said. “This is where our residents are, this is where we want to create an academic center.”
Hug-English said the dean’s location was not important and that the new dean would decide where to live because the medical school is a statewide institution with a statewide mission.
But Giunchigliani said if UNR doesn’t want to cooperate, Las Vegas could set up its own school. “Maybe we just build our own facility down here and do our own school of med,” she said.
The commissioners also discussed a recommendation from a consultant to turn UMC over to a non-profit foundation.
But some commissioners and some of the advisory board members said they weren’t comfortable with a non-profit, which would not be subject to the same transparency and open meeting laws.
The consultant is scheduled to return to the next advisory board meeting to present more information and to help the board make a recommendation later to the commissioners.
Yeah right. UNLV can't get any funding as it is. And she thinks they will open a medical school.
Why does a teaching hospital in LAS VEGAS have to be affiliated with Reno!? Who said UNLV can't get funding. We are certainly able to get funding for basketball and the hotel school?
Why not plan and create a state-of-the-art teaching hospital and medical school for UNLV. Las Vegas is a much more attractive place to go to medical school than Reno is. If you build it, they will come.
We've built a successful law school in Vegas, we can build a successful medical school. The funds will come. Look forward... UNLV School of Medicine.
The last nursing wage survey indicated that UMC paid their nurses the lowest wage among Las Vegas hospitals. Now, because the Sun is stating the average Clark County employee is making $80,000/yr (surely, not nurses) the people of Las Vegas want the nurses to take a 2% pay cut.
Where is UMC going to get the nurses to work in this proposed facility at the wages Clark County thinks are appropriate for highly educated caregivers/lifesavers. These nurses can go to another facility & receive $5. to $10. more per hour.
Maybe the commissioners need to consider the 'little things' that make the 'big thing' possible.
As a native Nevadan, physician, and a person born in the precursor (Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital) to UMC, I encourage UMC to remain under the control of Clark County and the Clark County commissioners.
Having matriculated at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and a residency in family practice at SUNY Buffalo; with prior residency experience in surgery, urology, and pathology at Michael Reese Hospital, Chicago, Illinois, and the University of Rochester, Strong Memorial Hospital, I share anecdotal comments.
At its best UMC could only operate at the slim profit margin of the best local major supermarket chain; at its worst, a slim deficit. However UMC's value is not only in dollars and cents.
A great teaching hospital thrives on pathology and inquiring minds; and the greatest variety of pathology is usually at urban centered hospitals (that's been my experience) as opposed to suburban hospitals.
In this time of economic strain, a Las Vegas medical school is not needed; nor an on-site dean. What is needed are physicians (especially those in private practice) dedicated to supporting UMC. Too many physicians get started at UMC (using it's excellent infrastructure, ancillary services, and residency back-up), but once there practice starts to thrive, they switch their allegiance, or a majority of their work to the suburban hospitals, where accountability is at a corporate office in who knows where.
UMC is the best hospital in Clark County, for reasons previously mentioned. I would hope that the County Commissioners keep a look out for those private practice physicians dedicated to serving and supporting the University Medical Center.
Cornell M. Clark, M.D.
Physician
Agape Wellness Center
UNR should be turned into the Junior College it is and the medical school should be transfered to UNLV. Enough of supporting northern Nevada with Clark County dollars.
It might be time to start a line of communication with Touro University. We do have a local medical school you know. There is competition. Government doesn't have to just play with more government.
This state is hopeless.