Marshall Allen

Story Archive

Inadequate care, unspeakable pain: Sunday, June 27, 2010; In September 2008, Tyrone Bush underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery at Desert Springs Hospital, but the wounds have not yet healed. The problem is not his chest. It’s the bedsores.
Accident took her life, his heart: Sunday, June 27, 2010; Donna Wendt died after her windpipe was torn open when a breathing tube was inserted. Now her companion of 28 years, Jack Rode, aches with loneliness and burns with anger toward the physician who allegedly inserted the tube.
Free medical care is riding on generosity of donors: Tuesday, June 8, 2010; The Great Recession presents a conundrum for the supporters of Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada. The staggering numbers of people without health insurance show there’s never been a greater need for free medical care.
Ruvo Center trial putting Parkinson’s patients on bikes: Wednesday, June 2, 2010; The latest hope for Parkinson’s patients is as simple as riding a bike. That’s why 57-year-old Dave Malcolm, wearing shorts and a sleeveless T-shirt, spends mornings pedaling steadily on an exercise bike at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.
Hospital uses armed man in unannounced drill: Test of security procedures results in frightening moments; Saturday, May 29, 2010; How’s this for an ill-conceived emergency preparedness drill? An off-duty cop pretending to be a terrorist stormed into a hospital brandishing a handgun and herded nurses down a corridor and into a room.
Delay in transferring patient to mental hospital ends in suicide: Depressed patient waits at least 10 hours before hanging himself; Thursday, May 27, 2010; A man who went to a hospital for help with his depression ended up killing himself there after a string of errors that compounded his problems, a state investigation has concluded.
Las Vegas Valley hospitals politely shamed into improving: Group of insurance providers proposes new payment system, pushes for transparency; Sunday, May 23, 2010; A coalition of 24 self-funded insurance plans is urging Las Vegas hospitals to improve their quality of care — which is ranked as some of the worst in the nation — to earn the business of its 260,000 patients.
Man's suicide raises liability concerns for MountainView Hospital: Friday, May 21, 2010; A 59-year-old Las Vegas man with psychiatric problems hung himself Thursday morning in a bathroom at MountainView Hospital even though he was in a room equipped with cameras so he would be under constant observation, according to authorities and a source at the hospital with knowledge of the incident.
Free clinic’s success leads to plan for sister site: Tuesday, May 18, 2010; Buoyed by demand for its inaugural health clinic at a county park, an organization that provides free medical care to uninsured patients is poised to open a larger clinic in downtown Las Vegas.
Hospital faulted over drug restraint: Investigation reveals pattern of violations; administrator to appeal; Saturday, May 15, 2010; Staff at the state’s Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital failed to document and disclose the use of drugs to subdue out-of-control patients in each of 10 randomly selected cases, an investigation revealed Friday.
Patient privacy scandal at UMC goes from rumor to indictment: Thursday, April 29, 2010; The patient privacy scandal at University Medical Center started with what was assumed to be just a rumor last summer.
Patient’s care at psychiatric hospital substandard, report finds: Thursday, April 29, 2010; A state investigation into a death at a Las Vegas psychiatric hospital has concluded that a patient was not properly assessed medically and that staff failed to provide her the one-to-one observation ordered by a physician in the hours before she died.
Man indicted in probe of UMC privacy leak: Wednesday, April 28, 2010; A man was indicted today by a federal grand jury in an alleged conspiracy to pay a UMC employee for private information about traffic accident victims that was used to drum up clients.
Assisted living center fined $104,000, will stay open: Monday, April 26, 2010; A Las Vegas assisted living and Alzheimer's facility whose patients had to be hospitalized because they did not receive their medication will remain open and pay a $104,000 fine under a settlement agreement announced Monday.
Recession frays a health care safety net for low-income Nevadans: Medical group, serving poor and uninsured, struggles to survive; Wednesday, April 21, 2010; The weight of the recession is pushing Nevada Health Centers, the medical safety net for tens of thousands of low-income Nevadans, to the financial breaking point, officials with the nonprofit organization say.
Probe uncovers issues with mental patient’s care: Sources say woman at psychiatric hospital died after being left untended; Tuesday, April 20, 2010; State investigators found problems with the care received by a woman who died this month at Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas, officials said Monday. A spokesman for the state said the hospital submitted a plan of correction to address the deficiencies.
State probing two deaths at psychiatric hospital: Wednesday, April 14, 2010; State health officials are investigating the deaths of two patients in two months at Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital to determine whether problems with their care at the facility may have contributed to their demise.
Psychiatrist won't be punished for offbeat videos: Friday, March 26, 2010; Officials won’t be taking action against a state psychiatrist who has posted Internet videos of himself in his underwear discussing sex and talking glibly about subjects such as suicide and wrist slashing.
Case of tuberculosis at county agency spurs testing: Wednesday, March 24, 2010; An employee at the Clark County assessor’s office with an active case of tuberculosis may have infected colleagues, who are now being tested as part of an ongoing Southern Nevada Health District investigation.
Is bad sense of humor all doctor’s guilty of?: Tuesday, March 23, 2010; A state psychiatrist who has posted 600 videos online under the persona “Doctor of Mind” — some in his underwear, others talking glibly about suicide, wrist slashing and mind-altering drugs — is having his moonlighting activities examined by the Nevada Division of Health and Developmental Services, officials said Monday.
Hospital can't account for keys to bins of patient records for shredding: Friday, March 19, 2010; After the Sun’s revelations of patient-confidentiality leaks at University Medical Center in November, hospital officials scrutinized operations and declared they had tightened patient privacy controls.
State rips UMC over break room meeting: Nurses lured from ER duties by Giunchigliani; Wednesday, March 17, 2010; State health authorities have reprimanded University Medical Center for allowing on-duty emergency room nurses to meet in a break room with Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani.
Source may hold key in solving UMC patient data leak: Monday, March 8, 2010; FBI agents investigating the patient data leak at University Medical Center should talk to Dr. Steven Holper. County and hospital officials may want to talk to him, too. Holper, a rehabilitation specialist, says he has no direct knowledge of the leak.
Another UMC breach surfaces with theft of computer hard drives: Six computer hard drives reported stolen; Friday, March 5, 2010; The theft of six computer hard drives is the latest revelation of apparent wrongdoing within University Medical Center, although hospital officials say no sensitive information was compromised.
Desai surrenders medical license to state medical board: Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010; Dr. Dipak Desai, the primary owner of the clinic that caused the nation’s largest healthcare facility-caused Hepatitis C outbreak, surrendered his medical license to the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners Wednesday.
Complaints about foreign doctor program linger with feds: Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010; State officials Wednesday praised the importance of a program that brings foreign doctors to Nevada’s medically needy communities, saying the program could be even more successful if federal agencies kept up their side of the bargain.
State bans admissions to Home Sweet Home facility for elderly: Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010; State health officials temporarily banned admissions at a Las Vegas residential home for the elderly after a survey found numerous and widespread violations with supervision, medicine management, sanitation, physical hazards and criminal background checks.
State frustrated by feds' sluggish probe into foreign-physician program: Investigation into abuse of program nears second year; frustrated state officials seek answers; Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010; Antsy state officials are growing frustrated with federal immigration authorities for their sluggish investigation into whether prominent Las Vegas physicians have abused a program that recruits foreign doctors to serve in medically needy communities.
State identifies doctors under federal investigation: Monday, Feb. 15, 2010; State officials have identified six Las Vegas doctors, including two prominent physicians, under federal investigation for alleged violations of the law that guides a program that brings foreign doctors to medically needy communities.
Federal government threatens to pull Medicare payments to UMC: Hospital working on ER issues to ensure funding; Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010; The federal government is threatening to halt Medicare payments to University Medical Center — a potentially devastating sanction — because of its failure to care for an uninsured pregnant woman in its emergency room.
Free medical clinic opens with goal of increasing access to care: Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010; For all the controversy over its proposal to provide free health care in a public park, Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada quietly opened its clinic doors last week.
UMC admits to prolonged patient privacy leak: Patient data were compromised for three months, hospital says; Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010; University Medical Center officials said Monday that personal information of traffic accident victims was likely leaked from its trauma center for more than three months, and stopped only after the Las Vegas Sun told the hospital about the breach.
UMC: Patient info leaks likely date back to July: Monday, Jan. 25, 2010; For more than three months someone at University Medical Center illegally leaked the personal information of traffic accident victims — a breach of social security numbers, birth dates and more that only stopped when the Las Vegas Sun contacted the hospital about it.
Attending to UMC's woes: Reid, Rogers talk about why public hospital’s business model is failing, and why now is the right time to fix it; Friday, Jan. 22, 2010; Rory Reid and Jim Rogers are hoping the state’s struggling medical school can help transform Clark County’s failing public hospital into a world-class teaching hospital akin to what can be found at Johns Hopkins University. The hospital has been in the red for years and lost $71 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30.
Collaboration could increase training of doctors in Nevada: Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010; Nevada Cancer Institute and the Nevada System of Higher Education announced a formal agreement this week that will allow collaboration on things like faculty appointments and creating specialty training programs.
Nurses union wins election at MountainView Hospital: Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010; Nurses at MountainView Hospital are selecting leaders and assembling a bargaining committee after a decisive victory to be represented by the California Nurses Association.
Teaching hospital is slightly different from one that teaches medical students, residents: Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010; People may be puzzled by the plan announced Wednesday to transform University Medical Center into a teaching hospital.
UMC lacks way to log patients’ records: Health Division probe follows reported leaks of private data; Friday, Jan. 8, 2010; University Medical Center has no system to track patient records, leading to numerous instances in which hospital paperwork containing Social Security numbers, birth dates and other private data goes missing, a state investigation found.
State records suggest UMC had pattern of refusing care: Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010; The case of a pregnant woman who was refused treatment at the University Medical Center emergency room is the latest in a handful of cases in which the public hospital has refused to treat patients, according to records obtained by the Sun. UMC has at least twice since 2005 violated federal law that requires it to provide at least minimal emergency care, according to the state health division.
Physician linked to patient deaths files defamation suit: Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2010; A doctor whose prescriptions have been linked by officials to the deaths of at least eight people is suing the attorney representing the families of some of his deceased patients, claiming she defamed his name in stories published in the Sun.
Why troubled UMC is in County Commission chairman's sights: Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2010; The call for Clark County to unload University Medical Center is framed by a string of scandals and mismanagement at the public hospital.
Inquiry backs horror story of pregnant woman neglected in UMC’s ER: Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2010; State health inspectors have verified that University Medical Center emergency room employees neglected to provide care to a pregnant woman who was in labor, which may have contributed to the death of her premature baby.
Thoroughness, not haste, key in probe of clinic's insurance billing practices: Fraud investigation in hepatitis outbreak nearly 2 years old; Saturday, Jan. 2, 2010; For all the health concerns triggered by the hepatitis C outbreak nearly two years ago, another matter related to the medical scandal has yet to be resolved: an investigation into possible insurance fraud.
Woman sues University Medical Center over baby's death: Lawyer says hospital violated federal law; Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009; An uninsured pregnant woman who went more than five hours without treatment while in labor in University Medical Center’s emergency room, and then lost her baby, filed a lawsuit against the hospital in federal court today.
UMC faces criticism from within medical field: Two surgeons blame CEO for their redirecting patients; Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009; The ranks of public critics of University Medical Center now include two surgeons who teach at the University of Nevada School of Medicine and are steering patients — and millions of dollars in revenue — away from the public hospital.
Report shows how Dipak Desai put profits ahead of safe practices: Health report details equipment reuse, allegations of billing fraud; Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009; The Southern Nevada Health District’s final report on the colonoscopy clinic at the center of the country’s largest hepatitis C outbreak details ways in which the greed of its owner, Dr. Dipak Desai, got in the way of sound and ethical medical practice.
Report on Las Vegas Hepatitis C outbreak released: Report details inner workings of colonoskopy center where syringes were reused; Monday, Dec. 21, 2009; Health officials released today a long-awaited report that details the cause of a Las Vegas colonoscopy center that caused the largest health-care facility related Hepatitis C outbreak in the history of the United States.
Improvised H1N1 shots raise officials’ eyebrows: Children’s clinic gives half of an adult’s dose; problem is corrected; Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009; A low-income clinic in Las Vegas improperly administered the H1N1 vaccine to 21 children, but state health officials said they corrected the problem so no harm was done. At the height of the H1N1 panic in late October, the vaccine was in short supply and was not being delivered in dosages for children under the age of 4 at the Martin Luther King Family Center.
Drug mix marketed to men prompts investigations: Pharmacist has said he broke no laws with his pill; Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009; The federal Drug Enforcement Administration is one of three agencies investigating the manufacture and distribution of Vegas Mixx — a crudely marketed combination of Valium and Viagra that promised to heal sexual dysfunction and was targeted for the local nightclub scene — sources tell the Sun.
New era: Health authorities open brothels to male prostitutes: Friday, Dec. 11, 2009; Men may now join the ranks of Nevada’s brothel prostitutes, after a unanimous decision today that added language to health codes so male sex workers could be tested for infectious diseases.