Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

11 appointed to UMC Hospital Advisory Board

UMC

LAS VEGAS SUN FILE

UMC, owned by Clark County, is the region’s only public hospital.

Lawrence Weekly

Lawrence Weekly

Chris Giunchigliani

Chris Giunchigliani

Clark County commissioners on Wednesday appointed 11 members to serve on the new University Medical Center Hospital Advisory Board.

The commissioners, serving as the UMC Board of Trustees, adopted a resolution in June establishing the advisory board, which will make recommendations to the commissioners on routine matters such as contracts.

The commissioners stressed Wednesday that the new board will have some oversight, but the board of trustees will be the final authority.

“This board [of trustees] isn’t relinquishing 100 percent oversight over UMC,” said Commissioner Lawrence Weekly. “We’re just seeking assistance.”

“The buck still stops with us,” added Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, who helped organize the application process.

According to the June resolution, the board shall consist of nine to 11 members representing seven constituents: Health purchasers, the SEIU, civic leaders, community physicians, health professionals, legal counselors and the business community. The UMC Board of Trustees received 123 applications to serve on the advisory board.

“We had a broad breadth of people who applied, which speaks to an interest in UMC and the belief in public hospitals,” Giunchigliani said.

The appointed board members are:

• Bobbette Bond, executive director of the Nevada Healthcare Policy Group.

• Elizabeth Vasquez Gallagher, vice president chairwoman of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

• Harry Hagerty, president and treasurer of the UMC Foundation.

• Amber Lopez Lasater, chief of staff to SEIU President Mary Kay Henry.

• Anthony Marlon, former owner and board chairman of Sierra Health Services Inc.

• Robert McBeath, UMC urologist and assistant professor of surgery at the University of Nevada School of Medicine

• Ashok Mirchandani, real estate business owner and founder of the United Citizens of Southern Nevada.

• Dwayne Murray, UNLV master’s of public health graduate and owner of a group home in Las Vegas.

• Barbara Robinson, former assistant dean at the Boston University School of Law and a former board of trustees member at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, affiliated with Harvard University.

• John Ruckdeschel, director and CEO of the Nevada Cancer Institute and a professor of medicine at UNR’s school of medicine.

• Nicolo Spirtos, oncologist in private practice and former director of UMC’s Women’s Cancer Center.

Members will serve until September 2011, 2012 or 2013 depending on the results of a lottery.

CORRECTION: This story originally reported that John Ruckdeschel was a professor of medicine at UNLV's school of medicine. UNLV has no school of medicine. Ruckdeschel is a professor at UNR. The story has been changed. | (September 23, 2010)

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