Friday, March 13, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Given the topic of Wednesday’s joint meeting of the Clark County Commission and Las Vegas City Council, the timing couldn’t have been more meaningful.
At issue was a status report on development projects in the Medical District and efforts to improve health care in Southern Nevada. Although not by design, the discussion occurred at a moment when health care is a top-of-mind concern in Las Vegas and communities worldwide due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The meeting had been in the works since well before this week’s dramatic developments surrounding the disease, and coronavirus was only briefly mentioned.
But the main thrust of the discussion — the importance of reducing a shortage of physicians in the region — couldn’t have been more timely given the outbreak.
Against that backdrop, the meeting yielded promising news about the availability and quality of care in the Las Vegas Valley, but it also focused on challenges the region must overcome.
Topping the list of good news, planning for a new instructional building for the UNLV School of Medicine is proceeding smoothly thanks to the efforts of a devoted group of UNLV donors, faculty experts and leaders at the local and state levels.
Design work is in progress, and construction is on track to take place between February 2021 and February 2025. County commissioners OK’d a land transfer for the building this month, so everything appears to be falling into place. As a lobbyist for the project said during the meeting, “The message is that we’re moving quickly with this process.”
Once completed, the building will allow the med school to increase its current capacity of 60 students per class to 90 or 120. That’s huge for Las Vegas. Given that Nevada ranks No. 47 nationally in doctors per capita, with about 200 physicians per 100,000 residents, we need a larger pipeline of physicians coming into the valley.
But that’s not the only step the community should take, as the meeting’s participants were told. Other suggestions included working with Nevada lawmakers to raise the Medicaid reimbursement rate for doctors and establishing funding methods to offset the high cost of residencies for physicians, which could help the region recruit and retain health care professionals. Another area that appears to need improvement is coordination between the med school and University Medical Center — the two are separate organizations — and local governments. Clark County Commission Chairwoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick requested an “immediate list of needs” from both entities; they should provide those items ASAP.
Improving health care in Southern Nevada is crucial not only for residents who need care but for our economy. Our ability to provide high-level health care not only to local residents but our 42 million annual visitors is a key to maintaining our status as a top global tourist destination.
Meanwhile, for out-of-state companies looking for a site for expansion or relocation, the quality and availability of health care are key considerations. The same goes for families looking for a new place to live.
The build-out of the medical school will help in that regard. According to one out-of-state consultant’s study, the project will yield an annual economic impact of $1.2 billion and will add 8,000 jobs to the region by 2030.
That’s a big step in the right direction, and it speaks volumes about the tenacity of our community.
After several failed attempts by university leadership and the Nevada System of Higher Education to get a building off the ground, the donors stepped in with a proposal to create a nonprofit development corporation to build the facility and lease it to the university for $1 a year.
With support from Gov. Steve Sisolak and state leaders, the development corporation entered a partnership with the state to fund the project mostly with donations but also with $25 million in state funding that had already been committed to the building.
The result: Supporters expect to have more than $200 million available for the project.
The project is cause for optimism, no doubt. But with the events of this week bringing our health care needs into particularly sharp focus, we can’t stop working toward expanding our resources, improving the availability of our care and enhancing its quality.
