Friday, April 12, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Five Czechoslovakian professors will be leaving Las Vegas winners, after spending more than a week visiting a major health-care administrative facility.
Representatives from Sierra Health Services Inc. and Southwest Medical Associates showed the former communist country dignitaries how their form of managed health care operates. The Czech professors saw how electronic medical records were kept, how contracts were established with physicians and improved methods of teaching.
"We are interested in people who are responsible for cost effectiveness," Dr. Ivan Maly of the South Bohemia University said following his tour Thursday. "We want to learn how to produce better health care and more health care and save money."
Dr. Jiri Pavlichek, associate dean of the School of Business, East Bohemia University, said people in Czechoslovakia are satisfied with their health care, but rising costs have them worried. Medical expenses have doubled in his country, he said, since they abandoned communism.
Czechoslovakia has a ratio of 350 physicians per 100,000 patients, Pavlichek said. In comparison, the ratio in Nevada is 150 physicians per 100,000 patients. Also, those who have insurance in Czechoslovakia don't have to pay for medical care.
A similar Czech delegation visited Washington, D.C., two months ago, Maly said. The program is funded by an American International Health Alliance grant, under an agreement with the United States Agency for International Development. It began 18 months ago.
The professors will travel to Reno on Sunday to visit health-care facilities there. The trip will be done in cooperation with the University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Maly is a finance professor in Czechoslovakia. He and Pavlichek are traveling with Dr. Roman Prymula, an epidemiologist from the military school affiliated with East Bohemia University; Dr. Ladislav Hajek, an economist at East Bohemia University and Dr. Vladimir Wurm, a faculty member at the School of Medicine at South Bohemia.
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