UMC eyes new pact with clinic

The Clark County commissioners were to decide today whether to renew University Medical Center's contract with Community Health Centers of Southern Nevada for the treatment of indigent patients.

Community Health Centers provides primary care services, pediatric care and childhood immunizations, OB/GYN services, adult family care and dental care for poor children.

The contract is for $150,000 and would be in effect from July 6 through June 30, 2000, if approved by the commissioners, who also act as the hospital board of trustees.

Ken Moore, chief executive officer of the centers, said the money will enable the main clinic at 916 W. Owens Ave. to take care of about 1,600 indigent patients.

Community Health Centers also has a clinic inside the Cannon Senior Center, 340 N. 11th St., and at the Family Health Care Center, 67 E. Lake Mead Drive in Henderson. The contract is only for the Owens Avenue clinic.

"We help share the load (with UMC), and this makes it more convenient for people who live in this area," Moore said. "This gives us the capacity to better take care of the population that comes here."

Under the agreement the center must provide a minimum of 35 hours of indigent care a week. During non-business hours, the clinic must also provide a telephone informational message directing patients with emergency needs to appropriate resources. The clinic message must also provide instructions so patients can make future appointments.

Last month Community Health Centers broke ground on a $2.5 million, 19,000-square-foot clinic at the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Wheeler Peak Street.

It is scheduled to open in the spring and will replace the Owens Avenue clinic.

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