UMC’s Quick Care centers will be hit hard by cuts

By Timothy Pratt

Thursday, Feb. 6, 2003 | 10:08 a.m.

At the UMC Quick Care on Russell Road, Roseanne Bissattini, a graduate student, was leaving the clinic after getting treated for a cold sore Wednesday.

Outside the Quick Care at Charleston Boulevard and Rancho Road, an undocumented immigrant who would only give his first name, Jose, was waiting for his wife, who was inside the clinic trying to qualify for Medicaid.

Bissattini, a future teacher from California, and the recently arrived Mexican construction workers are among the thousands of Las Vegas Valley residents who stand to be affected by the cost-cutting that is coming to the UMC system.

And they share fears ranging from no longer having a clinic that allows them to set up payment plans when they are short on cash to being unable to find a clinic nearby that is open to treat a feverish child at 3 a.m.

The lion's share of changes to the county's health care system will be determined in the next 60 days, but most of the cutbacks announced this week hit the county's 14 Quick Care centers, which, county and hospital officials said, have seen a 13 percent drop-off in patients during the last year.

Fifteen doctors -- of 87 currently employed in the centers -- will be laid off, as will seven nurses. Reduced hours and the elimination of vacant jobs also face the centers.

In the months to come, more layoffs and even the closing of Quick Care centers could follow, officials said.

Alicia Martinez, who was waiting for her friend, Maria Garcia, outside the clinic on Charleston Boulevard, said that people like her, who have no insurance, rely on the Quick Care centers.

"They're really important for low-income people, since it's hard to find another place like this," she said.

Bissattini, 26, said UMC's problems made her fear for her future as a Las Vegas resident.

"I think it's unfortunate that the valley is growing but facilities are shutting down," she said. "I came here to live but if there's not going to be services, then I don't know if I want to think of starting a family."

A cutback in hours announced for the McCarran Quick Care on Russell Road was a blow to several families leaving the clinic on Wednesday afternoon.

"Each of my five children have been in this clinic after midnight for everything from a broken arm to a flu," said William Greenwood, a 50-year Las Vegas resident and retired Teamster. "If they close it down at night, I don't know what we're going to do."

Narath Lach, a roulette dealer at the Excalibur, said he has brought his son and daughter to the Quick Care on Russell for high fevers and breathing problems.

"If they can't breathe, or have a 103-degree fever in the middle of the night, you can't wait until the next day," he said.

Both said they might find themselves in hospital emergency rooms if faced with similar situations in the future.