Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

UMC task force to make recommendations

The citizens committee created in response to University Medical Center's fiscal crisis is putting the final touches on policy changes at Clark County's public hospital.

The UMC Citizen Task Force has a dozen recommendations that it will discuss Tuesday afternoon at the Clark County Government Center. The recommendation are expected to go before the Clark County Commissioners, who serve as the trustees for the hospital system, Oct. 7 for what could be final action.

The recommendations stem from discussions that began in January when the County Commission appointed 10 people, representing various community interests, to study the fiscally troubled institution and come up with recommendations to stem the financial hemorrhaging at the hospital and to look at its long-term relationship with the community.

UMC, which also operates a dozen Quick Care urgent-care centers throughout Las Vegas, is Clark County's largest hospital and has the only top level trauma center in the region. The hospital required a $38 million infusion from the county last December. By February, the hospital and Quick Cares were losing $3 million a month.

Perhaps the most important change to the hospital system, a change endorsed by the citizens committee, came in March when the county instituted a new financial plan that more aggressively pursued payment information from patients.

"The revenue stream went up immediately at the Quick Care centers after the institution of the policy," said William McBeath, committee chairman and president of The Mirage. "It's not that we don't want to serve the less fortunate or the indigent, but they have to go through a process to be screened so we get paid as an institution."

The recommendations come when UMC's operating losses are declining. Those losses dipped below the $1 million mark in June for the first time in more than a year.

An analysis by a consultant to the county, the Lewin Group, concluded in March that UMC faces challenges from a number of circumstances, including higher indigent patient loads, medical malpractice and the loss of paying patients to outlying private hospitals.

Among the fears from community groups and the union representing UMC workers is that more Quick Care centers would be closed. Two were affected by cutbacks last spring. The task force has not recommended closing more of the centers, and in fact calls for their continued operation.

The draft recommendations keep the option to close the centers if they are consistent money-losers, but urges study of "fiscal and social impact of any expansion, contraction or relocation of the network prior to implementation."

McBeath said another recommendation still under discussion would be for the hospital to seek independent insurance to help cover doctors who do elective surgery. The hospital does no elective surgery, historically one of the more lucrative options in medical service, he said.

"A lot of physician groups have stopped practicing there," McBeath said.

Malpractice insurance and its effect on the hospital is a huge issue that will continue to be on the front burner after the task force's work is done, he said.

"The county commissioners, the state Legislature, all are aware of this issue," he said. "It's being debated on a national level."

McBeath said that until the hospital can bring back surgeries lost because of the malpractice insurance issue, "you're never going back to your halcyon days," when the hospital made millions in profits.

The task force is recommending that the county work with the UMC Physicians Advisory Group, which wants the county to back a medical-malpractice cap statewide.

Among other topics under discussion:

Observers from the county and the UMC employees union were cautious, noting that the discussion, though largely complete, is not over until the task force formally completes its recommendations and the county commissioners act on them.

"It would be premature for us to address its contents until the task force members have a chance to review it," county spokesman Erik Pappa said of the draft recommendations.

"We're hesitant to discuss the draft report's contents because doing so could be seen as influencing the outcome, and that's something we want to avoid. There's still some very important public dialogue that needs to occur."

The UMC employees union warned that regardless of what comes from the task force, the dialogue over the future of the hospital isn't over.

"The task force did an incredible job of distilling a lot of information into workable recommendations that recognize UMC's vital role in this community and reflect a commitment to maintaining those vital services that are unique to UMC," said Vicky Hedderman, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 1107. "While hospital administration has been praised for reversing UMC's financial losses, we will continue to work to ensure that quality patient care is not sacrificed in the process."

archive