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December 5, 2003
We have Wal-Mart, why can't we get a hospital?
I've heard all different figures; 12,000 people, 10,000 people, even 8,000. A Pahrump hospital would be in a much larger town than Rural Health Management Corporation's other facilities in Nephi, Utah, with a 2000 census of 4,733; Gunnison, Utah, 2,394; Milford, Utah, 1,451; and Moab, Utah, 4,779. Pahrump still lumbers along without a hospital. The continuing failed attempts to secure a good medical facility are a symbol of the pessimism many of us feel in Pahrump. It's gotten' to be a part of the local psyche along with the conspiracy theories about the good old boys and the perception we're treated like the bastard, redheaded stepchild of Las Vegas. Reports about the latest struggling attempts of Rural Health Management Corporation to secure the funding for a Pahrump hospital is already filling the mailbag with letters to the editor. No single topic is so important to Pahrump; luckily the Nevada Department of Human Resources understands our need and is very cooperative in providing the newspaper copies of written correspondence. Maybe the concern by our local Assemblyman Rod Sherer is helping that flow of information from the state. Certainly no one doubts the need for a hospital in Pahrump. We have the population, 24,631 officially in the 2000 census, but some say it's already over 30,000. We have a more elderly population too. The 2000 census reported the median age in Pahrump was 45 years, 10 years older than the state and national average. Rural Health Management stated 18 percent of the residents in the service area of a Pahrump hospital would be 65 years old or older. But similar to a discussion at a recent county commission meeting, where Fire Chief Scott Lewis, among others, questioned the urgency in reopening Pahrump Medical Center - since we'll have to take patients to Las Vegas anyway - some people are starting to play down over-expectations for a small, 25-bed hospital. While Las Vegas continues to see an explosion of hospitals - Spring Valley Hospital recently opened with 160 beds - we'll only have 25 beds. In other words, don't plan on visiting grandpa in the Pahrump hospital for his extended stay. Hopefully the urgent care center being proposed would at least allow someone who falls off a horse to get a cast without traveling over the hill, and allow a woman to have a baby here and not have to book a motel room in Las Vegas when she gets close to giving birth Figures from the Rural Health application for the Certificate of Need to build the hospital show 2,845 Pahrump residents sought inpatient care outside the area in one year, resulting in 13,518 patient days and $63 million in charges. One-third went to Sunrise Hospital, while Valley Hospital and University Medical Center each captured another 20 percent of the Pahrump business. Those 2,845 patients stayed an average of 4.75 days, meaning they would fill a 37-bed hospital. Cardiology was the leading reason for inpatient care, 17.1 percent of the patient stays, more than twice the number of patient days for the second-leading reason, obstetrics. Someone having a heart attack could be stabilized at the Pahrump hospital, but still require a transport to a Las Vegas hospital for what they call "tertiary care." The Rural Health plan is for the hospital to have 18 medical/surgical beds, four intensive care beds and three birthing suites. Those in the medical profession have said putting up the four walls of a hospital is the easy part. Recruiting the medical professionals is a much bigger challenge. What specialists could we attract to live fulltime in Pahrump? I'm sure medical clinics will spring up around a hospital like mushrooms. Perhaps by the time a hospital ever does open in Pahrump there will be a Nordstrom, a Gucci of Pahrump, and other trendy shops that could entice the doctor's wife or husband to agree to live here. The Rural Health application points out 14.5 percent of households in the Pahrump service area had annual incomes of less than $10,000, double the state average. That requires cost-efficient services, the company said. Nye County Commissioners earlier this year reluctantly paid $333,875 to the state in Disproportionate Share Payments for Nye Regional Medical Center in Tonopah, the county's only hospital, for indigent care. The payment, along with Medicaid, helped reduce $2.08 million in bad debt. County commissioners will have to open that checkbook wider for a Pahrump hospital. The Pahrump hospital has been about the most frustrating topic for this reporter to cover in his career. When Banner Health Services was awarded the certificate to build a hospital in 2001, my editor at the Pahrump Valley View sent me up north to write about the company's hospitals in Fallon and Susanville, Calif. I didn't object since I could package it around a weekend in Lake Tahoe. I suspect my editor was really more interested in getting advertising, as their unsuccessful competitor for the certificate, Johnson Controls, took out full-page ads in the View. The hospital administrators rushed me on a visit to Churchill Community Hospital in Fallon; probably already aware the company would abandon the Pahrump hospital project. After we ran an extensive spread in the View on Banner, two weeks later the Pahrump Valley Times broke the story Banner was pulling out. It reminded me of a Pahrump hospital district meeting in 2001, when Sunrise Hospital had submitted a bid to operate Pahrump Medical Center. But a doctor who was supposed to be the chief medical officer backed out after having lunch with other Pahrump doctors and Sunrise withdrew its bid that afternoon. PMC is now closed. Local physicians were divided on the latest two applicants. Dr. Dennis Campton and Dr. Georges Tannoury wrote letters of support for Rural Health Management's application, Dr. Michael Reiner, Dr. Carl LeViseur and Dr. Pejman Bady supported Pahrump Health Facilities. I wonder why companies nowadays can't do like everybody else does, put up the money and build something. Why does it always have to be some complicated arrangement? Rural Health's problems obtaining financing sends up red flags among some people over how the construction will proceed and how they will manage such a hospital. Hopefully in the future we'll have a big enough hospital and a stable of doctors for all of Pahrump's health needs. After all, we finally secured a Wal-Mart. Write to Mark Waite at mwaite@pvtimes.com. |
