Act with urgency

Gov. Jim Gibbons is apparently paying attention to the public health crisis unfolding in Clark County.

On Thursday, after state Bureau of Licensure and Certification chief Lisa Jones disclosed that deficient patient safety protocols have been identified at ambulatory surgery centers other than the closed Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, Gov. Gibbons directed that all “available resources at the state’s disposal” be used to complete inspections at the state’s 50 clinics.

Gov. Gibbons will let state health officials tap Nevada’s Disaster Relief Fund, if necessary, to get the job done quickly.

But a lack of funding isn’t what’s hindering the state’s lumbering health care regulators — it’s a lack of common sense and intestinal fortitude.

During Thursday’s meeting of the Legislative Committee on Health Care, Ms. Jones refused to identify any of the ambulatory centers that are putting the health of their patients at risk by re-using syringes and medication vials. This practice at the endoscopy center gave six patients hepatitis C, forced more than 40,000 people to undergo blood testing and led to the facility’s closure by city officials. Yet these additional offending businesses remain open, taken at their word that they’ll stop cutting corners? Past patients are left to wonder what to do.

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, had to read the law to Ms. Jones to clarify that she not only had the authority to close the endoscopy center, but that her agency could have leveled a fine much more severe than the paltry $3,000 penalty handed down this week.

Meanwhile, the doctors who directed procedures at the endoscopy center remain licensed to practice. Officials with the state Board of Medical Examiners assured lawmakers Thursday that they’re moving just as fast as they can to investigate.

Taxpayers are shelling out tens of millions of dollars each year for oversight of the health care industry, and this is what they get? There’s way too much yakking and not enough doing.

If the various boards charged with upholding standards of patient care and protecting public safety can’t show more urgency than this, then Gov. Gibbons needs to get rid of the foot-draggers and replace them with people who understand Southern Nevadans are mad as hell.