Bureaucrats fiddle, public burns

A series of articles in Collier’s Weekly in 1905 decrying the dangers of patent medicines, and the writings of Upton Sinclair about the horrors inside meat packing plants, prompted Congress in 1906 to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Congress was well aware of the problems, it just took the ire of thousands of readers to shake them from their complacency.

A week and a half ago, local health officials announced six people had contracted hepatitis C while undergoing colonoscopies at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada — due to improper reuse of syringes and vials of anesthetic. Precautionary letters recommending blood tests were sent to 40,000 patients.

After the announcement, the facility remained open for days. Apparently they were given a stern talking to and warned they might be subject to tough sanctions. Sure enough, this past week the state slapped them with a $3,000 fine — about $1,000 more than the total cost of a single colonoscopy.

People who feared their health might have been put in jeopardy by doctors and nurses who cut corners to save a few dollars angrily spoke out.

On the doorstep of the endoscopy center, Marco Cuevas angrily charged, “These people have to be shut down. What they’ve done to people is disgusting and horrendous. I’ve got a wife and three kids, and I’m so worried that I’m going to pass something on to them.”

Columnists and editorial writers joined the fray, calling for preventive and punitive action.

Two days after the announcement, the city of Las Vegas yanked the center’s business license and locked the doors. This past week, Henderson, North Las Vegas and Clark County shut down other facilities owned by the same company.

Criminal probes have been launched by the FBI, IRS and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

The state attorney general’s office indicated its insurance fraud and Medicaid fraud units are on the case.

At a legislative hearing convened Thursday, the head of the state’s medical licensing agency testified investigators have since found similar improper vial sharing at other clinics. “Sadly, this is not an isolated occurrence,” she said. But she refused to name them.

Linda Anderson, deputy attorney general for the Department of Health and Human Services, argued that revealing which clinics were engaged in dangerous practices would hinder an investigation.

I heatedly argued with her later in the day that failing to promptly tell patients at the newly discovered clinics of their risks was as indefensible as the time cops told me they kept secret a series of rapes in a certain neighborhood so as not to scare off the rapist. They were so focused on making an arrest it never occurred to them that informed residents could take precautions to protect themselves. Victims were irrelevant.

I tried repeatedly Thursday to reach Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto to appeal her deputy’s decision, but her receptionist said she does not take calls from the press.

On Friday I sent a table thumping letter, not arguing as I usually would that the inspections are public records under the law, but instead appealing on the basis of “public health and safety, fairness and common decency.”

I wrote, “It is vital for health, safety and peace of mind that patients of any other clinics where unsafe practices were found to be promptly informed so that they too might act to protect themselves and their families.”

Though her deputy was the one who denied our request, Masto passed the buck and said via fax her office did not “hold” the information and directed me to another agency.

Apparently by pure coincidence, on Friday afternoon the state health department released the name of one the nine surgery centers inspected in Clark County, saying the deficiencies at that facility were similar to those found at the Endoscopy Center. (Don’t they read the paper?)

As for the patients at those eight as-yet-unnamed clinics, you are not a priority — the paperwork comes first.

Most of the doctors involved have not been suspended, sanctioned or had their wrists slapped. There is no guarantee they are not now engaging in the same practices under another roof. The sole exception is Endoscopy Center owner Dipak Desai, who on Friday voluntarily agreed to cease the practice of medicine.

Five nurses also voluntarily surrendered their licenses, but officials refused to say who they were. A Review-Journal reporter figured out who most were by a process of elimination.

When there is no new video and the file footage wears thin, the short-attention-spanned electronic media and Internet bloggers will veer off in pursuit of the next celebrity sighting. The newspaper will keep trudging along, reporting and commenting on this serious health care crisis.

We will stay focused and keep you informed. Even if sometimes it is just to say what secrets are being kept.

Thomas Mitchell is editor of the Review-Journal and writes about the role of the press and access to public information. He may be contacted at 383-0261 or via e-mail at tmitchell@reviewjournal.com.