One crisis, one probe

Investigators are flocking to Southern Nevada’s unfolding public health crisis like paparazzi to Britney Spears. So many regulatory and law enforcement agencies have a stake in defining the extent of unsafe medical practices, punishing providers and identifying patient infections that they’re already getting in each other’s way.

The Nevada Board of Medical Examiners, which is responsible for licensing and disciplining physicians, hasn’t made any headway in its investigation into the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada because key clinic documents are in the hands of other agencies.

Among the entities waiting in line to interview relevant parties and examine records: the State Board of Nursing, the state Board of Osteopathic Medicine, the state Board of Health, the state Bureau of Licensure and Certification, the Southern Nevada Health District, the state attorney general’s office, Las Vegas police, the Clark County district attorney’s office and the city of Las Vegas, among others.

On the federal side, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI are looking over everyone’s shoulders, and Nevada’s congressional delegation is calling for hearings on Capitol Hill.

In the middle are the personal injury lawyers and their investigators, who’ll be scrutinizing the state’s regulatory structure as much as any closed clinic. Phew.

Even the most boisterous believer in the responsiveness of government has to recognize that so many bureaucracies biting at the same apple is a recipe for inefficiency. Aside from the fact that it might take several years to bring appropriate parties to justice and provide assistance to the malpractice victims who need it most, it’s a terrible waste of taxpayer resources to have investigators from a dozen different agencies carry out their inquiries separately.

The public won’t be served by having a stack of separate reports with inconsistent findings, conclusions and recommendations.

“We need to conclude the investigation as rapidly as possible, and for that to happen all these agencies need to be coordinated,” said Dr. Daniel McBride, a member of the Board of Medical Examiners.

He’s right. Gov. Jim Gibbons should put a single person in charge of a multiagency investigation — Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto is the logical choice — that immediately makes public any new threat to public health.

Now is no time for jurisdictional turf wars. Statewide cooperation needs to begin today.