New group advocates for collaborative Nevada health care
Unity in medical care and research would greatly benefit the state, according to a new non-profit organization called Nevada Medical Center, which has received a $1 million donation to work toward better health care.
Nevada Medical Center, led by University Medical Center board member John O’Reilly, released a two-year study Thursday that uses the Texas Medical Center in Houston as a model. The Texas center uses “collaboration and constructive competition” among medical professionals, according to the Nevada Medical Center’s website. The study was conducted by Dr. Richard Wainerdi, who is president emeritus of the Texas facility.
The $1 million donation came from the Bennett Family Foundation, whose president, Diana Bennett, is on the Board of Directors for the Smith Center for the Performing Arts and a member of the UNLV Foundation.
The donation will sustain the organization for four years, O’Reilly said at the press conference at his home. During that time, a chief operating officer and staff will be hired and a definitive business plan will be established.
The medical center won’t actually be a health care provider, O’Reilly clarified, but a hub through which medical professionals and researchers in Nevada can work together, communicate and educate each other and the public. The center will be run out of two “Academic Health Science Centers” the center wants to build, one in Reno and one in Las Vegas.
Eric Hilton, who has been called a visionary leader of Three Square Food Bank, has also been a large part of the Nevada Medical Center’s development, as has Dr. Mary Guinan, founding dean of UNLV’s School of Community Health Sciences.
UNLV President Don Snyder voiced his support and UNLV’s for the group Thursday, as did former congresswoman and current Touro University CEO Shelley Berkley. The center’s website listed nearly 100 medical supporters.
Contact reporter Annalise Little at alittle@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0391. Find her on Twitter: @annalisemlittle.
