UMC celebrates new tower

Administrators offered a first look at University Medical Center's new five-story tower Wednesday night to some of the people who helped bring it into existence.

But what should have been a celebratory occasion was bittersweet for some of the donors who have contributed more than $270,000 toward the Lions Burn Care Center's expansion in the hospital's new northeast tower.

Members of area Lions chapters wondered whether their generosity would go to waste if the center's life support is pulled to trim about $1.5 million from the financially troubled hospital's 2008 budget deficit.

UMC's Board of Directors, composed of the Clark County Commission, could consider cutting the 25-bed Lions Burn Care Center or nine of the public hospital's other patient care services by June to trim the financial shortfall.

"We don't know whether to be happy because we're anticipating not being happy,'' said Esther Louie of the Summerlin Lions.

But Louie's husband, Dan, a former Lions official, said talk of cutting the burn center might be a public relations tactic on part of the hospital's administration to gain public sympathy for a bailout.

"But it's still not right, I don't think,'' Dan Louie said before he presented UMC Chief Executive Officer Kathy Silver with a $279,791 check from the Lions Club.

Silver said UMC's administration would never discuss cuts merely to play on the public's emotions.

With the Lions Burn Care Center, Silver said, other possible cuts could be the Sunset and McCarran Quick Care centers, the pediatric endocrinology clinic, outpatient rehabilitation services, outpatient cardiac service, the Searchlight clinic, the Family Resources and Wellness centers and the neonatal intensive care unit.

UMC's 2008 budget deficit is estimated to reach $53.7 million.

The patient care closures could shave $27.2 million from the deficit.

"It was our duty to tell our board that if they wanted to continue to support these programs, it is going to cost money,'' she said. "We had to look at other areas so we could close the gap. That is our duty.''

The Lions Burn Care Center opened in 1968. Since then, the center has grown and provides inpatient and outpatient burn care to patients throughout Nevada, northwest Arizona, southeast California and Utah.

Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury said no decision has been made on UMC's future.

"I just don't think a majority of the commissioners, nor the hospital administrators, will seek to close down the burn center," Woodbury said in an interview before Wednesday night's event. "They may propose ways to operate it more efficiently, but not to shut it down completely.

"It's a unique medical service that's not found anywhere else in the area. It is really important to the community, and the fact that it doesn't make money shouldn't be a compelling fact when it comes to something like this.''

UMC's new tower replaces buildings from the 1930s and, in addition to the burn center, houses 56 private patient rooms, food services, cafeteria, the medical records department and a doctors lounge.

In its new location, the Lions Burn Care Center has more than doubled in size to 25 beds. It also has three new hyperbaric chambers, which are used to treat with oxygen victims of smoke inhalation or patients with wounds that are not healing on their own. The old unit had one chamber.

The unit also has private plastic surgery suites.

Clark County Manager Virginia Valentine said the new tower, with its capacity for private rooms, should help UMC's ability to compete with other hospitals in the Las Vegas Valley.

Should the Lions Burn Care Center close, the effect would not be confined to Nevada, health officials in neighboring states said.

"All of those patients would have to go someplace,'' said Dr. Kevin Foster, medical director of the Arizona Burn Center in Phoenix.

Foster said if the Arizona Burn Center had to take in 100 to 150 more burn victims because a closure of the Lions Burn Care Center, those patients would increase the center's admission rates by 10 percent. While the center could handle those patients, Foster said, the additional patient load would be felt.

"The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma and the (American) Burn Association have strongly recommended that burn centers be regionalized,'' he said. "The recommendation is that there be a regional burn center for every 3 million people. Based on that, Las Vegas needs its own burn center.''

Dr. Dev GnanaDev, medical director of Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, Calif., which houses the 14-bed Inland Counties Regional Burn Center, agreed with Foster.

"We live in a place that -- from the high desert to all the way to Las Vegas -- has many methamphetamine labs, and we usually get a lot of burn victims because of those labs,'' GnanaDev said.

"That puts a large strain on the system. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of burn centers in the Western United States. I'm sure we'll do whatever it takes to help the other centers, but losing one is bad news for the entire system.''

Utah's only burn care center is in Salt Lake City.

Woodbury said he has received quite a bit of feedback from the community on UMC's possible closures. He said the commission expects to have some recommendations from hospital administrators within the next couple of weeks.

"Everything is up in air,'' he said.