UMC budget cuts announced

Certified nursing assistants are a thing of the past in the University Medical Center emergency room.

In an appearance Tuesday before the Clark County Commission in which she announced $1.2 million in budget cuts - largely through cutting 12 management positions - UMC Chief Executive Officer Kathy Silver also noted that 18 CNAs no longer have jobs in the ER.

"We realized we needed a higher standard of care," Silver said.

UMC has not divulged the occupations of six ER workers who were suspended after a 25-year-old pregnant Las Vegas woman didn't receive help in November despite spending six hours there in distress. The Review-Journal has learned that at least one of the suspended employees was a CNA.

Rick Plummer, a UMC spokesman, said CNAs have been replaced with five registered nurses.

"If you can have five do the job of 18 and offer better care for less money, it makes all the sense in the world to do this," Plummer said. "CNAs have a very limited scope of care they can provide."

Several hours after they arrived at UMC on Nov. 30, Roshunda Abney and her fiance gave up hope of being seen. She eventually went home and gave breech birth to a baby girl, who died. Abney said she did not realize she was pregnant.

Plummer said the cutting of management positions had nothing to do with the Abney case.

Seven management slots are vacant and now will not be filled as a cost cutting measure, Plummer said. Only three managers will actually lose their jobs, Plummer said, while two others will have their positions downgraded.

Cutting the 12 positions will save the hospital $945,000, he said.

"We think we can be more effective by taking these actions," Plummer said.

UMC faces an estimated $70 million shortfall in the current fiscal year.

Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2908.