Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.
COUNTY COMMISSIONER Yvonne Atkinson Gates has requested a close look at the Quick Cares operated by UMC before they increase in number. After recognizing the success of the Quick Cares, she writes, "However, as we do with so many public programs from time to time, it is necessary to monitor and evaluate the way in which we provide those services. The same is true of Quick Cares."
Atkinson Gates makes note that "Any time you are dealing with services that are provided by both the public and private sectors, you have a very complex set of social and economic issues to sort out."
As a supporter of a strong patient protection law under consideration in Washington, I'm allowed to say that there is something about Quick Cares that bothers me. I made the following mention of that concern in this column several months ago:
"Several doctors pointed out that the centers are subsidized by taxpayers and the centers' doctors have their malpractice liability capped at $50,000. Private physicians don't have the cover of very limited malpractice responsibility to patients offered by government-operated centers. Their malpractice liability can soar to several million dollars, and this sharply raises their costs." Very simply, no matter how serious the malpractice of a physician under the government umbrella, the $50,000 liability cap is what the patient's family will have to fight to overcome.
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The most welcome phone call our family received this week was from my aunt in a nursing home in another state. After reading the national report that told of patient abuse in nursing homes, her cheerful voice made my day. A friend of hers visits about three or four times a week and she also gave us a good report. There's no doubt the Nevada Division of Aging Services responds to the needs of our elderly in nursing homes. We have a big state and a growing senior population, which we must be assured will be given adequate protection in any and all care facilities. More on this later.
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Three cheers for Laura Bush, who publicly stated that her children should be out of the media limelight. She is tired of magazines, newspapers and television making money "at the expense of my children." She went on to say that she believes her children "ought to be left totally alone and allowed to have a private life."
The nation's first lady deserves an Attagirl Award as both a mother and wife of our president.
Added to this is her dedication to developing better libraries, which reflect her years as a schoolteacher and librarian. She wants "every child" to have the books necessary for educational "building blocks." For this she deserves a second Attagirl Award.
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Stan Paher's newly published "Nevada Ghost Towns & Mining Camps" is an atlas loaded with 62 new maps and even more pictures showing the reader both where and how to enjoy every part of this large state. Pick it up at your local bookstore and peruse it and I'll bet you buy it for guests who visit from out of town.
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Starting Sunday this column will be written by outside people from various fields of interest. The first writer out of the chute will be state Consumer Advocate Tim Hay.
Hay will give us his view of the increasing cost of electricity and the role Nevada Power has in making our wallets lighter.
Also the first of a six-part series of Sun writer Jeff German's book "Murder In Sin City" will run Sunday. I haven't read the book, but have heard from another writer it's most interesting. It should be in-depth and interesting because German has written at least 300 columns about Binion and his death.
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