By BRENDAN RILEY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CARSON CITY -- A bill that would require
Las Vegas area hospital emergency rooms to start providing care to
emergency
patients within half an hour after they arrive by ambulance won approval
Monday in a key Senate committee.
Senate Bill 458 would impose no penalties or liability for not meeting
the deadline, but advocates of the measure said the waits would be
tracked and included in a study showing where emergency care is slow,
and that no hospital would want to be at the top of that list.
Proponents also noted that hospitals, emergency service providers
and others worked together on SB458, which was endorsed by the Senate
Human Resources and Education Committee.
Bill Welch of the Nevada Hospital Association said the bill's requirements
will be difficult to meet, but "from a positive note, for the
first time we will have a standard."
Rusty McAllister of the Professional Firefighters of Nevada said the
30-minute time frame is a national standard, adding that it should
help in finding ways to improve on emergency room care.
Sen. Joe Heck, R-Henderson, an emergency room doctor, said the groups
that cooperated on the bill deserved praise, because it's an effort
to do what's best for patients who "do not want to be lying on
an ambulance gurney in a hospital hallway for 30 minutes."
Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, backed the bill, although she
at first suggested up to an hourlong wait. She said hospitals shouldn't
be penalized for delays that occur in crowded emergency rooms, adding, "I'm
looking at reality."
Sen. Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, said he didn't think the
bill went far enough. He said he appreciated the cooperative effort
on the measure but without any penalties "I don't understand where
the hammer is."
State officials questioned the initial wording of SB458 because it
would have required the state Health Division to oversee the tracking.
But the committee approved amendments to give Clark County that responsibility.
