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Apr. 08, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS: Endoscopy clinic's license pulled

City of Las Vegas accepts checks paying off $500,000 fine

By ALAN CHOATE
REVIEW-JOURNAL
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Attorney Jay Brown, left, representing the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, watches as Las Vegas City Attorney Bill Henry, center, hands Mark Vincent, the city's finance director, checks totaling $500,000. The fine was paid by the Endoscopy Center as part of the punishment city officials took while revoking the clinic's business license.
Photos by John Gurzinski.



Stephanie Entel Thornton addresses the Las Vegas City Council at a Monday hearing on the business license of the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada. Thornton says she tested positive for hepatitis C after undergoing a procedure at the clinic.

The punishment handed down Monday by the city of Las Vegas to the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada -- revoking the clinic's business license and a $500,000 fine -- isn't enough to satisfy the clinic's former patients, some of whom called for much stricter measures as punishment for the center's reported unsafe medical practices.

But it's still something.

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    • "I want to thank you for taking away their business license," said Stephanie Entel Thornton, who told the Las Vegas City Council that she tested positive for hepatitis C after undergoing a procedure at the clinic. "These people took an oath to do no harm. They've done a great deal of harm."

    Barbara Botts said she's also glad to see the license gone, but she was still angry that her husband died from hepatitis C and that other people may be sick now because of the clinic's practices. Health officials have linked no deaths to the clinic.

    "These men should be held accountable," Botts said. "I don't understand why they're not being indicted."

    There is a criminal investigation under way of the Gastroenterology Center of Nevada's clinics, one of which is the Endoscopy Center at 700 Shadow Lane.

    Monday's proceeding was narrow, concerning only the business license of that facility. The license was suspended Feb. 29, two days after health investigators announced that unsafe practices meant that 40,000 patients should get tested for hepatitis and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

    The other clinics are outside of the city of Las Vegas.

    "All we have jurisdiction over is their city license," said Mayor Oscar Goodman. "We've gone to the full extent of our jurisdiction."

    The city was prepared to have an extensive hearing on the clinic, complete with witnesses, testimony and cross-examination by a city attorney and lawyers representing the clinic.

    Those lawyers met with Goodman last month, shortly after the hearing was scheduled, and offered to surrender the business license without a hearing, an offer he said he "was not inclined or disposed to accept."

    Later, he continued, the attorneys for the clinics "called me and wanted to know: What would it take to avoid a full and complete hearing on this? What did we want in addition to the license?"

    Goodman said he would recommend a $500,000 fine to be paid when the license is surrendered. The fine -- broken into two $250,000 payments from both the Endoscopy Center and the Gastroenterology Center -- was made during the council hearing with checks being handed over to the city.

    The money will be spent to help people affected by the clinic's action -- specifically, on free testing and for access to medical records seized by the police. City staff will make spending recommendations at the May 6 council meeting.

    Councilman Steve Wolfson described the arrangement as "a bird in the hand."

    "Sometimes we fine people or fine entities, and that fine is paper with an amount on it and it's still swirling in the air," he said. "We don't have that today. We have $500,000 in the pockets of the city."

    Goodman said he arrived at that amount because it was "realistic under the circumstances."

    "If it was more than that, they very well could've said they weren't going to pay it. I didn't want to get involved in a back-and-forth situation," he said.

    "Most people expected us just to get the business license, and we went beyond that."

    Michelle Baltz told the council that she hoped at least some of the money would be spent on reorganizing the medical records seized by law enforcement investigators. Police took the records to safeguard them, but patients have reported problems finding their records among the thousands in police custody.

    "There's already a shortage of gastro doctors, and before a doctor will even tell if he'll take me as a patient, I have to get my records," said Baltz, who suffers from a chronic bowel condition known as Crohn's disease.

    She requested her records but was told they're filed by date, not name.

    "I don't know when my procedure was done," she said. "I'm walking around with Crohn's disease and I can't even see a doctor."

    According to health investigators, clinic workers reused syringes when administering medication to a patient, which introduced the risk of transferring an infectious agent to the medicine vial.

    The vials were supposed to be single-use, but staff reused the vials on multiple patients, which could lead to the infectious agent being spread.

    Investigators have linked six acute hepatitis C cases to the Shadow Lane facility and strongly suspect that a seventh case is connected to the Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center, an affiliated clinic on Burnham Avenue.

    Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.

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    Don't be so naive wrote on April 08, 2008 05:02 PM: KP, as a native I take exception to you suggesting anyone should have to move. I or anyone else should be able to live here with some sense of civility. You ask why everyone keeps saying corruption. Because it happens over and over with the same players. Politicians do not disclose conflicts. You dig around you find them. No KP we should not have to move. Yes KP the element that partakes in the corruption needs to be removed so the rest of us can enjoy our rights as citizens of the State of Nevada.


    KP wrote on April 08, 2008 04:47 PM: I along with all of you are concerned about this. I'm not happy at all what happened at this clinic. I am one of the patients and I worry every day. However it drives me crazy how everyone jumps to conclusions. Do we always have to expect corruption. This will play itself out and then we can have more clarity on the subject. MOVE AWAY PLEASE if you hate it so bad here in Las Vegas....


    Proctologist wrote on April 08, 2008 04:35 PM: RE: Time between tests and exposure-

    Go to the So NV Health District webpage at-

    http://www.southernnevadahealthdistrict.org/index.html

    Click on Hepatitis C Investigation

    Click on Health Care Providers (Top Right)

    Click on the Tech Bulletin – Hepatitis C Exposure at Medical Clinic

    See Page 1 of 3, 2nd column, Paragraph after the three bullets-
    “HIV or hepatitis seroconversion…..”

    This talks to the six months for the time between visit to the dirty docs and your blood test. If after 6 months your test is negative, you should be fine.

    Again, talk to your doc if you have any concerns


    Proctologist wrote on April 08, 2008 04:23 PM: Question asked-
    "Do 40,000 people have to get tested every six months for the rest of their life? I read that HIV can hide in cells, and not be undetected for ten years. Or, will one test now be suitable to keep from worrying about anything in the future?"

    A-
    Please don't get your medical info off this blog. That said, one test should be all you need, unless you had your procedure within 6 months of the test. If that is the case, get tested again at your six month anniversary of your visit to the dirty docs.



    Michael Ray Thompson wrote on April 08, 2008 03:54 PM: Wow, I was under the impression that Las Vegas was the most care-free place in the world. I thought you could come to Vegas and have a great time. I didn't know about the incompetency of the medical clinics, doctors, ect..


    Take heed wrote on April 08, 2008 03:41 PM: All you voters better take a real close look at the judicial candidates and see who is hooked up with who.

    If these cases go foward you don't want a judge with a broom in one hand and a rug in the other. And currently, that seems to be the norm


    oldlawdawg wrote on April 08, 2008 03:16 PM: $500,000 is a joke -- that's peanuts to the owners of the clinic who made far more with their unsafe practices. Once more, the Counsel misses the boat by trying to impose a fine that will look large to most of the public while not being much at all to polticial friends who own the clinics. What a predictable sham.


    Question wrote on April 08, 2008 03:14 PM: Do 40,000 people have to get tested every six months for the rest of their life? I read that HIV can hide in cells, and not be undetected for ten years. Or, will one test now be suitable to keep from worrying about anything in the future?


    Dog and Pony Show wrote on April 08, 2008 02:36 PM: We still do not know who Desai invests with. That could be a real eye opener.

    The prior post bring up a good point.

    Why would Oscar's former law partner and Harry Reid's land buddy represent Desai? One would think he would take a pass on this one. If for nothing else but appearence sake. Also, why was there a private meeting for such a public matter?

    The dog and pony show should get real interesting. They may all walk away with Oscar's. While the victims will be lucky to have a bone thrown at them.


    Chester wrote on April 08, 2008 12:43 PM: Further proof that Clark county is the toilet bowl of America. Criminal doctors that put millions of lives at risk, and all they get is a slap on the hand. They should be hanged, flogged and never allowed near an office again, and removed from the AMA. But not here..They will slip in to the desert, and emerge again five years from now with another scheme. Give us your theives, dishonest, and pondscum...That should be the motto of the County. And it starts from the top on down..But no need to worry, the casinos get what they want, so all is well in Clark County............


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