For the past several years, I thought we as a community were making strides in turning around the bad rep of Las Vegas medicine. New hospitals and equipment certainly helped. Damn good young doctors in all disciplines were choosing to make Las Vegas home. Political, civic and business leaders increasingly set a positive example and elected to receive medical treatment here instead of elsewhere.

Then along comes the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada. The Southern Nevada Health District issued a health alert to 40,000 people who received treatment at the now-infamous facility over the span of a few years.

Officials said that since 2004 staff there engaged in practices which might have spread infectious diseases such as hepatitis C and HIV. Shockingly, they were said to have re-used syringes and medicine vials that subsequently caused a health crisis we are only now beginning to understand.

I don't know whether all the charges against the center are true. It's hard to believe such practices, which violate basic medical common sense, could go on for any length of time without someone blowing the whistle. I can tell you that if a pencil-pushing doctor told any of the nurses I personally know to reuse a syringe, the next thing that doctor would feel would be that dirty syringe in his thigh.

What I do know is that no matter how the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada saga plays out, it's going to be a long time before the Las Vegas community gets back to feeling good about health care here.

It's unfair. But it's the truth.

Real estate bottom?

This from a developer I trust: February in Las Vegas saw real estate agents receive multiple offers on many properties for sale. Don't know if this signals a bottom in the market quite yet, but I do know this: Las Vegas real estate is steeply discounted, and money is cheap. You can deride this tip because of the source, if you like, but six months from now, don't ask me how you missed out on the best time to buy real estate in Las Vegas since the beginning of this decade.

Sherman Frederick is publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and president of Stephens Media. Readers may write him at sfrederick@ reviewjournal.com.