A sixth gastroenterology center in the valley has shut down. The latest one is in North Las Vegas and was closed late Tuesday afternoon. The City of North Las Vegas sent out a cease and desist letter to one of the clinics, shutting it down until the at least March 19, 2008. The city said the clinic demonstrated a willful failure to be sanitary and called it a public nuisance. It now has to stop all operations or face arrest. Tuesday at the fifth clinic, a Henderson city inspector met with staff and went out to his car for contact information and paperwork. When he came back, the doors were locked and management told everyone to leave before the inspection even began. The City of Henderson then pulled the license. City employees used the clinic, so now they must also be tested.
“It’s ill advised. It’s difficult to understand why they would do that, why they would not cooperate, why they would lock our inspector out. It’s very difficult to understand,” she said. If charges of criminal neglect go forward, Roger believes it could be one to six years for each infected patient — meaning a potential of thousands of years in prison for the doctors.
Eight more former patients at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada have tested positive for hepatitis B and C, according to one Valley physician. This revelation comes as the Southern Nevada Health District closes a sixth facility managed by the same physician. Dr. Mike Karagiozis worked with Lab Corp. to test hundreds of people Saturday who were exposed to the virus by the Endoscopy Center. During that round of testing, Karagiozis said there were eight more people diagnosed with hepatits B and C. Most of the patients tested on Saturday were culinary workers. During their testing, Karagoizis said they told physicians they had HIV while they were patients at the Endoscopy Center.
On the rare occasion that I see a doctor these days, I feel like I am talking to a salesman. After all, they do have expensive diagnostic equipment that they need to pay for.
There should be a law passed requiring doctors to open a new syringe in front of patients to lessen the possibility of this occurring, and make failure to do a so a felony or grounds for malpractice or some sort of very stiff penalty to enforce it.
Well this also goes to the CRAZY American system of FOR PROFIT medicine. All free standing clinics are a rip off from the health care system. Let the Hospitals take care of the poor, while we siphon off the private and self pay patients for our superior ambience. Sure, all kinds of shortcuts are taken–but only to make more money. After all, shouldn’t your tax support medical school graduate be a millionaire 2 years out of school?
Yes, the best system in the world. HAH!!!!!!!!!
So what? one bad apple and ALL doctors are bad?
Please, my wife is an ER resident and she puts up with SO much shit from people who will NEVER pay it is ridiculous. Last night she had to drain an absithe from a needle popping junkie who contracted AIDs from sharing needles. Do you think she does what she does because of the big bucks? It is these comments like “talking to a salesmen” that generalise ALL doctors that really pisses me off. And as far as requiring a doctor to open EVERY needle wrapping in front of the paitent? next time you are in a code… I am sure you will appreciate them taking the time to ensure you know they are not reusing old needles.
everything in vegas doesnt really stay in vegas…………
I would think that people who this clinic infected with HIV and or Hep B or C OR both, would be thinking about *Going Postal* on those evil people who run the place.
It is clear that someone high up is being protected from being arrested.
This whole thing doesn’t make any sense at all. There must be more to it than needles. After all, a needle over the counter at Wal-Mart doesn’t cost but 12 cents each, and wholesale to a clinic mustn’t cost much more than 7 cents.
Not to mention reusing needles is more dangerous to the staff than to the patients.
Possibly they are not sanitizing their equipment, but that doesn’t make any sense either.
What are the doing? Cooking hamburgers in the autoclave?
Wasnt this posted a few days ago??
More profitable to re-use syringes. What, is everybody here a bunch of commies, standing in the way of more profit?
#7 ECA: please notice the word “Update”, indicating that this is an update to a previously posted story.
#6–Ah Yea–from memory ((EDITOR–why is there no link to the original story?))–the clinic did not reuse needles but were reusing single dose medical vials. Contamination from draw back when giving medication was the suspected source of contamination==as well as contaminated syringes.
Just be GLAD it wasnt an endoscope..
BEND over, Iv only used this once today.
#1 – I think in the UK there must be some legislation or something requiring that, as any time anyone comes near me with a needle, or piece of equipment, I sit and watch them open the packaging before using it.
Fair enough, it might just be common practice and maybe not law, but either way, I don’t remember someone coming at me with a primed syringe of anything that I didn’t see them remove from its packaging.
Most of you aren’t reading. They were reusing Syringes not needles. They were also using ‘single use’ anesthesia bottles on two or more patients(aka double dipping). So while mathematically probably not as high a likelihood of cross infection it was still much higher than say being in the same room and getting coughed on.
Most tattoo artists do open needles in front of customers, its a shame doctors cant be held to such a high standard. A simple solution for non emergencies is a syringe dispensing machine where you the patient pull the syringe out of the machine yourself. On the more draconian end, your insurance companies could require serialized syringes. There are ways around this kind of thing.
The biggest problem is the fact that nobody had the balls to stand up to this and say HEY WTF? Instead 40,000 people get potentially life altering illness and then they all whine “I did it because the administrators told me I had to!” Well AFAIAC the people who DID the reuse should be charged with felonies, one count for each patient. Doing what you were told to do is not a valid excuse for such an immoral act.
Another reason this can come about is in most areas of the US a lot of hospitals employ an outside service for anesthesia so that in the event of a death from incorrect anesthesia the hospital can point to its outside contracted service and say “we didn’t do it”.
#10 said: “(EDITOR–why is there no link to the original story?)”
There is a link. It is right under the needles and it says Las Vegas Now.
The Free Market system works! This is why America has the best health care in the world!
Oh, wait…..
#2, Healthcare is a service provided to a person by another person. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that provider wanting to make money (a profit) from it.
The real problem is people like you who will insist that things be provided to you simply because you may have a want or need for them.
eugenics in motion.
What’s wrong with a little gambling in Vegas? Money, health Meh!
Another symptom of the pathetic libertarian world of no regulation.
The free market never protected anybody’s health or welfare. If not for government rules, doctors wouldn’t even wash their hands before examining patients.
Bobbo, you are stupid.
Find ne a Dr. 2 years out of med school who’s a multi-millionaire.
As for the criminals who re-used needles, they should be given a rusty screwdriver to the liver, and then locked in a room with no light until they rot.
Bobbo, you are stupid.
Find me a Dr. 2 years out of med school who’s a multi-millionaire.
Free health care is no bag of candy, either.
As for the criminals who re-used needles, they should be given a rusty screwdriver to the liver, and then locked in a room with no light until they rot.
i caught hep b from labcorp during a routine hormone panel blood test. my symptoms started about 2 weeks later.. i just got diagnosed last week. im so sad…. please pray for me…