Southern Nevada Medical Industry Coalition

America’s healthcare institutions such as hospitals, nursing homes, primary care clinics, and home healthcare providers are struggling on the human resources front. To deliver adequate care, the healthcare industry needs a well-trained workforce and a reliable “pipeline” of workers to fill vacancies and address current and projected shortages.   Workforce Connections (WC) and The Southern Nevada Medical Industry Coalition (SNMIC) have partnered to develop and implement a program to support new graduate RNs and their employers. The overall goal is to have new nurses more effectively transition into an exciting but challenging workplace. The goal will be achieved by providing new nurse orientation resources to both the nurses and their employers. For example, eligible employers will receive up to 50% wage reimbursement for RNs during their orientation to the workplace. 

How Chief Nurse Officers can Participate

To begin with, we require a baseline understanding of your organization’s RN staffing situation in order to develop an effective program.  Often the information being requested is tracked by the Human Resources department.  Therefore, we are requesting the following:  

*   Please click here to download the survey.  Please fill out completely and accurately.  

 *  Submit the completed survey to Katherine Cylke at mcylke@cox.net by February 15, 2010.   

 Participation is voluntary. Individual organizational information will be kept confidential to the project leaders and all data obtained in this study will be reported as anonymous group data.    If you have any questions or concerns about the survey, please contact Debra Collins with Workforce Connections at (702) 638-8750 or Katherine Cylke at (702) 434-2735.    SNMIC and Workforce Connections appreciate your time and consideration. 

If you are not the proper person to fill out the survey, please forward on to that person in your organization.

Most parents have experienced that panic late at night when a child gets a high fever, sore throat or breaks a bone and only has the crowded emergency rooms at the local hospitals to turn to.

Phoenix-based Good Night Pediatrics, which opened its doors in Henderson Jan. 22, eases that panic in parents and offers a place for pediatric urgent care. Open every night of the year, including weekends and holidays from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m., Henderson’s latest medical facility ensures that every child needing after-hours care has the opportunity to see a pediatrician.

With five locations previously established in the Phoenix area, Good Night Pediatrics focuses on treating children suffering from asthma, the flu, pneumonia, sore throats, rashes and injuries such as sprains, minor broken bones and eye infections, among other illnesses.

“Good Night Pediatrics is an important and unique addition to the health care industry in Henderson, and we’re looking forward to seeing them thrive in the community,” said Bob Cooper, economic development division manager for the City of Henderson and SNMIC Board Member. “Good Night Pediatrics has shown great success in the Phoenix area and we’re happy that they chose Henderson as their first out-of-community expansion location.”

Located at 2651 North Green Valley Parkway, on the corner of Sunset Road and Green Valley Parkway in Henderson, Good Night Pediatrics offers bilingual services in English and Spanish. The staff at Good Night Pediatrics is trained to treat children from birth through 18 years of age, and the facility accepts almost all major insurance plans and offers a discounted flat rate for cash-paying clients.

“The right care at the right time” is the motto Good Night Pediatrics follows. On each visit, every child is seen by a pediatrician, and the facility has X-ray and lab services on site. The care provided at Good Night Pediatrics frees up space at area emergency rooms for adult patients, assisting with the overflow problem facing many Nevada hospitals.

For more information on Good Night Pediatrics call 702-933-5610 or visit www.goodnightpeds.com for English services and www.buenasnochespediatrics.com for Spanish.

HealthInsight will present  “A Better Way to Pay for Healthcare: A Payment Reform Summit” on April 22.  The event promises to be a one-of-a-kind informative and interactive conference on payment reform.  More details on the conference will be available soon at healthinsight.org.

The event, sponsored by STORAGECRAFT, Las Vegas Med I.T., g1oEMR, Nevada State Bank, HealthInsight, gCLOUD3 and SNMIC is an informative dinner about Electronic Medical Records Software, Disaster Recovery and how to qualify for the new ‘Meaningful Use’ stimulus incentives.  Learn how to take advantage of the $44 thousand per physician for Medicare or $64 thousand per physician for Medicaid stimulus enhancements. 

The dinner will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 2 at the Tuscany Suites Hotel  at 5:30 p.m.  Cost is $10 in advance or $15 at the door (Attendees paying in advance will receive a $5 Starbucks Gift Card at check-in).  Tuscany Suites is located at 255 E. Flamingo Road. 

Click here for more information on the event or to register.

A new report, Physician Workforce in Nevada – Current Characteristics and Distribution, provides the most current data on the geographic and specialty distribution of the allopathic physician workforce (MDs) in Nevada.

Utilizing data collected by the American Medical Association’s Physician Masterfile, the 2009 edition of this report released by the University of Nevada School of Medicine’s Office of Education and Health Services Outreach, provides a comprehensive portrait of the physician workforce in Nevada and changes in the composition of the workforce over the past decade.

Click here to view the complete report.

The Southern Nevada Medical Industry Coalition (SNMIC) has partnered with the Area Health Education Center of Southern Nevada (AHEC) and the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) to launch the Southern Nevada Healthcare Industry Education, Training and Employment Project.

The project combines the workforce development experience, educational and employment resources of the three partnered organizations to provide entry-level health career training for the program’s clients.

“The project is intended to enable clients to pursue a career in the health care field thus reducing our critical shortage of healthcare workers,” said Marcie Jackson, CHES, deputy director for AHEC. “With unemployment rates over 13 percent in Las Vegas, job training programs like this are a vital component to economic recovery.”

Established in 1989, AHEC of Southern Nevada has become Southern Nevada’s primary source of education, support and information resources regarding healthcare professions and consumers in urban under-served, rural and frontier communities. AHEC strives to improve quality healthcare through education and outreach and striving toward a culturally diverse workforce.

AHEC provides programmatic and fiscal management, case management and job development services for the project.

CSN will offer four programs to individuals in the Workforce Development Program including training for emergency medical technicians, phlebotomy, certified nursing assistants and health unit coordinators.

“This effort is truly demonstrating that potential workers can be case managed through initial assessment, education and then placement into a healthcare job,” said Dr. Hyla Winters, PhD, RHIA, interim associate vice president of academic affairs for CSN. “These jobs help not only local employers but the families of these students.  CSN is proud to participate.”

Established in 1971, CSN is the fourth largest two-year college of its kind in the United States and Nevada’s largest institution of higher learning. Each semester, CSN, which educates a professional and technology savvy work force, registers nearly 40,000 students. The College employs over 2,800 people while operating three main campuses and 11 academic centers and sites in four counties.

SNMIC’s involvement includes conducting outreach and marketing for the program.

“SNMIC exists to provide better access and delivery to health care in Southern Nevada, and by fostering a program that encourages individuals to pursue careers in the health care field, not only are people who may not have options in other fields given a new career path, but the health care system is strengthened,” said Doug Geinzer, who serves as chairperson of SNMIC’s Board of Directors. “It’s a win-win situation for everyone.”

Southern Nevada Healthcare Industry Education, Training and Employment Project targets clients that include adult, dislocated workers as well as unemployed and underemployed persons, recipients of public assistance, low-income individuals, seniors, veterans and disabled. The program focuses on the healthcare industry because of the shortages of entry level and advanced healthcare workers combined with the high unemployment rate in Southern Nevada.

Workforce Connection, formerly known as the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board, awarded a $1.1 million contract to AHEC, SNMIC and CSN for the project. 

For more information on the Southern Nevada Healthcare Industry Education, Training and Employment Project, visit www.snahec.org or the Workforce Development page on this site.

In its 4th Annual Healthcare Heroes Awards  Nevada Business Magazine honored five Southern Nevada Medical Industry Coalition members for their efforts in making substantial medical progress to benefit the residents of Nevada.

Rod Davis, co-founder of SNMIC and CEO/president of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals, was named Administrator of the Year; Dr. Ron Kline, an SNMIC Board of Directors member and Legislative Task Force member as well as physician/partner for Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, was named Care Provider of the Year; Dr. Carolyn Yucha, an SNMIC Board Member and Education Task Force member as well as dean of Nursing at UNLV, was named Educator of the Year; Bob Cooper, an SNMIC Board member and coordinator as well as Economic Development manager for the City of Henderson, was named Community Partner of the Year; and Ann Lynch, SNMIC Board member and Legislative Task Force co-chair as well as vice president of Government Affairs for Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center, was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Honoree submissions for “Healthcare Heroes” were submitted by peers and business colleagues throughout the state. Criteria used to select honorees was at the discretion of a diverse volunteer committee, comprised of both healthcare and non-healthcare professionals.