Hospital defends its $1 million deal

by Amy Judd | March 13, 2008 at 10:12 pm

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The University Medical Center is defending its contract with Dr. Dipak Desai - the man at the centre of the medical centres that have been closed down due to a hepititis scare - saying that they only had two takers for the job of director of the hospital's gastroenterology department, and they hired Desai because he came pre-packaged with other doctors.
It appears as if the doctors are getting better at making smart business moves that are less about the care they are giving and more about the number of zeros on their paycheck.
Hospital officials at UMC say that they had no choice but to take Dr. Desai's offer because they are required to give a certain level of care to their patients.
At least now he has given up the contract, but the damage may have already been done.

Other county officials, though, criticized the deal, which UMC canceled Tuesday, saying hospital administrators should not have caved in to Desai’s request for a hefty pay increase. One local doctor called the deal a byproduct of UMC’s short-term business mind-set.

“If nobody asks a question, then we just go along,” said Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani. “Shame on us. Shame on me.”

Still, most commissioners backed the decision to grant the contract to Desai, saying there weren’t other options.

Desai and UMC agreed to cancel the contract Tuesday. The hospital wanted out of the deal after health inspectors found that unsafe medical practices at Desai’s Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada had led to six patients’ contracting hepatitis C at the clinic. Another 40,000 have been notified that they should be tested for infectious diseases.

The contract cancellation, however, raised questions about why Desai and his group got nearly $1 million annually to direct the hospital’s gastroenterology department — more than quadruple the $210,000 they had received for the same work at UMC in 2006.