Doctor Vishvinder Sharma resigned Friday from the Nevada State Board of Health. Sharma is one of the doctors who owns the medical centers that potentially exposed patients to hepatitis and HIV.
Testimony to Legislative Committee on Health Care
Six of his centers remain closed, however the city of North Las Vegas has agreed to let one reopen. The letter from the city says no procedures can be done, just consultations, medicine prescriptions and lab test reviews.
The following centers remain closed:
- Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, 700 Shadow Lane
- Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center, 4275 S. Burnham
- Gastroenterology Center of Nevada, 4275 S. Burnham
- Spanish Hills Surgical Center, 5915 S. Rainbow Blvd.
- Gastroenterology Center of Nevada, 2610 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway
"I called the office and they said, 'Just go to your scheduled appointment.' This is my scheduled appointment, today at 10:45. Now nobody is here," said patient Selma Rabago.
Saturday Seminar on Health, Legal Issues For Endoscopy Center Patients
But the office never opened for anything Friday. Rabago had an appointment to have a doctor read some of her blood test results.
Read about the background of the doctors
As patients wonder what comes next, the Centers for Disease Control has joined the state to inspect all 50 health care centers licensed the same way as the Gastroenterology Center of Nevada.
UMC Offering Help to Medical Center Patients
The State Bureau of Licenser and Certification currently makes those inspections and claims they are severely understaffed. That's the reason the center on Shadow Lane -- the center that started this whole investigation -- had not been inspected since 2001.
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The end result for Rabago is a loss in confidence in the people who are supposed to heal, not harm.
"We are better off sick because they are going to make us worse. I am scared of doctors now," said Rabago.
The State Health Division hopes the unannounced inspections of all 50 of these centers will restore that faith in the medical profession.
So far, inspections of 13 other centers uncovered the same practices that potentially exposed patients to diseases like hepatitis and HIV.
