Task Force Focused on Women's Health Meets at Alta Vista
From The Optic - by Vanessa Maciel
A task force formed to discuss women’s health options in Las Vegas had its first meeting at Alta Vista Regional Hospital on Tuesday.
“Today is about exploration,” said Alta Vista Hospital Interim CEO Amanda Shurtz at the start of the meeting. The gathering included Sandy Deisler, infection control and risk manager for Alta Vista; Chief Nursing Officer Leah Joslin; Representative Elect Anita Gonzales; Trisha Smith, chief financial officer for Alta Vista; Arielle Hawney with the Las Vegas Community Foundation and Elaine Luna, a social worker and community health advocate.
Shurtz, who also serves as corporate director of operations for the nonprofit company that operates the hospital, said that Java Medical Group CEO Bappa Mukherji has been asked on numerous occasions if OB services will return to the hospital.
Shurtz said she has overheard Mukherji stating that ‘OB is not off the table for this hospital.’”
“What we need to do is figure out if it’s the right thing for the community,” Shurtz said of OB services. “We want to make sure as we make decisions as an expert group that we are using evidence, statistics, and empathy for the people who are involved and impacted.”
To this end, those in attendance took turns relaying their personal and professional experiences related to women’s health at Alta Vista.
Joslin said women’s health services are “a huge area of focus that needs some attention.”
“We still deliver babies in the ER,” Joslin noted. She added that there is a need to develop resources for women in the community not just of child-bearing age “but from puberty all the way through menopause and beyond.”
Gonzales noted that she is a local who is aware of the services at Alta Vista, including women’s health services that were once offered but are no longer available.
“I would love to get back to a space where services are being offered, being that they are currently not,” she said. “This is a community need.”
There are plans for the task force to invite other community health leaders to the group and to meet again in February.
