NEVADA VIEWS: Lifesaving resources

Scott Scherr Special to the Las Vegas Review-Journal September 26, 2026 - 9:01 pm On Oct. 1, 2017, a mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip sent a surge of victims to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center. The facility’s emergency department, which typically accommodates about 45 beds, suddenly faced more than 250 patients arriving by ambulance, private vehicles, taxis and rideshares. Many lay on gurneys, in wheelchairs or on the floor, suffering from severe gunshot wounds. In response, more than 100 physicians and 200 nurses, along with countless other medical professionals and staff, mobilized to help. The hospital expanded treatment areas throughout the building, relocated patients to wherever safe care could be provided and, at one point, depleted supplies such as chest tubes, laryngoscopes and ventilators before quickly obtaining additional resources from sister hospitals in the system. Scherr worked roughly 20 consecutive hours. What remains vivid is the number of lives saved because emergency medical capacity was available when it was desperately needed. He describes Oct. 1 as an extreme and horrific episode, yet one that reinforced a lasting lesson: emergency medical capability matters. Southern Nevada cannot assume its existing hospital emergency departments will always be sufficient—not only during extraordinary mass‑casualty incidents but also on an ordinary Tuesday. The region’s emergency rooms routinely handle large patient volumes as the community continues to grow. Each added point of access to legitimate emergency care strengthens Southern Nevada’s healthcare safety net. Freestanding emergency rooms, therefore, are vital. They supplement the community’s healthcare options. Urgent care centers serve many non‑life‑threatening illnesses and injuries, but an emergency department is designed, equipped and staffed for fundamentally different scenarios: a patient with chest pain that could signal a heart attack, a child struggling to breathe, an individual showing stroke symptoms or a victim seriously injured in a crash. Freestanding ERs deliver emergency care 24 hours a day, seven days a week, staffed by emergency‑trained physicians and nurses and equipped with diagnostic tools such as advanced imaging and laboratory services. In Southern Nevada, these facilities bring that level of care into neighborhoods where people live. Scherr now oversees freestanding emergency departments within the Sunrise Health System and has seen firsthand how they expand access to emergency care. Yet that access could be jeopardized. As Nevada approaches the 2027 Legislative Session, there is concern that proposals might seek to reimburse freestanding ERs at rates comparable to urgent‑care centers. A thoughtful discussion about healthcare costs, transparency and ensuring patients understand where they receive care is warranted. Nevada already mandates that off‑campus emergency facilities clearly inform patients they are entering an emergency medical setting and will be charged for emergency—not urgent—care. However, reimbursement policy must also recognize what it takes to operate an emergency department. It is not feasible to require a facility to maintain the physicians, nurses, equipment, diagnostic capabilities and round‑the‑clock readiness of an ER while paying it as if it were an urgent‑care center; the economics simply do not align with the medical responsibility. If reimbursement falls below the level needed to sustain emergency operations, some facilities could become financially unviable, forcing them to close and cease operations altogether. Nearby residents, patients and anyone who relies on having emergency care close to home would bear the greatest impact. Scherr acknowledges worries about healthcare affordability and agrees they should be addressed, but he argues that reducing access to emergency medicine is not the solution. Oct. 1 taught him that the healthcare system can be tested beyond anything imagined, and that capability is not an abstract concept—it consists of doctors, nurses, equipment, treatment rooms and lifesaving resources available the instant a person needs them. Southern Nevada deserves greater emergency capacity, not less. The community should preserve the healthcare infrastructure it has built and guarantee that, when the unthinkable strikes—whether affecting a single household or an entire population—emergency care will be there. Because when someone’s life is on the line, the most important question should not be how far away help is, but how quickly it can be provided. If that matters to you, please contact your legislative representatives—your state assemblymembers and senators—to let them know you do not want to lose access to emergency care in your community. Dr. Scott Scherr is an emergency medicine physician. He writes from Las Vegas.