Steve Marcus

Dr. Aimee Fleury confers with Dr. Nick Spirtos, medical director of the Womens Cancer Center of Nevada, at the center Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012. Fleury, a gynecologic oncologist, joined the center thisAugust.

By Conor Shine (contact)

Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012 | 2 a.m.

When the Veterans Affairs Medical Center opened last month in North Las Vegas, it was hailed by local and national leaders as a major step forward for delivering healthcare in the valley.

The $600 million, 1-million-square-foot building, which is stocked with state-of-the-art technology and provides a centralized location for a variety of specialized clinics, is expected to improve the quality of care for veterans and will allow the VA to increase the number of Southern Nevada patients it serves by a third to 60,000.

The only problem: There arent enough doctors on staff to handle the influx of new patients.

A doctor shortage has long been plagued Nevada, which consistently ranks near the bottom nationally in doctor-to-patient ratios. In 2011, the most recent figures available, Nevada had 171 physicians for every 100,000 of its residents.

With affordable housing, good weather and a medical industry thats easier to break into than in older, more-established cities, Las Vegas is an attractive option for many doctors.

But a lack of residency and fellowship programs especially in specialty areas like gastroenterology and head and neck surgery makes it difficult to train enough doctors in state to meet the demand, forcing hospitals to look out-of-state when recruiting physicians.

Original post:
Shiny, new VA hospital suffers from longtime Nevada malady: doctor shortages