Buvo Center bestowed with worldwide honor
Work with Parkinson’s patients acknowledged
The Parkinson’s Foundation has designated the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas as a “Center of Excellence,” making it one of just 45 organizations worldwide with the title.
The designation bestowed last week on the Ruvo Center and the Ohio-based Cleveland Clinic headquarters, goes to hospitals and medical centers that provide specialized Parkinson’s care, according to a news release from the foundation. The neurodegenerative disease affects about 1 million people in the U.S. and about 10 million around the globe.
In order for a center to receive designation, it must see at least 700 patients with Parkinson’s annually, conduct research and clinical trials on the disease and employ a neurologist who specializes in movement disorders, a nurse, social worker, physical therapist, occupational therapist and speech-language pathologist, the release said.
The chosen center also must provide educational events for patients and families and provide access to wellness programs.
Added funding, extra clout
When Dr. Zoltan Mari, a movement disorders specialist, joined the Lou Ruvo Center team more than a year ago, he was tasked with applying for the coveted designation. Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, his previous employer, is also a Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence.
For Mari and his team, it means about $60,000 in annual funding, which will be split with Cleveland Clinic Ohio to improve education and outreach to patients. The Lou Ruvo Center will use it to task an existing nurse practitioner with creating a patient-focused newsletter and increasing awareness of existing educational and support programs.
The designation also opens access to research opportunities and databases that are otherwise difficult to obtain, Mari said.
“Being a Center of Excellence opens doors,” he said. “This is a major step in changing that culture and changing the health value system in the city and in the state.”
Designated facilities must be recertified every five years, according to the release.
“It’s a huge recognition,” clinic founder Larry Ruvo said. “It’s another level of quality care that (Las Vegas) didn’t have before.”
It’s also a tool for the Las Vegas center to bargain for better reimbursement rates with local insurers, Ruvo said.
‘In a stronger position’
It’s not unusual for health care facilities to seek such recognitions and use them as leverage for funding and reimbursement, said Ernie Libman, a retired health care administrator who ran HMO insurance plans in Illinois and Colorado before moving to Las Vegas in 1977 to take over as director of planning and development at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center.
He became CEO of Nathan Adelson Hospice and then Valley Hospital Medical Center before ending his career as the CEO of Lake Mead Hospital Medical Center, now North Vista Hospital.
“They’re in a stronger position,” he said of the Lou Ruvo Center receiving the Center of Excellence designation. “It’s going to give them a little mojo when they go in to talk to managed-care people about why they should be paid appropriately.”
And while it might look attractive to doctors looking to move to Nevada — a notoriously dry state for health care — it’s not enough alone.
“There’s what we offer in terms of residencies and the opportunities for people to bring their kids and have schools here that are equal to other parts of the country,” Libman said, referring to areas in need of improvement in the state. “And reimbursement rates. Reimbursement is a big issue.”
Contact Jessie Bekker at jbekker@ reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563. Follow @jessiebekks on Twitter.