Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
BUILDING A COHESIVE HEALTH CARE COMMUNITY
As founder, president and CEO of MDX Labs, I am passionate about the health care industry. Currently, Las Vegas is in a point of transition. I have witnessed the industry advance as our city has grown and new demographics mature into adulthood. It continues to evolve and expand, allowing Nevada to move up in the rankings for health care.
I am part of the community of leaders and organizations in the health care space that have been addressing the challenges as well as building a cohesive health care community. Our coalition of likeminded individuals and companies creates influence and shares the same principles in health care. We want to drive change, innovation and growth in the health care industry for the good of the community.
MDX Labs was battle born out of a significant need during the pandemic recognizing that there were no local labs to fill the space for testing for COVID-19. Big conglomerates operated most of the labs at the time, which limited our residents from getting timely results from their tests. Our goal for MDX Labs is to be available for people with questions as a locally based provider. We can turn around test results quickly, unlike other labs that ship about 70 percent of their tests out of state.
For our team, we want to offer an enterprise to attract talent to the state of Nevada, keep all revenue in Nevada and provide turnaround times and consultations to our community. Since the pandemic, we have transitioned into surveillance population and health testing to address some of the needs that have been ignored, such as tuberculosis. We are also getting deeper into some neglected populations with high rates of STDS, especially AIDS, which go unreported. We want to create an understanding of what this population is facing with the lack of accessible health care and meet the needs and demands of our community.
As our way to create one solution, we have developed a nonprofit medical center, The Neighborhood Clinic, in downtown Las Vegas as a primary care provider with a family nurse practitioner on-site and other medical staff. We have provided the ability to provide quality health care to those who might not have received care from a medical provider. This developed with our partnership with the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, which has served this community since 1970.
I had the idea to create this nonprofit to stand up as we saw the need and to offer the population a way to get into the medical system the way it was developed and keep them safe. We enroll many of our clients into the Medicaid program, so they have access to health care and create the foundation to allow them to become and remain healthy. We focus on engagement with the patient and what it took for them to get to this place. Our staff will discuss nutrition, mental well-being and other areas. We collaborate with several wellness organizations and an extensive referral network beyond health care, including special needs. Most importantly, we are working on making it self-sufficient. I am extremely proud of developing this nonprofit as part of our commitment to the health care of Southern Nevada.
The Neighborhood Clinic is the in the process of building a second location and plans to open 10 locations in the coming 12 months. This speaks to the growth of the health care space in Southern Nevada and the need for trained staff. When I started this project, I assumed that the most difficult challenge would be staffing. We have a shortage of providers that number about 4,500, which means even if a client has great health insurance, a job, transportation and the ability to see a doctor, they still can’t make an appointment due to overbooking.
However, many medical professionals, including doctors and EMTS, tell us they want to become part of our team and make a difference. These health care professionals originally entered the field to provide care to people.
Our goal is to become part of an effective health care system in Southern Nevada. This benefits our community with a healthier population, raising the profile of the state, with more proactive health care and ultimately a thriving business community.
Founder, president and CEO of MDX Labs, Dan Briggs is the visionary behind MDX Labs, bringing together the best minds in business and health care. He oversees the Clia-certified, high-complexity molecular diagnostics laboratory with core competencies in RT-PCR testing, COVID-19, Toxicology, STI, Women’s Health, Wound Care, PGX and Infectious Disease. He also maintains relationships with other labs and providers.
The Neighborhood Clinic is the in the process of building a second location and plans to open 10 locations in the coming 12 months.