1. In any county whose population is 700,000 or more, the board of county commissioners is, ex officio, the board of hospital trustees, and the county commissioners shall serve as hospital trustees during their terms of office as county commissioners.

2. In any county whose population is less than 700,000, the board of county commissioners may enact an ordinance providing that the board of county commissioners is, ex officio, the board of hospital trustees. If such an ordinance is enacted in a county:

(a) The county commissioners shall serve as hospital trustees during their terms of office as county commissioners; and

(b) If hospital trustees have been elected pursuant to NRS 450.070 and 450.080, the term of office of each hospital trustee who is serving in that capacity on the effective date of the ordinance is terminated as of the effective date of the ordinance.

3. A board of county commissioners shall not enact an ordinance pursuant to subsection 2 unless it determines that:

(a) The county has fully funded its indigent care account created pursuant to NRS 428.010;

(b) The county has fulfilled its duty to reimburse the hospital for indigent care provided to qualified indigent patients; and

(c) During the previous calendar year:

(1) At least one of the hospital’s accounts payable was more than 90 days in arrears;

(2) The hospital failed to fulfill its statutory financial obligations, such as the payment of taxes, premiums for industrial insurance or contributions to the Public Employees’ Retirement System;

(3) One or more of the conditions relating to financial emergencies set forth in subsection 2 of NRS 354.685 existed at the hospital; or

(4) The hospital received notice from the Federal Government or the State of Nevada that the certification or licensure of the hospital was in imminent jeopardy of being revoked because the hospital had not carried out a previously established plan of action to correct previously noted deficiencies found by the regulatory body.

4. Except in counties where the board of county commissioners is the board of hospital trustees, in any county whose population is 100,000 or more but less than 700,000, the board of hospital trustees for the public hospital must be composed of the five regularly elected or appointed members, and, in addition, three county commissioners selected by the chair of the board of county commissioners shall serve as voting members of the board of hospital trustees during their terms of office as county commissioners.

5. Except in counties where the board of county commissioners is the board of hospital trustees, in any county whose population is less than 100,000, the board of hospital trustees for the public hospital must be composed of the five regularly elected or appointed members, and, in addition, the board of county commissioners may, by resolution, provide that:

(a) One county commissioner selected by the chair of the board of county commissioners shall serve as a voting member of the board of hospital trustees during his or her term of office as county commissioner;

(b) A physician who is the chief of the staff of physicians for the public hospital shall serve as a voting member of the board of hospital trustees; or

(c) Both a county commissioner appointed pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (a) and a physician appointed pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (b) shall serve as voting members of the board of hospital trustees.

The term of office of a member appointed pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (b) is 2 years and begins on the date the board of county commissioners appoints the member.

[Part 2:169:1929; A 1937, 194; 1949, 83; 1955, 165] — (NRS A 1960, 407; 1967, 1255; 1969, 1544; 1975, 1102; 1979, 549; 1989, 1928; 1995, 791; 1997, 571; 2001, 467; 2011, 1265; 2015, 739)