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In business Health care quarterly Health care quarterly psychiatric clinic approved to open henderson doctor customizes knee replacement surgery for each patient By Cy Ryan staff writer CARSON CITY — A legislative subcommittee this month approved closing a mental health clinic in downtown Las Vegas and opening a 24-hour psychiatric clinic in the northwest valley. The 13 employees from the downtown clinic will be transferred to the main campus of Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services on West Charleston Boulevard, where a seven-day, 24-hour clinic will be opened to provide psychiatric services. The closure was described by the agency as the best way to finance an urgent care facility. The clinic on West Charleston is expected to help reduce the number of mentally ill patients going to hospital emergency rooms. The subcommittee also voted to approve Gov. Brian Sandoval's plan to add $3.1 million over the next two years to provide so-called "wrap around" services and transitional housing in Clark County to those who are released from jails, prisons or forensic hospitals and need mental health services. | 2 7 M AY 2 0 1 3 20130527_VI17_F.indd 17 | By William D'Urso Over a 13-year NFL career as a defensive lineman with the Los Angeles Rams, Tom Mack crushed and tackled opponents with his 6-foot-3 frame and 250 pounds of bulk. When his playing days were finished, Mack felt great. His body was free from serious injury and he was ready to move into a new career as an engineer. But eventually, he began to notice pain in his knees. He had become used to dealing with injury during his career, but this was different. Basic tasks became painful. The 69-year-old Henderson resident, who was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1999, began searching for a doctor who could make him pain-free. He found Robert Tait, a Harvard-trained surgeon and co-owner of Orthopaedic Institute of Henderson. Tait is the first physician in the Las Vegas area to offer knee replacements made to order through CT scans and 3-D printing. Because the implant and surgical instruments are designed for each patient, Tait said, it addresses the main driver of patient dissatisfaction with knee replacement: residual pain due to poor fit. "A light bulb went on in my head," Tait said of his introduction to the custom-made knees through a manufacturer called ConforMIS. "Really, it's the only thing I've seen in 20 years that holds on to the hope that we can utilize the computer before we go into the OR (operating room)." What Tait found was he could go into surgery with a better idea of how an artificial knee would fit each patient. Mack's was just one of more than 3,000 knee replacement surgeries Tait has performed in a 20-year career. In that time, the number of knee implant procedures has risen markedly nationwide. Tait said most of the surgeries he has done have been with off-the-shelf knees, but he recently made the change to custom implants. He said about 1 in 5 people have some sort of residual pain with off-the-shelf implants, a number he says is cut by about 20 percent with a custom-fit knee. Additionally, Tait says the ConforMIS knees are at least $10,000 cheaper than custom-fit replacements used to be. With his new knees, Mack can do whatever he wants — without pain. He can walk and drive a car without a problem. And though he's cleared to do athletically rigorous activities such as skiing and running, he doesn't mind leaving that behind. "I don't run because I don't really have much interest in it," Mack said with a laugh. "I figure I used to do it for a living and that's enough." 17 5/23/13 2:31:48 PM