1. Except as otherwise provided in subsection 2 and NRS 450.625, if a hospital district is created pursuant to NRS 450.550 to 450.750, inclusive, the board of county commissioners shall provide by ordinance for:

(a) The number of members of the board of trustees;

(b) The term of office of the trustees, which must not exceed 4 years; and

(c) The times and manner of the election of the trustees, which must be nonpartisan.

2. If a hospital district specified in subsection 1 does not include territory within more than one county, the board of county commissioners may enact an ordinance providing that the board of county commissioners is, ex officio, the board of hospital trustees of the district hospital. If such an ordinance is enacted in a county:

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

(b) If hospital trustees have been elected pursuant to subsection 1, the term of office of each hospital trustee of the district hospital who is serving in that capacity on the effective date of the ordinance is terminated as of the effective date of the ordinance.

3. Except as otherwise provided in NRS 450.710, 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, including 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 license 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.

(Added to NRS by 1969, 1388; A 1995, 793; 1997, 572, 3102, 3137; 1999, 639, 2077; 2015, 740)