Nevada lawmakers advance bill to let counties use statewide victim-tracking database after mass casualty incidents

Assembly Bill 50, a bill that would authorize counties to use a permission-based, interoperable impacted persons database during mass casualty incidents, advanced out of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on a voice vote Monday and was placed into work session.

The bill’s sponsors and public-safety officials told the committee the legislation is designed to reduce the time families wait to learn whether loved ones are safe, injured or deceased during large-scale incidents.

Clark County emergency-management staff described the impetus for the bill as the October 1, 2017, Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting, when 58 people were killed and more than 850 were injured. “We were paralyzed by a lack of information and the coordination of that information,” Misty Richardson, former assistant emergency manager for Clark County, said. Richardson said her office and county partners built an “impacted persons database” because an off‑the‑shelf product was not available.

The legislation would create a statewide framework so counties that adopt a similar system could share limited patient information among first responders, hospitals and family assistance centers during a declared mass casualty incident. Sponsors said the tool is permission-based, designed to be HIPAA- and HL7‑compliant, and to provide a unique identifier for victims so they can be connected with long‑term victim services if they opt in.

“Had this been in place in 2017, it could have helped us reduce the agonizing 18‑hour window of uncertainty,” said Candis Gumbs, whose cousin was killed at the Route 91 festival. Gumbs and several other family members and survivors gave emotional testimony in support of the bill.

Clark County and local hospitals described operational coordination. “Each [hospital] has an internal process to mark an incoming patient as part of a mass casualty incident,” Misty Richardson said. She told senators Nevada’s four major hospital systems in southern Nevada can feed a minimal data set into the county database without changing routine workflows.

Supporters, including the Southern Nevada Health District, the city of Henderson, the city of Las Vegas and the Professional Firefighters of Nevada, told the committee the database helped reunify hundreds of people in later incidents. Lorea Arstegui, deputy family assistance center manager for Clark County, said the county used the system during a University of Nevada, Las Vegas incident to reunify about 540 people and notify families within six hours.

Committee members questioned the scope of participating facilities and the handling of conscious patients. Ashley Kennedy, Clark County, said the database is intended for victims who cannot identify themselves or need reunification; conscious patients would be asked for consent before being entered. Kennedy also said the bill includes liability and immunity provisions for counties that use the system.

Senator Dina Titus moved to place AB 50 into a work session; Senator Jeff Stone seconded. The motion carried by voice vote, and the chair assigned the floor statement to Senator Titus.

Supporters asked lawmakers to preserve survivor privacy while enabling faster family notification and to adopt the bill so counties that develop similar tools can operate with clearer legal protections.