The Nevada legislature put some money on the table this week for a Las Vegas hospital that would be operated by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

But some critics came out of the desert this week, too, questioning why Nevada money should go to Pittsburgh when there's plenty of home-grown expertise.

Supporters of the hospital project, which is part of a plan to revitalize the urban core of Las Vegas, initially hoped the legislature would dedicate $25 million to support planning and construction of the facility, said Betsy Fretwell, deputy city manager. Legislators ultimately appropriated $5.5 million at the close of a session that ended this week.

"It's a significant commitment on the part of the state, considering when we went in and talked to the legislators," Fretwell said. "We have a 120-day legislative session every two years, so there's a really small window of opportunity for an appropriation such as this."

The mayor of Las Vegas has been the strongest supporter of the plan to partner with an outside academic medical center to create the new 250-bed hospital. The Cleveland Clinic was initially selected, but UPMC stepped in after the clinic bowed out last year.

It's still unclear how much money UPMC would generate from the project.

Fretwell noted that money appropriated by the legislature would go to the University of Nevada, which is one of the partners in the project.

Dr. Loren Roth, the chief medical officer at UPMC, said officials were encouraged by the legislative development, adding that they hope to move quickly toward signing a memorandum of understanding. University of Nevada officials will visit Pittsburgh later this month, Roth said.

UPMC already operates a hospital in Palermo, Italy, on a government contract. But the Las Vegas agreement would be somewhat different because UPMC would take the financial risk for hospital operations.

The Las Vegas hospital would be similar to the Italian effort in its focus on research, education and providing advanced hospital services. In this way, the new hospital would not compete directly with existing hospitals in Las Vegas, UPMC officials have said. Still, leaders of the Clark County Medical Society publicly questioned UPMC's involvement for the first time this week.

Carson County is home to Las Vegas, and the quality of medical care in the community has improved with the rapid expansion of the city's population, said Dr. Edwin Kingsley, a medical oncologist and past president of the county medical society. He said leaders of the local medical community want to develop their own proposal for the new medical center, one that involves recruiting experts to Las Vegas rather than hiring them from out-of-town. "It's not that we don't like Pittsburgh, or the idea of improving medical care," Kingsley said. "And it's not that we are so thin-skinned we can't handle people coming in and helping out. ... But there's a concern that there will be dollars flowing out of the state that could stay in the state."