News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Putnam County Commissioners have directed County Mayor Randy Porter to look into potential costs of hiring an in-house medical team at the jail.
The decision comes after the commission voted to approve a new $1.1 million contract with Quality Correctional Health Care to provide services at the county jail during Monday’s meeting.
“I’ll be checking with our local healthcare providers along with some state healthcare providers to see what the costs are for hiring RNs, LPNs, and medical professionals to do this,” Porter said. “It’s good exercise that if something were to happen to this company and they chose to stop, we might have to use it at some point in time.”
The contract will expand mental health services to inmates while providing an on-site EKG machine and additional medical staff at the facility.
Commissioner Mike Atwood proposed the amendment to have Porter evaluate what it would cost the county to hire its own medical staff for the jail.
“I think it’s at least [up to] the commission to investigate the potential what the cost would be,” Atwood said, “I think we need to at least look at it. I’m going to support this contract tonight. I think we need to at least engage in this contract.”
Atwood said the county should be able to hire its own medical staff for the jail based on his own research.
“I’m just asking, that for the taxpayer, we do our due diligence and ask our County Mayor to investigate the potential,” Atwood said. “I’ll be frank, I spent last week talking with people in our medical park. I’ve got LPNs, I’ve got RNs, and I’ve got physicians assistants and nurse practitioners. I priced those salaries, and I used worst-case scenario. I was surprised.”
County Attorney Jeff Jones said the total allocated costs for the new healthcare system is in the $97,000 range, which covers staff salaries, equipment, and other medical costs.
“If [expenses] exceeds the $97,250 for a three-month time period, then there’s a true-up and the county pays the excess,” Jones said. “If it is less than the $97,250 per quarter, then there is a credit that’s carried over to the next quarter, and that will deduct from direct costs if it exceeds the $97,250.”
Porter said several aspects will need to be considered before the county is ready to hire a brand-new medical staff at the jail.
“Part of that’s going to be, when you become a county employee, you’ve got all the benefits. You’ve got 30-35 percent of the salary that you’ve got to add on to it,” Porter said. “There’s a lot of extras that have to be included. I think it’s just an exercise to see what would our costs be if we were to try and do it on our own, and what would the difficulties be in trying to find those people with the nursing shortage we’ve got going on right now.”
Commissioners approved Atwood’s amendment 15-9 before ultimately approving the contract by a count of 23-1. The one-year contract will take effect in late January after the current 60-day contract with QCHC expires.
