Douglas County commissioners have avoided what was expected to be a $40,000 hit to a tight budget, but the good news didn't leave them with a warm, fuzzy feeling.
Douglas County Sheriff Rick Trapp told commissioners this week that a new contract to provide medical services to county jail inmates won't be $40,000 more than currently budgeted as was expected last month.
Instead, the new contract which will use Heartland Medical Outreach for physicians and Douglas County Visiting Nurses Assn. for nursing will be $803 more than the $256,000 budgeted.
Commissioners said they were relieved Trapp negotiated costs down but were still frustrated state and federal laws mandate the county pay for such high levels of inmate medical care.
"It is kind of like finding out you have a cavity rather than a broken arm," Commissioner Charles Jones said. "It's still bad news, but not quite as bad."
Commissioners said they want to keep looking for ways to reduce the medical costs well below the quarter-of-a-million-dollar range.
"My concern is that we may be overly cautious in our efforts to follow the law," Commissioner Bob Johnson said. "I won't second-guess the sheriff's responsibilities, but I do think we should keep asking him whether we are sure we have to do this to the level that we are."
Trapp was able to negotiate costs down by eliminating one new position, a medical records clerk, which reduced bids by about $23,000. Trapp also convinced bidders to eliminate special charges for some services and instead include them as part of their base package.
The new contract will allow a physician to be on-site at the jail an extra three hours per week and will increase nursing hours by three hours per day on the weekends. Currently a physician is on-site approximately four hours per week, and nurses are on duty five days a week from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and for four hours per day on Saturdays and Sundays.
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