The DeKalb County Commission voted last Monday night to approve a request by DeKalb County Sheriff Patrick Ray to provide 24-hour a day, seven day a week, nursing staff at the DeKalb County Jail. Citing liability concerns, Sheriff Ray asked the commission to provide the nursing change from its current 12-hour a day contract.

Sheriff Ray made the request at the Commission’s Health, Education, & Public Welfare Committee meeting on Monday, August 9, where three companies were on hand to submit proposals for the service.

Currently Advanced Correctional Healthcare of Franklin is contracted to provide a 12-hour nurse, seven days a week, at the jail, but that contract expires on August 31. Advanced Correctional Healthcare made a bid at the meeting to provide 24/7 care, at a cost of $421,679, including $20,000 pool money. Another company, Quality Correctional Healthcare, bid the service for $420,348.

In the end, the committee recommended to enter into a contract with Fast Access of Chattanooga, TN. Their bid was at $377,880, an increase of $134,223 above what the county currently pays Advanced Correctional Healthcare.

Sheriff Ray said that though it will cost more on the front end, it could save the county money in the long term. “Currently during the 12-hour period when the nurse is not there, our correctional officers have to fix the inmates’ medications, draw insulin out of a bottle, take blood pressures, and do assessments on inmates for the doctors. We are going beyond the scope of what our expertise is as correctional officers at the jail. I am very concerned about the liability of our department taking on medical things.”

“To cover the county, myself, and my department, we ask for a 24-hour nurse, and while it costs more there will be cost savings later in terms of emergency room visits. A lot of ER visits we make are due to inmate chest pains when the nurse is not there, because they (prisoners) know we have to send them to the ER. An average ER bill is now probably $5,000 to $7,000 and if there are any extras the bill goes up from there,” Sheriff Ray explained.

“We can buy an EKG machine at a discounted rate from them (Fast Access), and let them do the EKGs in the jail instead of having to carry them to the emergency room to do them. I think that will save us some money on ER trips. I also called our insurance carrier for liability insurance and it will save us some money on our premiums next year by having 24 hour nurses,” Sheriff Ray concluded.

Following the committee’s recommendation, the full commission voted unanimously to approve the recommendation, and approved a budget amendment to fund the request from the county's fund balance.

Also at Monday's County Commission meeting, Dr. Denise Dingle was approved as the new DeKalb County medical examiner. Dr. Dingle will take over the position after the passing of longtime local physician, Dr. J.C. Wall, passed away last month.  She will serve a five-year term until August 23, 2026. 

Commissioner Bruce Malone was also on the agenda for Monday's meeting, addressing the commission for what he described as concerns over the 2021-22 budget that was passed last week. Malone accused members of the commission of possible ethics violations, and claimed that the budget was full of spending that benefits some officials.

"I think this budget is ridiculous and it's packed with fluff from front to back, and bottom to top," Malone told the commission. "I think most of it is pure waste ... It caters to family owned businesses, it caters to personal family interests, it caters to clubs, it puts money directly in pockets of certain commissioners, it may or may not create jobs for family members of commissioners. Of course this is only my personal opinion."

Malone also took issue with the way the commission's meetings are held, and who may speak and how they can address the commission. Specifically, Malone was questioning whether Commissioner Jerry Adcock should have been threatened to be remove from last week's meeting over the budget. Adcock and Commissioner Shaee Flatt became involved in a back and forth argument that became heated at times, and Sheriff Ray was called to get things under control.

"Being out of order is subjective," Malone continued. "I really think it is subjective. There were some things said, and done. I'm not going to defend or judge anything that was said or did. I got the feeling that there was a deliberate measure to make more constrictions as to constrain the policy or rights of people to speak, what they said and how they said it, and the use of force to remove a commissioner for simply expressing their views."

Malone then went on to compare the commission’s meeting policy to that of Nazi Gestapo tactics, and claimed that certain factions of the commission are elitist. "There's been an air of superiority on this commission. All of the sudden they are all about the rules."

He was allowed to speak for over 18 minutes during the meeting before the commission moved on with other business.