Medical expansion at jail approved in 6 month trial

Surry County Sheriff Steve C. Hiatt addresses a crowd gathered for the groundbreaking of the new detention center in Dobson in August 2021. The new facility will have a much higher headcount and the county is looking to expand medical coverage at the new detention center to be round-the-clock. (Submitted photo)

For some time now the opening of the new Surry County detention center has been on the minds of county leaders and Monday night at the board of county commissioner meeting, the board heard about the need to create a plan to expand medical coverage at the new jail dramatically.

Denise Brown of the county finance office presented a recommendation to the commissioners that would take medical coverage at the jail from its current 12 hours a day to 24 hours a day. She explained that since 2010 the county has contracted Southern Health Partners (Southern) to oversee medical care at the jail.

The board approved a plan to retain Southern for medical care at the new facility for a six-month probationary period.

Brown admits though that there have been problems with the provider. "We were having issues with them and in 2021 we issued an RFP (Request for Proposal) and only Southern came back." She explained that the forthcoming detention center was part of the reason other companies did not bid therefore the contract with Southern was extended.

Brown said, "In December we were still having problems and the Surry County Sheriff's Office asked if they could get quotes for a new service contract. Right now, we have 12 hours on site at the health department…We are recommended we go to 24 hours and no matter (which provider) we go with."

Brown said that six companies were vetted to manage the contract but that only two made it through that process, Southern and IMS Correctional Healthcare.

Commissioner Bill Goins expressed some surprise that Southern was still in the mix. "We have not been happy with this company, and we’re going to continue to do business with them?"

Brown countered, "In the last two to three months, they have made a few hires that the jail is very happy with" and they expressed an interest in keeping those staff members even if the contract changed to a new provider. "Right now, service isn't a problem. Southern has also brought back a person at the regional level to work on some of their issues because they know they had some issues."

The recommendation to the board was to accept Southern on a six-month probationary contract, beginning on July 1, to offer 24/7 medical at the detention center. Brown said in that six months the county would be able to see if Southern was up to the task and if so, the contract could be extended because Southern was the lower bidder.

She said, "They have the chops to do the service, it's just a matter can they get the staff," she said and alluded to the difficulty in hiring across all parts of the public sector. Also, she reminded that, "When we were having the biggest problems with them was during COVID and people …. all over were having problems during COVID."

"The six months will allow you to make sure they have their act together," she advised, and Chairman Eddie Harris jumped right in to ask if they did not, would the county be able to hold an RFP and find a new vendor.

"We’re going to do one anyway and have it ready because we can't wait for the back end of the six months because any provider is going to need a month or two to turn it over. They can't do it on a dime in a day, not adequately," she said.

Goins said, if possible, he would be interested in seeing a local provider. "I like the idea of having a local provider rather than someone in a corporate office…especially if we have not been satisfied. I know they’re (Southern) trying to get their act together, but I would be for putting it out to bid."

Timing was at the heart of the matter as the fiscal year was soon ending and the contract with Southern Health Partners was set to expire. The county needed to give them a 60-day notice to break the existing contract or break the contract for cause of which Brown said was no longer available.

The matter felt rushed to some board members and Commissioner Van Tucker offered, "We didn't have time to RFP."

"Why did we wait so long?" Commissioner Mark Marion asked.

Brown gave the frank assessment that the normal day-to-day operations of the county, the jail, and an ever-moving opening date for the new facility made it hard to get this done in a timely fashion. She said she talked with the Surry County Sheriff's Office about the medical issue last November and that by the time the list got vetted and narrowed down, the clock had nearly run out given that a 60-day window was needed.

Harris said the plan was "a collaborative effort with the health department, the sheriff, the county, and the finance team." He said that a whole new health model is going to be needed at the new detention center because. "We’re going to have a whole lot more guests in the coming months."

He said continuing with Southern is "a stop gap measure and that's how it came down from the finance committee."

Brown replied, "That's right, to break their contract we had to meet that 60 days and we did not want to continue the contract as it was because it is a yearlong contract, and we were not sure they could do it."

"This tonight is the first I’m hearing about any of this, and you said there was a bunch of meeting on this," Commissioner Larry Johnson said in raising concerns, "I’m concerned about the history of this company and know we need to be frugal with our funds, but you get what you pay for."

He said in his business life he learned he couldn't survive on "being the cheapest" but rather he wanted to be the best adding, "I don't like their (Southern) track record."

"We didn't do this willy-nilly. We brought in the county attorney, the county manager…. and even had the proposals that we had vetted," Harris added.

"This is a lot to take in," Marion interjected with a bit of frustration bubbling through. "You’re talking about all these departments being involved in all this, why didn't we (the board of commissioners) know about it?"

The answer was the timing was of the essence and Tucker worked to flush out the details saying that the issue was brought to the finance committee from the sheriff's office in March or April and Brown reminded that the current Southern contract would have been set to end June 30.

Brown said that if the county had not acted, they would have had to pull in a provider or the health departmentas a stop gap and "we could not have gotten it turned around."

County Attorney Ed Woltz said he was worried about the timing and recommended that the board approve the plan "to fill the gap" and allow the board more time to consider what moves they want to make in the future "while covering the bases, because if we don't cover the bases, we don't have coverage."