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| Medical Staff at Orange County Jail to Gain 30 Positions |
| By Orlando Sentinel |
| Published: 04/05/2002 |
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The Orange County Jail, where dismal medical services prompted an eight-month investigation that wrapped up last week, is getting $1.48 million to create 30 medical staff positions. County commissioners approved the expenditure recently, as well as $1.2 million for temporary nursing services until the positions are filled. The death of an inmate last year prompted the creation of the Jail Oversight Commission, which is expected to release its findings and recommendations today. While the $1.48 million will help, finding nurses will likely prove challenging. A nursing shortage has long plagued the region and the jail. After the death last summer of Karen Johnson, 43, who died from complications of methadone withdrawal, the facility faced an exodus of nurses as morale plunged, leaving about half of the licensed practical-nursing positions -- the bulk of the staff -- unfilled. Open positions on the medical staff have since been winnowed to four of the 122 positions budgeted. Filling the new positions could take months, said Pam Steinke, manager of Orange County Health Services, which now runs the medical unit at the jail. 'The jail has become the de facto mental health facility for this county,' Steinke said, noting that more than 10 percent of the jail's inmates suffer mental illness and require psychotropic medication. Nearly one-third of the inmates are chronically ill with problems ranging from HIV or AIDS and schizophrenia to high-risk pregnancies and tuberculosis. To highlight the need for more medical help, county officials have pointed to the size of the jail's inmate population and its medical staff over the years. In 1995, when the jail housed about 3,200 inmates, 119 medical staffers were on the payroll. This year, with the number of inmates topping 4,000, the number of medical staffers totals 118, not the including four unfilled nursing slots. |
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