GOVERNMENT: COUNTY CONSIDERS HIRING JAIL NURSE

JACKSON, Mo. -- The Cape Girardeau County Jail may soon have a nurse on staff to conduct health screenings of prisoners and serve as a medical gatekeeper.

The move would reduce prisoners' visits to doctors' offices and hospital emergency rooms, Sheriff John Jordan said.

The Cape Girardeau County Commission may approve the hiring of a nurse as early as next week.

"We think we will save money," said Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones.

The county spent $77,771 on medical care for prisoners last year, which includes the cost of medicine. Through the first nine months of this year, the county had spent $72,535 on medical care for its prisoners, both those housed in its own jail and those being held in other jails for lack of space.

Jordan estimates medical care cost the county about $960 per prisoner a year ago. With a nurse on board, that cost could be reduced, he said.

The new jail being built as an addition to the sheriff's department building in Jackson includes a medical examination room. There also is a medical unit where prisoners suffering from such diseases as tuberculosis, hepatitis and AIDS could be isolated from the regular prison population.

The sheriff hopes eventually to contract with a doctor or doctors, who would make trips to the jail to see sick prisoners, eliminating the security problems posed by taking inmates to doctors' offices.

A nurse alone would be a major improvement, the sheriff said.

Currently, the sheriff's department errors on the side of caution when it comes to inmates' medical complaints, Jordan said. Deputies end up taking prisoners to doctors' offices or hospital emergency rooms even when it is unclear if the inmates are truly in need of medical care.

The sheriff said a nurse would protect the county from a liability standpoint by providing health screenings and handling the dispensing of any medicines to prisoners. Fewer trips to doctors' offices and hospital emergency rooms would result in cost savings, he said.

Jordan wants to have a nurse on board even before the new jail opens early next year. The county is working with Charlotte Craig, the director of the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center, to find a registered nurse for the job.

The sheriff said the position could pay in the $20,000 range or higher. The job would be Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with the nurse being on call on weekends should medical services be needed.

The U.S. Justice Department inspected the jail operation about a year ago and concluded that the sheriff's department didn't do adequate health screenings of prisoners, Jordan said.

Two other Southeast Missouri counties, Butler and Mississippi counties, already have jail nurses.

Butler County has had a nurse on staff for about three years. "Over the long run, it saves us quite a bit of money in medical expenses," said Lt. Rick Sliger of the Butler County Sheriff's Department.

Mississippi County hired a nurse when it opened its new jail about 20 months ago. The county also contracts with two nurse practitioners who make house calls at the jail in Charleston twice a week.