Pierce County jail criticized for health, dental, mental staffing

TACOMA — More than 12 years after the settlement of a lawsuit brought by Pierce County jail inmates, an outside health expert has found deficiencies in medical, dental and mental health staffing at the lockup.

The report issued in January by Dr. Joseph Goldenson, head of jail health services in the San Francisco Department of Public Health, is the first since 2005, although two reports a year were mandated by the settlement in 1995. Goldenson was chosen to make the examination last year after the previous doctor was removed for failing to file reports.

Jail officials said they would address the issues raised by Goldenson based on an inspection Nov. 15-16, but added that he was still learning about the jail. Some conditions he said needed improvement were described as fine by the previous monitor, said Vincent P. Goldsmith, the jail's health service manager.

"We both agreed we needed to capture some additional statistics for him to look at," Goldsmith said.

Fred Diamondstone, a lawyer for the inmates, praised the communication between the jail staff and mental health providers but said overall there was little improvement between Goldenson's examination and the last previous report.

"We certainly want to see Pierce County make the necessary improvement and get across the finish line," Diamondstone said. "The court order has been in effect for 12 years and it's time to achieve compliance."

Goldenson found more than 20 areas in which medical services failed to meet national accreditation standards which, while not binding, are used by the jail as a gauge.

For example, he found that because of a shortage of triage nurses, no one is available when a nurse gets sick or is on vacation and inmates must wait longer for their requests for routine medical care to be answered.

Nursing supervisor Mary Scott said that "during time of high absenteeism, this level of staffing was almost disabling," Goldenson wrote.

He also found that inmates in administrative segregation are supposed to be checked by a nurse three times a week, but nurses made those rounds only 60 percent of the time.

Staff shortages are compounded by background screening that can extend the hiring process to as long as six months, compared with a month or less to hire health care professionals for jobs outside the jail, Goldenson wrote.

He also found dental care was available one day a week and rated that "totally insufficient," noting that one patient with a broken tooth had been waiting 44 days and another with a cracked molar and an exposed root had been waiting 10 days.

Once a week is twice as much as had been provided previously, and the jail's total needs will be evaluated before a decision is made to hire a full- or part-time dentist, Goldsmith said.

"Pierce County is a big meth(amphetamine) county," he said. "People who use that drug have a lot of dental problems."

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Information from: The News Tribune, http://www.thenewstribune.com