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Riverside County Grand Jury • 2000-2001

Riverside County Regional Medical Center Detention Health Services

Published: June 29, 2001 4 pages
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Findings 11 findings

F1
Riverside County detention facilities do not utilize the DHS staff for the initial health screening of new inmates. The sheriff’s correctional staff completes a medical questionnaire and refers positive responses or obvious medical needs to DHS. A number of medical conditions that require nursing or physician attention may not be recognized. Bookings occur 24 hours a day and there were 44,562 bookings in 1999. (Smith, June, 2000)
F2
The nursing staff of Detention Health Services is currently made up of approximately 80% Registered Nurses (RN) and 20% Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVN).
F3
Each area nursing supervisor is responsible for three different DHS units. When an RN is not available, the area supervising RN must fill that position, and this takes him/her away from his/her supervising responsibilities.
F4
Currently there is not an on-call roster of RNs with security clearance to be used as substitute personnel at detention facilities.
F5
California Penal Code 4025 reads in part “(e) The money and property deposited in the inmate welfare fund shall be expended by the sheriff primarily for the benefit, education, and welfare of the inmates confined within the jail. Any funds that are not needed for the welfare of the inmates may be expended for the maintenance of county jail facilities. Maintenance of county jail facilities may include, but is not limited to, the salary and benefits of personnel used in the programs to benefit the inmates, including, but not limited to, education, drug and alcohol treatment, welfare, library, accounting, and other programs deemed appropriate by the sheriff. An itemized report of these expenditures shall be submitted annually to the board of supervisors.”
F6
The Inmate Welfare Fund (IWF) is not being utilized as a source to hire needed DHS personnel.
F7
DHS is lacking a Nurse Educator, Drug and Alcohol Counselor, Social Worker, and a Public Health Nurse.
F8
X-rays taken at the RCRMC are filmless and paperless. Lacking a digitizing machine, x-ray films taken at detention centers must be transported to RCRMC for reading and digitizing. There are occasions when an x-ray is held and then sent over with those taken the following day for reading. Onsite digitizing 2 would facilitate the reading of the x-rays and treatment of the patient.
F9
DHS has only one Portable Digital Monitoring with Pulse Oxymeter machine at Robert Presley Detention Center. This unit is used for checking vital signs and oxygen concentration in blood. It is essential for monitoring asthmatics and inmates complaining of respiratory difficulties to ascertain if he/she has a medical problem or is malingering.
F10
The Jail Information Management System (JIMS) is the computer software used in detention facilities. This is a secure system for inmate information and DHS staff has use of only a limited section. Confidential medical information, i.e., medical records, are not in the system so hard copies must be maintained and physically transferred with the individual inmate. During transfer, records are sometimes misplaced or misdirected.
F11
There is a lack of computer terminals at some nursing stations.

Recommendations 6