by Bob Walsh
Ramsay County, Minn. is creating a new health care division for their four county jails and is getting rid of contract operations, due in large part to continuity of care issues.
The initial increased cost will be about $1.8 million, significantly more than the $1 million they were paying for contract employees to do the same work. They will be adding five full-time nurses, three psych workers, four clericals, one part-time MD and one part-time shirnk in addition to their existing civil service medical staff. They will also hire a nurse clinician to manage the 20 nurses soon to be working fulltime in the system. They will get a pay bump compared to other county public health nurses in hopes it will stabilize the work force in the jails.
The county has on a normal day about 700 clients, including juveniles, within their system. Currently a public health nurse working for the county makes $61,000 to $93,000. The nurses working in the jail system will make between $69,000 and $105,000 per year.
1 comment:
No wonder they can't keep nurses in California. My wife made a lot more than that as a traveling RN back in 2006 in Fresno and then Santa Clara. Plus corporate housing.
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