FARMINGTON—The Davis County Jail entered into a three year contract on Aug. 1 with healthcare provider Wellpath who will provide medical services to the correctional facility. The partnership will enable the Davis County Sheriff’s Office to provide programs and treatment that would have taken many years to complete on their own.

“It’s based in our medical wing,” said Chief Deputy Arnold Butcher. “We’ve seen an increase in overdoses, opioid addiction and mental health issues. The number of individuals has increased exponentially.”

Previously there has been a medical doctor who oversaw the correctional facility, he said. “He retired and we looked at doing things under the same model where we’d hire a doctor to oversee the health care. There are not a lot of independent doctors around. Most are with large groups. We worked with the commission and HR and issued an RFP for privatized organizations.”

This company specializes in correctional medical services, he said. “They give very in-depth care and tremendous backend support. Our current personnel became their personnel. They follow their protocols. It’s a difficult job to be a nurse in a correctional facility. We’ve always been proud of our staff.”

Wellpath added staff, said Butcher. “They have a robust program for MAT (medication-assisted treatment) with a core group of medication for substance disorder to wean them off of addiction.”

It’s the gold standard nationwide, he said. “They have a full-time dedicated RN and substance abuse disorder placement counselor. A nurse practitioner oversees the program as well. Two years ago the legislature mandated that all correctional facilities have some type of this program. This takes us above and beyond the minimum.”

Butcher said they won’t stop treatment when an inmate is released. “When it’s appropriate that will continue on the outside. In jail they hopefully don’t have access to illicit drugs so they can get better as opposed to stop and start on the outside. They have a tendency to slip.”

Wellpath had a robust program so that is why they decided to go with them, he said. “The other part is they have a great telehealth network. They have a nationwide agreement with emergency doctors across the nation 24/7 365 days a year. So we’ll have access to the emergency doctors if needed.”

If there’s not an RN, etc. here after hours, holidays or weekends, there are 60 different specialty doctors at their disposal, said Butcher. “If someone needs a consultation with a cardiologist we can set up telehealth and not have to transport them. It’s safer for us and the community. The inmate gets the same level of care without moving them outside of the facility.”

The funding of the new provider comes under the same budgetary process from the general fund, said Butcher. “When you consider nurses’ benefits and salary we don’t pay that they do. Also the amount of money saved not having to transport inmates and keep them inside the facility is almost a wash.”

There are a lot more services than before, he said. “If inmates do have money they are charged a copay that goes to the county and offsets some of the cost. Typically these guys don’t have a lot of money as it is.”

Butcher said Wellpath has been very efficient in setting things up at the jail. “A team came ahead of them and started doing training with the staff on the processes of our facility. There’s also been advanced teams with IT. They’ve set up all of our computer equipment. All night they were cleaning rooms and making sure we had all the staff we needed.”

The transition has been amazing, he said. “We’re very optimistic this will be a positive thing for this underserved population. I’ve come to realize this is an issue of public safety to help them out of addictive behavior.”

Ninety-nine percent of them will be out of jail at some time, said Butcher. “We want them to continue on a successful path so that they don’t go back to their addictive behavior. It’s a great investment in public safety all around.”

Butcher said this partnership fulfills their mission. “We’re actively going to improve the lives of this population in Davis County – that’s for sure.”