PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County jail is expected to be back up to four nurses Dec. 3 after a successful recruitment effort following all four nurses leaving at virtually the same time, Chief Corrections Deputy Sgt. Don Wenzl told county commissioners.
The $76,023 contract amendment with Wellpath of Nashville was unanimously approved by the commissioners Tuesday.
“One issue we had with our staffing is we had all four nurses leave to go to different careers in different states. So that put us in a scramble to try to get our staffing back up to our four full-time nurses,” Wenzl told the commissioners at their Monday work session.
The jail currently has three full-time nurses and a traveling nurse who will be letting go of her contract and staying locally, he said.
According to a staff memo to the commissioners, the jail began exploring options to address a nursing shortage in June.
The county elected to continue contracting with Wellpath, despite its use to much more expensive traveling nurses, the memo stated.
But the county agreed to absorb those costs in 2022 and continue the contract into 2023. Additional costs for using traveling nurses will be calculated by Wellpath and be presented as a future budget change request, the memo stated.
County Commission Chairman Mark Ozias said after the meeting that counties are the country’s largest provider of healthcare and mental healthcare services.
Sheriff Bill Benedict said during a July work session on the issue that previously the jail nurses worked for the sheriff’s department.
Then the county entered into a $175,000 contract with Olympic Medical Center for nurse coverage but it was “ill-defined,” he said.
After OMC requested more money, the commissioners ended that contract in February 2010 and contracted with Correctional Health Care Management Inc. of Greenwood, Colo.
Benedict told the commissioners at the time that this situation is not unique to Clallam County and was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Increased inmate care expectations and required treatment for opioid use disorder also drive costs, he said.
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at brian.gawley@soundpublishing.com.
