#2156 Postby TexasStooge » Wed Jul 20, 2005 9:30 am
Tax hike sought for jail care
Dallas: Parkland board says extra $6 million may not be enough
By JAMES M. O'NEILL / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Parkland Memorial Hospital officials said Tuesday they will ask county commissioners for a tax increase to boost spending on jail heath care by at least $6 million.
But they warned that figure was just an estimate, and that some medical experts have said the sweeping improvements required would take far more money.
Meanwhile, yet another county jail inmate filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the county, alleging that poor health care in the jail exacerbated his illnesses so severely that he is now disabled.
The Parkland board of managers will ask commissioners to raise the hospital district's tax rate by less than a half-cent per $100 valuation to expand the jail health budget to $20 million, from its current $14 million, to pay for more staff. Some have said true costs for improvements could push the budget to $40 million.
The proposed .4271 cent per $100 valuation tax hike would boost taxes on a $158,800 home by $5.43 a year, including homestead credits.
"If the county were to come under a court order, this number could jump and cause havoc to the hospital's bottom line," said Dr. Ron Anderson, Parkland's president and CEO, emphasizing the need to keep the jail health budget separate from Parkland's.
He noted that the cost for health care in the county jail in Houston was about $43 million.
Parkland officials also said it would be difficult to develop a plan for improvements and to increase staff in the next four months, when Parkland would assume oversight of the jail's medical care.
Dr. Anderson said the county would have to make significant improvements to medical facilities in the jail because there is no appropriate place to see patients even if Parkland hired more doctors.
Dr. Lauren McDonald, Parkland's board chairwoman, said Parkland views jail health care as a larger public health issue. "If we don't take good care of health issues in the jail, they can spill out into the rest of the community," she said.
"As a physician, I think it's clear there's a large need for improved care at the jail, and I'm disappointed the county waited to the last hour. What was done in the dark has now come to light."
Dr. Anderson agreed. "We want to help, but we've got to be funded correctly to do this," he said. "This is a community issue, not just Parkland's to solve. The driving force is the commissioners and what they're willing to pay for. We're in a crisis.
"If the commissioners don't do this, they put themselves at high risk for litigation," he said. "Poor quality care is always more expensive than high quality care."
Tax increase
Commissioners last week told Parkland officials they would be in charge of jail health care since the University of Texas Medical Branch said it would not renew its contract to oversee the program.
Parkland board members passed a resolution Tuesday saying they wanted commissioners to increase the county's tax rate rather than the hospital district's rate to provide the extra jail health money.
Barring that, they wanted the commissioners to approve a tax hike for the hospital district. Until the commissioners dropped the jail health debacle into Parkland's lap last week, the hospital had planned to present a budget that would not require any tax hike.
Some commissioners were supportive of the proposed tax hike. "There's not even a choice in this matter," said Commissioner John Wiley Price. "And I don't know if $20 million is even appropriate. Given what we've got to overcome, I'm more inclined to say we need $25 million."
Criticism aired
Commissioner Maurine Dickey was highly critical of what she viewed as the county's history of ignoring the glaring inadequacy of care at the jail, as well as her peers' inaction on the issue in the past six months. In February, the commissioners received an assessment of jail health care that outlined severe staff shortages and problems so serious as to be life-threatening to some inmates.
"For six months we sat on a scathingly critical jail health report, which we didn't let out publicly," Mrs. Dickey said. "And in my opinion, we didn't act on the information in it.
"In the same six months," she added, "we failed the state jail standards inspection, and we reeled under a series of lawsuits related to jail health, and we listened as UTMB and the sheriff told us about their need for more staff, and we argued over who would sit on the committee to fix the problems, and after all that, nothing's been done.
"It seems UTMB has given up operating in a county that seems to ignore a critical situation," she said.
She said that over the years, whoever headed up jail health care was viewed as the "bad boy," but that through it all, the programs remained underfunded by commissioners. "This is not a new problem. What would you call it the same song, 13th verse?"
No quick fix
Mrs. Dickey, former chairwoman of Parkland's board, also said it would be unfair to expect Parkland to come in and fix everything in just four months.
"That would be magical, wouldn't it?" she said. "Parkland doesn't even know the true cost of all this or where the money will be coming from yet. The cost of righting this system will be high. It's not going to be cheap paying to fix years of neglect and an attitude of 'let's ignore it and it will go away.' "
Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, chairman of the commissioners' jail health care committee, was in Hawaii at a conference and unavailable for comment.
Commissioners have argued that Texas attorney general opinions indicate that hospital districts are required to provide health care for inmates, so Parkland should take over responsibility for the jail health issue.
But Tuesday, Parkland general counsel Frank Collura told the board that he reviewed all statutes and attorney general opinions and found nothing that specifically requires that county hospital districts assume responsibility for jail health care.
2002 shooting
In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, inmate Jerry Wayne Mooney, awaiting trial on a felony aggravated assault charge, alleges he suffered gunshot wounds in an incident with Irving police in October 2002. He was treated at Parkland and was released to the jail with care instructions.
But he developed a split in his surgical wound, and internal organs began to protrude.
In addition, the suit alleges that because he was not provided proper care, a staph infection developed involving his colostomy bag and became so serious that a fetid odor permeated the cell and hallway. "The response ... was to spray air freshener," the suit alleges.Sgt. Don Peritz, the Sheriff's Department spokesman, said the department does not comment on pending litigation.
Staff writer Sherry Jacobson contributed to this report.
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