Butler County Prison board approves additional medical staff
The Butler County Prison Board on Tuesday approved additional prison medical staffing and said negotiations over salary increases will begin in the coming months.
Board members unanimously voted in favor of a contract addendum authorizing inmate health care provider PrimeCare Medical of Harrisburg to hire two assistant directors of nursing and add eight hours a week to the schedule of the nurse practitioner at a cost of $20,900 a month.
PrimeCare is permitted to request additional staffing under terms of its contract with the county and pay raises can be negotiated before the contract renews Oct. 1, said county solicitor Wil White.
This year is the second year of the five-year contract that runs from Oct. 1, 2021 to Sept. 30, 2026. The contract costs the county about $157,951.90 per month and $1,895,422 this year.
Warden Joe DeMore said the two assistant directors of nursing can begin working on June 1 if PrimeCare hires them by then. They will work separate shifts, he added.
In July or August, the contractor will present a request for employee pay raises that are based on the consumer price index and go into effect Oct. 1, DeMore said.
The raises are based on the average index from the previous 12 months, and could range from 3% to 7%, he said.
Approval of the addendum comes after the board took no action last month on a proposal PrimeCare submitted requesting the hiring of three employees and raising the pay for all medical staff at the prison at an annual cost of $304,803 that would have been in addition to the existing contract.
That proposal sought the hiring two assistant directors of nursing at a cost of $166,400 per year and a part-time certified registered nurse practitioner/physician assistant at a cost of $27,040 per year, and asked the county to cover the cost of $31,200 in pay raises already provided to existing staff.
The new positions and pay raises combined with about $57,362 for health care benefits, insurances and shift differential pay would have cost the county an additional $25,400 per month and $304,803 per year, according to the proposal.
Prison officials, at last month’s meeting, said the prison nurse sometimes works 16 hours a day to treat an increasing number of sick inmates, including many going through withdrawal from drug and alcohol abuse.
In addition, DeMore said he plans to meet with PrimeCare officials about implementing the medication assisted treatment program mandated by the state Department of Corrections.
The program requires county prisons to cover the cost of valid prescriptions for alcohol and opioid abuse recovery medications of inmates.
DeMore said sublocade, an alternative medication for the opioid abuse medication suboxone, is an injection administered monthly at a cost of $1,600 per dose. He said the cost of sublocade is high, but administering it reduces the time staff has to spend distributing daily oral doses of suboxone and reduces the risk of contraband entering the prison.
In other business, Tuesday the board hired three additional corrections officers. Cody Riley was hired to work part-time, and Trevor Gilliland and Landon Larimore were hired as irregular officers to work less than 1,000 hours a year.
DeMore said three employees tested positive for COVID-19 since the April meeting.
He said five inmates received their general education development diplomas Tuesday.
As of May 3, the prison had 424 inmates including 233 federal inmates, one from another county and one state inmate. The average daily inmate population in April was 418.
