Commission approves Altra services agreement to give jail nurse access to on-call physician

The Grand Forks County Commission approved a Professional Services Agreement with Altra to provide an on-call physician to support the county jail's medical staff and reduce transports to the hospital.

A county medical staff presenter said making a physician available to consult with the jail nurse should limit the number of juvenile and other inmate transports for testing and treatment the nurse cannot perform. "So certain things like STD testing ... we do have to transport juveniles to be tested ... but she can actually have a doctor perform that or refer to the doctor, so it'll reduce the transports," the presenter said.

Commissioners discussed payment: the presenter said Medicaid or parental insurance would cover eligible patients; in the absence of insurance the county would pay the bill. Commissioner Haley moved to amend the motion to permit either the county chair or the county representative (referred to in the meeting as "Miss Robin") to sign the contract; the amendment passed and the main motion was approved unanimously.

The contract will be executed with the amended signature authority; the county indicated the agreement was already budgeted for the current year and in next year’s budget.