New nursing contract tops discussion for sheriff’s office

Deputy Chief Richard Haun paid a visit to the commissioners Monday, March 23 to discuss a couple of needs currently facing the department.

The first topic centered around the hospital contract, one the department is required to have to provide proper nursing and care to all inmates.

The department has worked with Pomerene Hospital for many years but has not had an updated and signed contract with the hospital since 2016.

“It’s long overdue,” Haun said. “There are some changes in prices, but they are not drastic.”

He said the prorated hourly wage for the nurses has gone up $15 since 2016, and the medical director fee, which is an annual fee, has gone up $2,500 since the last signed contract.

“This will help us out with a little more accountability between each entity,” Haun said.

Haun said the hospital has been working diligently to supply the sheriff’s office with a staffed nurse, something that has been a challenge because the hospital is short-staffed.

“We’re getting nurses when we can,” Haun said. “They’ve got a couple, but they hope to eventually post the position so they can fill it on a more permanent basis without having to rotate staff through.”

Haun said a new contract would be good until changes are required or if it were to be terminated for any reason.

Commissioner Dave Hall said because of the state department of corrections, these types of contracts are required because the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office does not employ a medical staff.

Haun said the new proposal has been reviewed by Holmes County Prosecutor Matt Muzik, who accepted the proposal with very minor changes.

Haun said this is a daily nursing service, noting the department has to have a nurse on location at the jail every day. He said currently the hospital is averaging around 32 hours per week at the jail, with hopes of increasing those hours.

He said currently the hospital is fluctuating between sending two different nurses to the jail, noting a certain set of skills is required to serve the inmate population.

“They’ve been great at accommodating that on their end,” Haun said of Pomerene.

The medical director for the program is currently being served through the role of a physician’s assistant, who serves under a doctor at the hospital.

Haun said the law used to require the sheriff’s office to deal directly with a physician in the medical director role to sign off on the nurses, but that changed and they can now work directly with a PA.

“That’s made it a little easier financially with a physician’s assistant rather than a doctor,” Haun said. “They’ve done a good job of taking care of any inmates coming in who need medically assessed for both medical, mental health and any crisis that might come up, and they are on call so we can get them after hours if we need to.”

The second discussion centered around the purchase of three new county vehicles for the department, an undertaking that surfaces on a regular basis because of the wear and tear department vehicles face in daily use.

Haun said he has not been able to find any vehicles on the grounds of Village Motors, but they did say they will be able to order the Dodge Durangos and have them available in short order.

If requisitioned (the commissioners did agree on the purchase), the vehicles should be ready by sometime in May.

Haun said there is a need for three new 2026 Dodge Durango vehicles and asked the commissioners to agree to purchase two of them through the county while the sheriff’s office would purchase the third.

Included in the price of the vehicles will be the upfits for all the instrumentation all police vehicles are required to possess. The sheriff’s office will pay for those upgrades.

The cost of each vehicle is $49,500 worth of additional incentives.

Haun said the last time they purchased identical vehicles in 2023 from Village Motors, the cost was $48,891, so the difference isn’t much.

The upfits include radios, sirens, equipment and other details and cost approximately $11,000 per vehicle.

The commissioners agreed to purchase two of the three vehicles for the department.