By Gillian Barkhurst
Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —The Metropolitan Detention Center’s biannual health care audit found that the jail is still providing an unconstitutionally poor quality of health care for inmates and that “progress is slowing.”
Since the last audit, major understaffing and lack of cooperation between security and medical staff are still concerns, wrote Dr. Muthusamy Anandkumar in an April report.
An official with the University of New Mexico Hospital, which manages care at the jail, said staffing has improved and the health care team is working to address Anandkumar’s concerns.
Kate Loewe, an attorney representing those incarcerated at MDC under a class-action settlement, said UNMH needs to act quickly.
“The urgency for action cannot be overstated,” Loewe said.
Among the biggest issues, according to Anandkumar’s report, is that some patients are waiting more than 72 hours for care when submitting sick slips. Additionally, Anandkumar wrote that staff are not properly triaging severe sick calls or keeping track of inmates with chronic illness.
Another concern is treatment of inmates withdrawing from drugs or alcohol. Anandkumar wrote that withdrawing inmates who are in individual cells are not “routinely” checked on by security personnel and that security fails to tell medical staff about inmates’ symptoms unless they are severe.
The jail has also stopped providing electrolyte drinks to withdrawing inmates, Anandkumar reported. Withdrawing from drugs or alcohol can cause extreme dehydration.
The background issue impacting all these concerns is understaffing, especially as the jail sees a “sustained surge in population,” the report detailed.
Overall, “accountability needs to be tightened,” Anandkumar wrote.
UNMH spokesperson Chris Ramirez said that in the six months since Anandkumar’s visit, staffing at the jail has improved and more inmates are receiving timely care.
UNMH is “close to full staffing” at the jail, Ramirez said, but did not provide a number of full-time employees, temporary staffers and vacant positions because “the numbers change often.”
In April, providers were seeing 146 patients a month, a number that had risen to 500 a month as of August, Ramirez said. Patients with urgent sick calls are seen within 72 hours, Ramirez said and those in stable conditions are treated within 14 days.
” Dr. Kumar visits the MDC again mid-month and we are looking forward to his review,” Ramirez said in a statement Thursday.
Loewe said MDC is not acting with enough urgency.
“These are the most vulnerable people coming into custody,” Loewe said. “And their first few days of incarceration are the highest risk. Since Dr. Kumar’s report, two people died in their cells detoxing. This has to stop.”
MDC has been in trouble with the health care auditor since 2023, when a report first found inadequate medical treatment by then-provider, YesCare. The county eventually cut ties with the private company and signed a contract with UNMH, which took over health care in July 2023.
Since 2020, 38 people have died after being injured or falling ill at the jail, many of whom were detoxing at the time. In that time, and prior to UNMH coming in, YesCare and a previous for-profit company ran health care at MDC.
The latest death was that of 62-year-old Ernest Tafoya, who was arrested after police found him with a few fentanyl pills and methamphetamine.
Before intake, Tafoya complained of chest pain and was taken to the hospital to be cleared for jail. Less than 48 hours after being booked into MDC, Tafoya died after a medical emergency.
No cause of death has been released.
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