Chair Farías asks CHS about intake pregnancy screening and staff training

At what points during intake and detention are individuals screened for pregnancy?

Sure.

So I'm Jeanette Merrill, Correctional Health Services.

So as part of the routine new admissions process, everyone who comes to Rikers receives a comprehensive medical evaluation conducted by our nursing and medical staff.

So at Rosie's, that includes for all women of reproductive age, pregnancy testing.

And then women who are found to be pregnant are scheduled with the CHS OBGYN for additional examinations.

Okay, and who's conducting the pregnancy screenings and what trainings do they receive beforehand?

So that would be our nursing staff.

Okay.

So actually our patients receive three levels of screening.

Or a first individual that they'll encounter will be a patient care associate who will be the one who does the point of care testing and will be then doing the urine screening with the urine dipstick.

And then they subsequently see a person of a higher license to complete their intake, which would be a registered nurse and also followed up by a nurse practitioner or MDPA.