Chair Farías questions CHS staffing and emergency response protocols
Farías asks whether nurses are DOC or CHS staff and how medical emergencies are handled. Nancy Farias says CHS staff conduct intake and respond first to housing units, stabilizing patients and escalating as clinically needed.
And are the registered nurses and the nurse practitioners hired by DOC, or are they?
They're correctional health services.
Correctional health services, sorry, and their regular staff there at Rikers, or are they per diem by any chance?
Well, we have persons who are hired specifically to work at Rosenstein.
Got it.
And, you know, there are obviously many potential possible complications during pregnancy.
What's the protocol when someone experiences a medical emergency?
So as all our patients, a medical emergency is initiated at the housing level where the individual is at, and we coordinate with the Department of Corrections to facilitate response to the unit.
Correctional Health Services are the first responders to the unit to assess and stabilize the patient, and then we would escalate based on the clinical assessment of the patient at the time.
Okay, and are staff trained to recognize warning signs like vaginal bleeding, contractions, fluid leakage, severe abdominal pain, et cetera?
Yes.