Council Member Hudson asks about pregnancy-related medical expenditures and prenatal nurse vacancy

And then...

What were the annual expenditures for pregnancy-related medical care for people in DOC custody in each of the past three fiscal years?

Right.

So CHS doesn't budget by clinical condition or diagnosis, and we're not budgeting per patient.

Rather, about 80% of our entire budget is devoted to staffing.

So most of the pregnancy-related care would be in direct patient services.

And we do have an OBGYN and then a recently retired, although we're looking to fill a prenatal nurse position.

So those are really exclusively devoted to prenatal care.

But in general, it's members of the staff from the mental health service, gender-related services team, pharmacy, medicine in general that are supporting that care.

And how long has that prenatal nurse position been vacant?

I can't remember the exact date.

I apologize.

It's greater than a month's time.

Greater than a month's time.

And we're actively hiring.

What's the average time for hiring medical personnel, like positions like that, would you say?

Well, once we identify an individual, the onboarding process usually takes about, I would say, six to eight weeks.

It's just a matter of interviewing and identifying the appropriate candidate.

And so are there, is that the only prenatal nurse position or are there others?

We only have one prenatal nurse on staff.

Okay, so no.

So there's currently no, everybody's going without a prenatal nurse.

No, so let's not.

There's a prenatal nurse line.

However, there are other RNs that work in the environment that can fill that position until that line is filled.

If needed.

Okay.