Again with my local media!! WTF?!!?

[hitnrun]

Remember this...

Sacramento Sheriff fights media bias! (RP Thread)

Well, now there's this. Blatant and unexcusable errors...again. The Bee should be EMBARASSED!!

Statement from the Sheriff:

Special message from the Sheriff, Lou Blanas.

December 29, 2005

Editorial Board
P.O. Box 15779
Sacramento, CA 95852

To: Editorial Board, The Sacramento Bee

Re: “Jail Health Care- Inmates’ suffering shouldn’t be ignored”

The Bee’s editorial on December 28, 2005 entitled, “Jail Health Care – Inmates’ suffering shouldn’t be ignored,” was, like the previous articles regarding Sacramento County’s Correctional Health Services, full of inaccuracies. The most egregious error was the statement that “ Sacramento County transported inmate patients for treatment more than 7,000 times in 2004, a rate three times the state average and the highest in California.” In 2004, as in 2005, the number of inmate patients sent for treatment, including inpatient services, emergency runs and clinic visits, came to under 1,750. This number is significantlyless than the state average.

The Bee editorial also implies that Sacramento County pays either $2,070 a day at San Joaquin General Hospital, or $6,386 a day at UC Davis Medical Center for the mythical 7,000 inmate patients being sent from the jails for medical treatment. The Bee then states “Do the math.” It is obvious The Bee did not take time to do the math, because if they did, they would have realized their mistake. The rates The Bee cited in their editorial are for hospital inpatient care, which is significantly higher than the rates for emergency and clinic services. Over the last two years, an average of 240 inmate patients per year have required inpatient care, while approximately 1,500 inmates were seen as medical outpatients. The inpatient number includes field arrests, as well as referrals from the jails. It should be noted that Correctional Health Services is responsible for the medical costs incurred during field arrest even though the arrestee has not been booked in the jail. Since the beginning of the current fiscal year, 41% of all inpatient hospital costs are the result of field arrests.

Over the last two years the Sheriff’s Department has worked with the various arresting agencies in Sacramento County to reduce the cost of inmate healthcare. At one point the average cost for inpatient care was over $18,000 a day, and the average cost for an emergency room visit was over $700 dollars a day at some hospitals. This effort to reduce these costs has saved the taxpayers of Sacramento County thousand of dollars over the last couple of years.

The Bee’s statement that the health care professionals working in the jail are deliberately indifferent to the suffering of inmates is grossly inaccurate, but highly insulting to the dedicated clinicians who have chosen to work with patients who freely admit that often the only time they see a doctor or nurse is when they are incarcerated. These highly trained professionals are not only are dedicated, but like their peace officer co-workers, willingly place themselves in harms way each time they enter the jail facilities to treat those who society would rather forget.

It is extremely unfortunate when Sacramento’s only daily newspaper does not take the time to get the facts before printing an editorial that is totally inaccurate, and demeans the professionalism of over 100 doctors and nurses.

We request a retraction, or at the very least, a correction of the facts in your editorial printed on December 28, 2005.

Very Truly Yours,

Lou Blanas, Sheriff

Sheriff's Webpage w/ Statement



Article in question printed by scumbag liberal journalists:

Editorial: Jail health care
Inmates' suffering shouldn't be ignored

Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Story appeared in Editorials section, Page B8

The complaints come not just from inmates, but also from nurses and doctors who provide health care at Sacramento County jails.
They complain that deputies ignore legitimate health complaints from inmates; about medications not dispensed as ordered; about deliberate indifference to suffering; about neglect so severe it led to amputations. At least one inmate died, a doctor suggested in an interview with The Bee's Christina Jewett and Dorothy Korber, because "medical care in the jail did not meet minimal standards."



Sheriff Lou Blanas and his staff offer a conflicting picture. Despite the fact that the jail health care system has failed to regain the voluntary accreditation it lost four years ago, Blanas expresses pride in "the existing condition in our correctional health system."
Who could dispute that health care in jails or prison settings is an enormous challenge? Many people incarcerated abuse drugs and alcohol, suffer from mental illness and have higher incidences of communicable diseases.

When health issues are not addressed in a timely way, conditions deteriorate and can require expensive off-site visits. Sacramento County transported inmate patients for treatment more than 7,000 times in 2004, a rate three times the state average and the highest in California. That's an astounding number that the sheriff needs to explain. The bill for a day at UC Davis Medical Center is $6,386, at San Joaquin General $2,070, and those figures don't include the cost incurred when deputies must stand guard at hospitals.

Do the math. It's not just morally right but cheaper to clean an inmate's infected finger than to wait for gangrene to set in, necessitating an emergency amputation.

Alerted by a former nursing supervisor at the jail who complained in October about mismanagement in the health care system there, investigators from the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department last week agreed to look into whether the problems identified amounted to "deprivation of constitutional or statutory rights." Such reviews rarely result in full-scale investigations or civil actions against jail officials. Nonetheless, the independent check is a useful tool, which sheriff's officials say they "welcome." So should the public.

Jail health care is an easy issue for county officials to sweep under the rug. After all, the people suffering are accused or convicted criminals. They have no political clout. When lawsuits are filed, they rarely win. But neglecting the issue is not an option. To do nothing to improve the care is inhumane, not to mention expensive.

Scumbag Rag Article

Many continued Kudos to the Sheriff, but why should we keep having to endure this FLAGRANT BS!?!

What do you all think?

[Creeker]

I think it is a failing newspaper struggling to create "activist" news where none exists.

It is only a matter of time before the Internet puts most big city rags out of business, and they are fighting for all of the attention they can get to sell advertising.

[Chautona]

Oh my goodness. If my children wrote a 'research paper' with that much flagrant lack of research and care in writing, I'd fail em. They'd have to do two in place of their failed paper in order to practice how to properly research their information and accurately report it in their writing.

Man. Think the Bee will let me retrain their reporters? Hee hee. My kids say the reporters would quit. I think that'd work too don't you?

*evil grin*

[pmfc]

I have a friend who calls that newspaper "The Sacramento Pee".:D

[Welpe]

I see the Bee is still cutting edge in the field of journalism. What a loverly little rag right up there with the San Francisco Chronicle and the Contra Costa Times. :rolleyes: