Once they become wards of the sheriff, it's the medical staff's duty to assess their needs and present help as best we can. After booking and processing, nurses, who are available 24 hours a day, ask inmates a series of questions either to quickly resolve an acute problem or to determine a medical issue-such as medications that must be administered for a particular condition. Our patients may come in with lacerations, abrasions or fractures or may have skipped their medication for days. If that's the case, the patients are triaged to the medical clinic and the physician makes an assessment and prescribes what's appropriate. We also screen to determine or identify hidden risk factors.
Seale lauds the people who work at the correctional facility.
The people who work at the jail are dedicated individuals. It's not a glamorous job. The facility isn't pretty and the work is difficult. Physicians are free from the worry of billing, HMO pressures and marketplace headaches. The jail is actually a nice place to practice medicine.