On a whiteboard in the nurses’ office at the La Plata County Jail, a deputy has written: “When in doubt, send them out.”
That phrase has become the jail’s new maxim and was repeated during the La Plata County commissioners’ annual jail tour to reflect a shift in how staff members respond to inmates’ medical concerns.
The change follows the 2023 death of Daniel Foard, who suffered an internal medical issue that allegedly went unaddressed during several days in custody.
Last year, Foard’s parents filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Board of County Commissioners, Sheriff Sean Smith, the jail’s contracted health provider Southern Health Partners and others.
The lawsuit alleges staff members ignored Foard’s increasingly urgent pleas for help and failed to recognize the severity of his condition. While the case remains in litigation, it has brought heightened scrutiny to the jail’s medical care.
In response, jail officials say they have implemented stricter protocols for sending inmates out for medical evaluation.
There is just one problem: Mercy Hospital keeps sending them back.
According to a jail sergeant, inmates have been returned to the jail without receiving care requested by jail medial staff members.
Mercy Hospital did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
In one recent case, an inmate was taken to the emergency room and quickly discharged, only to be sent back again by a jail sergeant.
“Our sergeant sent this guy back to the hospital. Mercy determined that he actually had internal bleeding and rushed him into lifesaving surgery,” the sergeant said. “That was a perfect example of our ‘When in doubt, send them out.’ He was disagreeing with the hospital’s professional assessment on this guy, but we’ve empowered our staff to be able to do that.”
Smith said the incident is one of several that raise concerns about how inmates are evaluated and treated.
“It’s an uphill battle we have with them,” he said, referring to Mercy Hospital staff.
Mercy disputed that characterization. Josh Neff, president of CommonSpirit Mercy Hospital, said in a written statement to The Durango Herald that the hospital is unaware of specific cases in which care requests from jail staff were not met. Citing federal patient privacy laws, he declined to comment on individual cases.
Patients brought to its emergency department receive a “full and comprehensive assessment” by a board-certified emergency medicine provider, and are only discharged once deemed medically stable, Neff said.
He pointed to federal data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which shows national 72-hour emergency department return rates range from 8% to 10%. Mercy reported its own return rate at 5.6%.
“Patient safety is our highest priority, and we have rigorous, multi-layered safeguards throughout the entire patient care journey at Mercy Hospital ‒ from arrival through discharge and follow-up,” Neff said.
The commissioners hope to address the jail officials’ concerns in the coming months, said Commissioner Matt Salka. They plan to meet with Mercy administrators to discuss the issue.
The county and the jail say they do not fully understand the hospital’s processes, and those discussions are intended to clarify the hospital’s reasoning and develop a plan to improve cooperation, Salka said.
“I’m not here to throw stones at the hospital,” he said, noting that missed or unaddressed health concerns are not unique to jail inmates.
“We’ve just got to figure out how to address this bouncing back and forth not only for our inmates, but for our residents,” Salka said.
jbowman@durangoherald.com
