Jury sides with Pierce County in fight with firm over substandard health care at jail
A former jail health care provider accused of providing substandard care must pay Pierce County $1.56 million, a jury said Thursday.
The company, Conmed, sued Pierce County for withholding payments.
The county filed a counterclaim that alleged the company’s deficiencies violated its contract.
Jurors agreed with the county.
“Conmed was inadequate in fulfilling its contract — hoping that government wasn’t paying attention,” deputy prosecutor Dan Hamilton said in a statement Friday. “Well, Pierce County and the Sheriff’s Department were paying attention. We won’t let any company pad its profits by shirking its duties.”
Conmed provided medical and dental care at the jail starting in Febuary 2014.
In August 2015 the county terminated the contract about four months after it stopped payments. The county’s trial brief alleged Conmed’s deficiencies included “inadequate staffing and scheduling of medical personnel, lack of supervisory leadership, failure to provide inmate access to care, medication errors, continuity of care, etc.”
A spokesman for Correct Care Solutions, which was Conmed’s parent company, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The News Tribune Friday.
Conmed wrote in its trial brief that the company sought “simple redress for the four months it spent using its own resources to staff and provide inmate medical services at the jail while the County withheld all payment to Conmed.”
The county argued that Conmed’s inadequate staffing and other failures put inmates at risk and that the company failed to fix those problems.
“I think jurors could see that the Sheriff’s Department provided strong oversight every step of the way,” deputy prosecutor Kristal Cowger said in a statement. “The sheriff’s staff saw that Conmed wasn’t living up to its promises, they knew it wasn’t right, and they didn’t let it go. The Sheriff’s Department stuck up for quality inmate care and for the taxpayers.”
