Other articles by Erica Meltzer:

2 Dist. 26 hopefuls in limbo as vote counts drag on Procedural changes are cited in slow county tally 3 incumbent supervisors lead challengers County weighs buying disputed 106-acre parcel District 3 race for supervisor puts focus on development Valadez, rival at odds over S. Tucson's share of funding County braces for W. Nile Supervisor primary foes trade salvos on tax burden Candidate urges study sessions Incumbents lead in fundraising

General
MOUNTAIN VIEW RETIREMENT VILLAGE
MAINTENANCE ASSISTANT Engineering
SCHNIPKE SOUTHWEST
PROCESS ENGINEER Finance and Accounting
Tohono O'odham Nation
Controller and Assistant Controller Engineering
IOTA ENGINEERING
MECHANICAL INSPECTOR Health Care
CONMED HEALTHCARE
RNS General
.
MYSTERY SHOPPERS Driver/Transportation
DRIVERS

Citing poor quality of care and lack of contract compliance, Pima County will drop Correctional Medical Services as its medical-care provider at the Pima County jail.

Correctional Medical Services is the largest provider of detention medical services in the country. The Board of Supervisors approved a two-year, $18.5 million contract with the St. Louis-based company in 2006.

The contract represented an 18.6 percent increase over the previous contract with Tucson-based First Correctional Medical, which had served the jail since 2002.

At the time, Supervisor Richard Elías said he was concerned about cost-cutting measures in the contract and complaints made against the company in other states, but County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said he was satisfied with the company's answers.

However, two years later, Pima County officials say the company has failed to meet basic expectations laid out in its contract, including meeting staffing levels and providing care in a timely manner.

"Our feeling is they have not met our requirements for quality care at the jail," said Dr. Fred Miller, Pima County's chief medical officer.

In a memo to the supervisors, Huckelberry said CMS had five administrators and four corporate liaisons in the 26 months of the contract, leading to inconsistent leadership. The company failed to collect $1.3 million from the contract because it didn't meet staffing requirements.

And court officials recently expressed concern about the quality of psychiatric care provided in the jail, including psychological evaluations done by a nurse practitioner.

The qualifications of those doing evaluations at the jail came up during a recent hearing involving a murder suspect. In a bench conference in Pima County Superior Court, Judge Nanette Warner said she had big problems with the company.

"I have huge issues with the quality of the staff, the quality of the care. It has been a frustration for the court," she said.

"Their whole goal is how not to do any work," she said at a later point in the conference.

In a ruling issued Thursday, Warner said the court had been told that CMS had hired a psychologist and two psychiatrists to start doing evaluations. She declined to comment further.

But by the time the company acted, negotiations apparently had already broken down.

In the memo, Huckelberry said Pima County sent CMS a final contract offer on June 13, and the company changed aspects of the contract without discussing the issue with the county. He said the company was not prepared to meet Pima County's requirements.

The supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to extend the CMS contract for one month, until the end of July, to allow an orderly transition. They also voted to give a one-year, $9 million contract to ConMed Healthcare Management, a Maryland-based provider of detention medical services.

Dennis Douglas, deputy county administrator for health services, said ConMed approached the county some time ago and periodically provided information about its services. He said that's why the county decided to go with ConMed in the short term. He said the county may develop a competitive process to look at other providers along with ConMed by the time the contract is up.

Elías said he hopes the county avoids similar problems with the new provider.

Douglas said he did not think the problems with CMS could have been avoided through a more careful contracting process because the company looked good on paper.

"It was a good contract, a reasonable contract, but they didn't live up to it," he said.

Ken Fields, a spokesman for CMS, said the company negotiated in good faith with Pima County, as evidenced by the fact that it continued to hire people and provided good services.

"Correctional Medical Services has well-established policies and procedures that are based on years of experience working in hundreds of facilities," he said. "That experience is brought to every community we serve, including Pima County."