The new health care provider hired by the state to take care of prisoners is facing a lawsuit over an inmate’s death in its care in a New Mexico prison.
Kansas-based VitalCore Health Strategies was hired after the state’s previous health care provider was accused of inadequate care of a prisoner who died. Vermont is investigating that case.
Meanwhile, VitalCore is hiring many of the same health care workers employed by the previous provider, Centurion Managed Care, a practice that Matthew Valerio, Vermont’s defender general whose department includes the Prisoners’ Rights Office, said is not unusual when the correctional system has changed health care providers in the past.
“What ends up happening is a new administrator comes in, tries to change the culture, but then ends up hiring a lot of the same people who were providing the actual on the ground services before,” he said.
“What they find is,” Valerio added, that in Vermont, “there is a very limited number of people willing to do that work in correctional facilities.”
James Baker, interim corrections commissioner, said Friday that he supports the work done by VitalCore and the company’s CEO since taking over the prisons health care contract July 1, adding that bringing about change is not as easy as hiring all new staff.
“If only it was as simple as replacing people,” he said. “What I’m looking for is a cultural change between the health care provider and our security people in facilities that they end up providing the best health care possible.”
Vermont is the first state VitalCore has contracted with for health care services, although it has provided similar services to county correctional systems, including Rio Arriba County, New Mexico.
According to an Associated Press report, VitalCore was sued last year, along with other defendants, by the estate of a 48-year-old inmate, Walter Stroop, who died at that county jail in late 2018.
The lawsuit alleges that the medical and corrections staff at the facility failed to properly monitor Stroop to treat a worsening heart condition. The medical staff allegedly gave him the drug clonidine, which can interact with heart medications, the news report stated.
Stroop was found unresponsive in his cell on Dec. 2, 2018, the same day he was scheduled to be released, the report stated.
“Medical staff began CPR about five minutes later, the suit says, and emergency medical technicians arrived around 11:25 a.m.,” the Associated Press reported. “But they were escorted back to their ambulance; the suit claims the jail didn’t have supplies to resuscitate Stroop. He was pronounced dead shortly after.”
The 11-count lawsuit against VitalCore also named other defendants, including the county commissioners and jail administrator. The claims included malpractice, negligence and wrongful death, the news report stated.
Robert Gentile, a New Mexico attorney representing Stroop’s estate, said the lawsuit is pending. He declined further comment.
Attempts to obtain court filings in that case were not successful.
Viola Riggin, VitalCore CEO, did not respond to repeated calls seeking comment.
Baker, Vermont’s interim corrections commissioner, said Friday he is waiting to see how that lawsuit turns out.
“Lawsuits get filed all the time,” he said. “I am less concerned that VItalCore is named in a lawsuit than if they were found to be liable as a result of being named in a lawsuit and that’s not the case to date in New Mexico.”
Valerio, the defender general, offered a similar assessment, saying that it matters how that lawsuit is resolved, not just that it was filed.
It was just last week that the Defender General’s Office released the summary report of its investigation into the Vermont death of Kenneth Johnson last December while he was an inmate at the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport.
That document provided a blistering review of the health care Johnson received. He died from an undiagnosed cancerous tumor in his throat after repeated pleas that he couldn’t breathe were ignored by corrections and medical staff.
VitalCore began its contract with the Vermont Department of Corrections on July 1, several months after Johnson’s death. The company was the lowest of three bidders, including Centurion Managed Care, the previous health care provider for corrections.
VitalCore has been staffing up to carry out its contract in the state’s prisons.
According to Rachel Feldman, a Vermont Department of Corrections spokesperson, 178 full-time employees are budgeted under the contract. When the transition began there were 128 full-time employees from Centurion.
Also, according to Feldman, 89% of those 128 employees were brought on by VitalCore and evaluations are taking place for all employees.
As of Tuesday, Feldman wrote in an email, VitalCare had “parted ways” with 25 staff members. About 84% of the previous staff that worked with Centurion will remain with VitalCore.
As of early last week, VitalCore has hired 48 additional staff members, and “has active candidates” for 15 positions, Feldman said.
Michael Fisher, who is the head of the Vermont Office of the Health Care Advocate, raised concerns about prison health care before, including the lack of proper care for inmates with hepatitis C.
Fisher said that he had been encouraged by Baker’s comments at the press conference earlier this month regarding the change in the health care provider, and the expectations he had to do better.
However, Fisher said, the hiring of so many past Centurion workers by VitalCore does raise concern.
“I’m not in any way an expert on the world of corrections,” Fisher said.
“It is, of course, concerning or a red flag,” he added. “to hear that they are hiring many of the same individuals who were part of the organization that Commissioner Baker expressed such a strong sense of outrage about.”
At this point, Fisher said he would take Baker at his word about a commitment to improve health care services. “I’m hopeful they are going to hold this contractor’s feet to the fire,” Fisher added.
Baker, speaking Friday, reiterated his support for VitalCore and their hiring process.
“You can rearrange the furniture on the Titanic, and make it look like you’ve done something,” he said. “What we’re working on in the health care system inside corrections is to turn the Titanic around, that is not as simple as just replacing people, you have to change the culture and outlook. “
Mike Smith, Agency of Human Service secretary, said Tuesday at Gov. Phil Scott’s twice-a-week press conference that he is awaiting the results of multiple probes into Johnson’s death before deciding on who is appropriate for the new health care contractor to hire.
“We haven’t determined the fault here,” Smith said. “I would say give us some time before we move some of the people around or not rehire some of the people.”
Johnson’s death is under investigation by the Vermont State Police and a law firm contracted by the state to provide an outside review.
