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NC hospital opens unit to care for prisoners

Emergency Management Alert, December 3, 2003

Catawba Valley Medical Center in Conover, NC, on December 1 opened a four-bed unit for state inmates who need additional medical attention, the Charlotte Observer reports.

Officials say the unit, which is segregated from other wards and where patients are under constant watch by armed guards, provides a safer environment for other hospital patients and better medical care for prisoners. The hospital and NC Department of Correction deal anticipates the planned April 2004 opening of a 1,000-inmate, high-security prison in nearby Alexander County.

The hospital is one of dozens in the state that the department of correction contracts with to provide medical care to inmates. Usually, inmates receive treatment at prison infirmaries. But when they need specialized treatment or other services unavailable at the infirmaries, the inmates are sent to local hospitals, which treat them like anyone else.

The separate unit minimizes the exposure of inmates to other hospital patients. Catawba Valley Medical Center officials, citing safety concerns, declined to detail the unit's location. Correction department guards will accompany inmate patients in the unit at all times, even during medical tests and surgeries, and three nurses with experience in treating inmates will work there.

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