Sheriff asks for health provider for inmates Nicky Boyette A standing room only crowd attended the Feb. 15 Quorum Court meeting to hear about medical care options at Carroll County Detention Center. Flint Junod, chief operating officer for Turn Key Health (TKH), a correctional facility health provider, said his Oklahoma City-based company provides services for 20 other jails – from small to very large – in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas. Junod gave the court two proposals: TKH would provide coverage 24 hours a day, every day, with a nurse on site 20 hours a week and doctors on call. Medications would be provided at a reduced rate and Turn Key would set up a clinic on the premises, so inmates would usually be treated at the jail, and TKH staff would be responsible for transporting prisoners to a hospital if needed, reducing man hours of deputies transporting prisoners. Turn Key would be responsible for these medical services, and Junod said the proposal would dramatically reduce liability for the sheriff’s department. Management of medical and pharmacy services would cost the county just under $100,000 annually. The proposal not including pharmacy services would cost $78,000. Sheriff Randy Mayfield told the court the jail spent about $120,000 in 2014 to cover items in Junod’s proposal, and their risk management attorney recommended the county consider a third party service like Turn Key. Mayfield said
Chocolate farming – Dakota Reichenberg, 4, of Berryville, took first place in Best Creative Youth category for cakes in the Eureka Springs Chocolate Lovers Festival on Saturday. Not a parking space was to be had at the Convention Center. Photo by Becky Gillette
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This Week’s INDEPENDENT Thinker Hayden Godfrey, 17, a senior at Sky View High School in Smithfield, Utah, started planning his Valentine’s Day earlier than those who order overnight gifts from amazon.com. Hayden worked three jobs in the past year and a half – cook, dishwasher and grocery bagger – and put some money back from each paycheck until he had $450. Then he ordered 900 carnations so each of the 834 girls in his high school would get a flower on Feb. 14. He even cut the stems and gave the carnations a good drink of water that morning. Hayden wonders what he should do with the remaining 66 flowers, and we think he should give them to the Eureka Springs Valentine Fairy, who is thinking of retiring after 33 years. She’d just cry.
Inside the ESI
Picture by Linda Burgess
Community Center 2 Hospital; Quorum Court – Ambulance & Neighborhhod Cleanup 3 Planning 4 Mayor’s Task Force 5 Chris Flanagin 6 Dale Ramsey 7 Independent Editorial 9 Constables on Patrol 10 Feral Hogs 11 Astrology 16 Indy Soul 18 Crossword 21 Classifieds 22
Easy. Like Sunday morning.