When 28 - 6 = 28???......(and costs Escambia Taxpayers $37,179.00*)

Basic arithmetic should not be this difficult for the state's department of corrections.....

There was a costly, frustrating, and exasperating event that was brought to my attention the other evening:  It had my blood boiling.

The caller was angry, and frustrated.  "Jeff, this is going to piss you off, I know it is, but you need to find out if this is true.  It is absolutely killing morale among some of the corrections officers"

The caller went on to describe the horrible outcome of our jail attempting to transfer 28 prisoners, already convicted and sentenced to state prison,  to the state's custody the day before.  Apparently, according this individual's account (and since confirmed by multiple sources), our jail had COVID tested all 28 of these convicts, got their paperwork in order, staffed three transport vans (with officers on OT to drive) along with a chase car with a supervisor on OT---and sent these prisoners 4 hours away at "zero dark thirty."  This was the plan, to transfer them to the state.  But like the best laid plans, sometimes they fall apart.  Upon arrival at the state facility---all of the convicts were tested again for COVID.  And what do you know, six of them tested positive.....

Okay--but now what?  I mean, it's not like we, at the county jail can turn away a prisoner that has COVID--we have to take them in and quarantine them.  Surely the state corrections department has to do this as well, right?

Wrong.

So here's where the story becomes incredibly infuriating.  Because, as we know, we are already housing MANY state prisoners at our county jail for zero compensation (although the costs to us for this service adds up to $90.00 per day per prisoner)----so the thought of handing off a group of 28 state prisoners to the state department of corrections was one that many in the jail were very relieved to be doing.  Not to mention that these convicted prisoners are among the most difficult for officers to deal with day in and day out....

But the state blew up the plan.  Apparently they have a policy against accepting any prisoner who has COVID or has been exposed to anyone who has COVID.  So they rejected NOT just the 6 positives---they sent ALL 28 State Prisoners back to Escambia County to be quarantined for a two week period before we can "attempt" to send them back again.  Can you believe that??

"The rub is, they would have quarantined them there anyway had they not tested positive--for 14 days!" said one exasperated, knowledgable source within the jail with whom I spoke.

"How much did this evolution cost the taxpayers of Escambia County!"  was my question to this individual.

"A lot---and after this COVID pandemic is over there will be dissertations written on just how costly

FASCINATING COVID-19 Data Points----Really Telling and Really Interesting

 

25% of nearly 3500 Asymptomatic patients tested for COVID-19 since Christmas are testing positive for the virus.  This is a very telling number.  What does that mean for the entire population though--could we use that percentage to extrapolate for our entire county's 320,000 residents?

Anyone and everyone can regurgitate FDOH statistics and data numbers.  Lots of people track the positivity numbers and the negative test results etc..  And that's all great.  I follow these numbers daily myself, as I have since this all started last year at this time.

But some interesting stats have been hard to get.

It took me 6 months of pressing to FINALLY get the "Recovered" number added to the County's COVID-19 dashboard.  I have subsequently taken heat because I pressed for that.  Some people don't like the term "recovered" because some COVID-19 patients don't die---yet they suffer significant ongoing medical issues.  That is a fair question and reasonable criticism--but I do not believe it means we shouldn't track the percentages and numbers that "Survive" a COVID-19 Diagnosis.  Perhaps we should change that term from "recovered" to "survived"--I don't know.  

Meanwhile--I recently heard from our Hospital administrators and testing partners that of 100% of nearly 5000 citizens locally in the 2-County Area (Santa Rosa and Escambia) being tested since Christmas----70% are asymptomatic and 30% present with flu-like symptoms.

So, naturally, I asked for the important data from those percentages:  What percentage of the 70% asymptomatic test subjects came back with a positive result for COVID-19?

"We are not tracking that" was the initial response.   "Why NOT?!?" was my reply.

So I asked for this number and I received some FASCINATING information back from the hospital staff with whom I spoke, with percentages, in my email box.  Full disclosure--the verbal disclaimer from these folks was that this was a rough order of magnitude, "Back of the envelope" number.  But still, it is interesting and it is a lot higher number than many would have suspected... From the email:

"Good morning, I wanted to give you the stats since Christmas that we discussed on the phone yesterday. Since Christmas, we still have about 70% of patients being COVID tested in Escambia County who do not have symptoms and 30% who do have symptoms. Of the people with symptoms - they are running at a 41% positive rate in Escambia county since Christmas. Of the people without symptoms - they are running at a 25% positive rate since Christmas." 

How Much Does it Cost to Provide a COVID-19 Test to an Escambia County Citizen?

What is the actual cost of performing a COVID-19 test on an Escambia County Citizen?

A fascinating discussion occurred late, as the BCC's regular meeting  dragged on past 9:00PM last night.

We were discussing CARES act allocations and we had several contracts to consider---including two that would have provided additional CARES act funding for COVID-19 tests.

We were contemplating approving a contract with Ascension Sacred Heart which would have provided $100 for each uninsured citizen that gets a COVID-19 test at one of Ascension's sites.  According to representatives from Ascension--they "Ate more than $1 Million" in revenue loss from COVID-19 tests administered thus far.  There was no elaboration on exactly what that means, though.  

Was this $1 Million + in losses unrecoverable from any federal source under CARES?  Was it $1 Million in actual costs or wass this $1 Million in retail or list cost?  I'd like to know this, but did not get clarification during the morning session.

When County staff was asked during the subsequent evening meeting "How much does Ascension pay for a COVID-19 test?"  The answer came back from staff that "They (Ascension) do not share this information."

Additional discussion among board members centered on the fact that Community Health Northwest is paid $37 per COVID-19 test in a separate agreement--which apparently covers their costs and allows them to provide these rapid tests to at-risk citizens.  This is quite a bit less than what Ascension was going to be getting.  Naturally, one would assume it must be less expensive for Ascension to administer these tests, given their size, economy of scale, and their organic, in-house testing capability?

So why do they need to get $100 per test? That was the question that went unanswered last night.

  Because nobody from Ascension came to answer--and because board members had questions--the contracts with Ascension for both the mass vaccinations AND the testing were not approved.  Hopefully over the next two weeks we can get some clarification from Ascension....because folks like me want to know---How much does it cost to provided a COVID-19 test to an Escambia County Citizen?