Bernalillo County, UNMH host hiring event for new MDC partnership

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Metropolitan Detention Center and UNM Hospital – their new medical partner – are getting closer to starting their new partnership together. This comes just months after MDC ended its contract with YesCare.

MDC and UNMH hosted a hiring event at the Sheraton Uptown Thursday, looking for registered nurses and social workers.

MDC has faced a staffing shortage in many areas, from officers to their health care department.

While the partnership between UNMH and MDC is still getting ironed out, UNMH is working to recruit people before the contract officially starts later this summer in order to start filling some of those gaps.

UNMH said partnering with MDC will provide some sense of continuity for inmates’ healthcare, in and outside of jail.

“Once they are discharged from prison, we’ll be able to have continuity of care,” said Jennifer Vosburgh, UNMH associate chief nursing officer. “We’ll already know who they are, they’ll have a medical record, we’ll know what medications they’re on, treatments, so hopefully there’s not a lag or huge gap in care for this population.”

YesCare, the former health care provider, saw many lawsuits prior to joining MDC. This will mark the end of an estimated $15 million yearly contract between the two companies.

MDC also had three inmates die entering February of this year – causing concern for the health care in their organization.