![]() ![]() 2, 2018, the same day he was scheduled to be released, the report stated. Stroop was found unresponsive in his cell on Dec. The medical staff allegedly gave him the drug clonidine, which can interact with heart medications, the news report stated. The lawsuit alleges that the medical and corrections staff at the facility failed to properly monitor Stroop to treat a worsening heart condition. 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.Īccording 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. “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.” “If only it was as simple as replacing people,” he said. 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. “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.” “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. 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. 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. 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. Vermont hired a new health care provider for prisoners after the death of Kenneth Johnson. ![]()
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