Sheriff Awards Citation to Falmouth Hospital For Services to Inmates

CCB MEDIA PHOTO Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings gives a plaque to Cape Cod Healthcare CEO Michael Lauf and Dr. Robert Davis, far right, director of the Falmouth Hospital Emergency Department, for their help treating inmates. Jessica Burgess, the correctional facility's health services director, stands at left.

CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings gives a plaque to Cape Cod Healthcare CEO Michael Lauf and Dr. Robert Davis, far right, director of the Falmouth Hospital Emergency Department, for their help treating inmates. Jessica Burgess, the correctional facility’s direction of health services, stands at left, in a ceremony at Falmouth Hospital

FALMOUTH – Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings gave a special citation to Cape Cod Healthcare CEO Michael Lauf this week for going above and beyond to help inmates who need medical attention.

The plaque presented in a brief ceremony Tuesday in front of Falmouth Hospital’s Emergency Room, reads, “In recognition of the outstanding emergency medical care provided by the Falmouth Hospital Emergency Department for the inmates and staff of the Barnstable County Correctional Facility.”

Cummings said inmates are brought to the emergency room two or three times a week for a variety of medical issues. At least once or twice a month, an inmate is admitted to the hospital, he said.

“We have a very sick population, so it’s not uncommon for us to bring inmates down here to the emergency room at Falmouth Hospital and they do a great job for us,” Cummings said.

The inmates are brought to the emergency room handcuffed and wearing their prison-issued orange jumpsuits. They are accompanied by prison guards with guns. Cummings said that presents special challenges for staff.

“Instead of one person coming into the facility, there’s three because we usually have two officers with an inmate,” he said. Those two officers stay at the hospital the entire time the inmate is there, Cummings said.

For security reasons, inmates in the hospital cannot have visitors and, Cummings said, they do not like word to get out that an inmate is in the hospital.

Cummings said the prison inmate population has a variety of medical needs.

“You know, they’ve been on the outside. They’ve been drinking alcohol. They’ve been taking drugs. They don’t take good care of themselves,” Cummings said. “They come to us for a year or so. They get sentenced and they get sober and they realize all the other medical issues they have.”

Cummings said the county jail has a procedure in place to handle inmates who go into withdrawal from opiates and other drugs. But inmates who need more extensive medical attention for symptoms of withdrawal or other serious medical issues are taken to Falmouth Hospital’s emergency room.

“We get the opportunity to straighten them out and get them healthy again and we do that with Falmouth Hospital,” Cummings said.

Lauf said the hospital has a partnership not just with the sheriff’s department but with the entire Cape.

“It’s really a partnership we have with the public sector as a whole. We understand that we have a big responsibility to take care of everyone on the Cape, regardless of who you are or where you’re coming from,” he said.

Lauf said the honor really goes to the emergency department director Dr. Robert J. Davis and his staff.

“Dr. Davis and the team here in Falmouth deserve it,” Lauf said.



CapeCod.com
737 West Main Street
Hyannis, MA 02601
Contact Us | Advertise Terms of Use 
Employment and EEO | Privacy