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Senate committee hears plan to buy telemedicine kiosks for three prisons to cut transport costs
Summary
SB4 would fund telemedicine 'medical care stations' in three correctional facilities (High Desert, Northern Nevada, Lovelock) with initial unit cost presented as $594,000 per unit in FY26 and additional purchases in FY27; officials said the units will enable tele-visits, screening and some primary-care-level services and that metrics will be kept.
A component of Senate Bill 4 would fund portable medical care stations at Nevada correctional facilities intended to expand telemedicine and reduce offsite transports, the Department of Corrections told the Senate committee.
Tiffany Greenemeyer of the Governor's Finance Office said Section 3 requests $594,000 in FY2026 and $1,188,000 in FY2027 to fund the units. Corrections Director James Runde said the units will increase telemedicine capability, allow video visits with doctors, capture vitals, check throats, take temperatures and otherwise enable primary-care-style encounters at facilities that currently lack on-site doctors.
Runde and other department witnesses described costs in two parts: the modular unit itself (about $500,000) and added medical equipment and staffing that bring the per-unit total to a higher figure. "Each unit is ... 594,000," Greenemeyer confirmed when asked by the committee.
Sen. Neal asked whether the kiosks would meaningfully address chronic disease care and whether the state will track metrics such as reduced transports and correctional-officer overtime. Runde said the program will record daily visit counts, enumerate which visits would otherwise have required transport, and produce comparative reports so the state can estimate transport and overtime savings; he said overdoses and other life-threatening events would still require ER transfers.
The department is targeting High Desert Correctional Center in Indian Springs, Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City and Lovelock Correctional Center for initial units because those facilities generate the most outside medical trips. The committee asked agencies to provide follow-up metrics and cost detail as implementation plans are finalized.
