Telemedicine in the jail setting is becoming increasingly available netting not only cumulative savings but better health outcomes for inmates. I chose two articles detailing the benefits of telemedicine in an inmate/short-term jail and prisoner/long-term prison settings.
“Telehealth support of managed care for a correctional system; The Open Architecture Telehealth Model” (Rappaport, Reynolds, Baucom, & Lehman, 2018)first details the need for healthcare reform in the prisoner and inmates settings and then provides results of an innovative health intervention that improves healthcare for the incarcerated and saves a tremendous amount of money (Rappaport et al., 2018).
The intervention involved the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, Clinical Services, Inmate Health expanding existing basic, statewide telehealth health care to include much needed medical specialties. Medical specialists were recruited and trained to provide secure telehealth services to inmates and prisoners (Rappaport et al., 2018). Outcomes included telehealth encounters increasing by almost 75% with 89% of established specialty visits being performed by telehealth consultations. Quantifiable savings were calculated based on transportation expenses, vehicular use, and custody staff saving 1.2 million dollars over 32 months. Unquantifiable savings of enhanced public safety by avoiding out of prison time was judged to be significant (Rappaport et al., 2018).
“Telemedicine services to a county jail”(Zaylor, Whitten, & Kingsley, 2012) details a pilot project between the Kansas University Medical Center and the Lyon County Jail in Emporia Kansas to improve access to psychiatric care(Zaylor et al., 2012). The inmates were able to make scheduled visits to a psychiatrist via telehealth equipment and the volume of inmates visits was 5 times the anticipated rate(Zaylor et al., 2012). The investigators concluded that mild to severely mentally ill inmates are able to be effectively treated using telepsychiatry(Zaylor et al., 2012). Benefits to the inmates included not having to feel humiliated by attending a physical clinic shackled and guarded, obtaining quicker access than traditional care, and receiving accurate diagnoses with expedited care. Benefits to the jail include freeing up staff to perform other roles, reducing the potential liability of jail, decreasing costs associated with physical psychiatric visits such as transportation and staff(Zaylor et al., 2012).
The only disadvantage of easy access telepsychiatry in the county
jail was that more inmates were put on medication. Considering that an
estimated 46% of all the incarcerated population suffers from mental illness
does not make increased medication usage necessarily a bad thing (Prins, 2014).
References
