New Program Cares for Inmates Via Telemedicine

The article reports, "The S.C. Department of Corrections spends more than $58 million a year on health care for the roughly 20,620 inmates in state prisons. Even though the state’s per-inmate cost is one of the lowest in the nation, taking prisoners to hospitals and medical facilities leaves the detention facilities at risk.

Each time an inmate is taken outside a prison to receive medical care, at least two corrections officers and a driver are required to escort. With too few staff available — as is often the case in S.C. prisons — the facility is typically put on lockdown.

“When you take two officers out of the institution, there are not enough officers to run that either area or facility safely to have the inmates going to let’s say the cafeteria or to canteen or to their programs and services that they have scheduled,” said Stephanie Givens, deputy director for communications at the Department of Corrections. “They lock that institution down to make that medical run as safely as possible.”

The outings also could put the public at risk, if an inmate escapes while traveling to and from the medical facility — though Givens said she couldn’t remember an incident like that occurring recently in the state.

To cut back on the number of hospital trips, the Medical University of South Carolina signed a contract in April with the Department of Corrections to provide care for patients behind bars through audio and visual communication technology. This telehealth services agreement is expected to help ensure safety, by keeping more inmates inside the prison, and to save the state money, by decreasing costly trips to the hospital.

“It’s just bolstering safety and security of the staff, the institution and for inmates while also providing more comprehensive care to an underserved population. That’s the importance of telehealth,” Givens said. “They (prisoners) are considered by medical standards an underserved population.”

Typically, a nursing staff works around the clock at the facilities, but physicians and nurse practitioners may be physically available in the jail only during weekday working hours, according to Dr. Ed O’Bryan, program director of correctional telemedicine at MUSC.

“There’s not a doctor there at most times, at most jails,” he said. “Most times it’s normal business hours, like 8 to 5. So any time after that — all nights, all weekends, holidays, all that kind of stuff — there’s no doctor there.”

The perceived stigma of treating a prison population is at least partially to blame for the lack of medical professionals working inside jails, O’Bryan said."

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