Introduction
Words such as “adaptive ,“ Flexible, and “innovative” are not words usually linked with prison settings, but in another way they aptly explains a 14-year-old program accountable for giving care to approximately 80% of prison population. Such qualities have facilitated the United States government to improve patient care outcomes, save money from taxpayers and create the national good standard for correctional services in the country.
Main body
For more than 20 years, UTMB has been quarters to the Texas Criminal Justice Department hospital which is the only health organization dedicated to prisoners and stationed on a medical school university. TDCJ signed a contract with Texas Tech campus and UTMB in the year 1993 to raise a nationwide health care system to provide prisoners with a quick access to a well structured consent level of care while at the same time reducing the cost.
Rendered Services include a number of therapeutic services and specialties that are supposed to be in a learning center. Different from UTMB Clinics and Hospitals, CMC also offers services such as common dental care and has an intrastate system of transportation for inmates and other patients. It also bears the burden of funeral arrangements incase an inmate dies. Elsevier 1999(pg 22-24)
The results archived by the government in the improvement of different prisons are difficult to ignore. For example in the year 2005, the Texas Medical Foundation (TMF) released a report on a 6 months review of penitentiary health services rendered by the government, which indicated that correctional Managed Care (CMC) at all times meets or surpass the set standards for managed care associations. Another example is a non-profit making firms of authorized physicians realized that CMC had succeeded in improving inmates’ admission to care, thus minimizing wait times for medical bookings, speeding consultations, improving health care management, and decreasing in overall costs.
The Quality of care, rates of fulfillment, disease management strategy for a host of conditions that range from diseases like asthma and seizure disorders to high blood pressure and heart disease have improved significantly under the watch of CMC. About half of inmates suffering from hypertension were could manage their blood pressure to satisfactory levels by the year 2003, as compared to 17% of the inmates by the time CMC was formed. Similarly, average levels of “bad” cholesterol reduced by 25% within the same time span. Elsevier 1999(pg 22-24)
Besides, a large number UTMB prison sites, in collaboration with TDCJ, have passed their American Correctional Association accreditation with a minimum 96% fulfillment rating over the past 5-years. For now, the program has held the procession on costs. According to FY2006, Texas pays roughly $7.64 per inmate in a day for dental and other medical services, while Ohio pays nearly $11.64 and California a bit more than $19 for the same services without expecting any positive health results.
Improvements and hard work has been the key to such accomplishment. According to John Allen who is the COP and assistant vice president, pointed out that CMC has for several years been using majority of the proceeds now being applied in UTMB’s general clinical areas. CMC has the biggest electronic medical record system in a prison setting, and it’s been there for six and a half years now. (John Allen) “We can empathize with our colleagues in schools and campus, who are learning the latest system, although based on our long-term practice; we can guarantee them that the effort will be worth their time and money.”
It should be noted that the UTMB telemedicine technology system which is currently getting into the lives of free-world patients was also started in correctional facilities and was started with the aim of bringing subspecialty care so as to reduce the time delay and costs of transporting prisoners to Galveston. Indeed CMC’s completely automated robotic pharmacy does process a big number of prescription in a day for the entire prisons system which a great achievement for the entire correctional facility system.
These achievements have not been obtained easily. High-security work surroundings aside, it can be complicated to find sufficient numbers of properly trained and willing caregivers in the rural areas where many prisons are sited. Tele-health technology helps and, CMC sustains its employees with a complete training syllabus/program, plus an online resource lead having more than 100 web-based ongoing education courses intended specifically for caregivers in correctional settings/facilities.
Conclusion
Even though there are great achievements that can be seen, there are challenges such as low staffing brought about by the rising lawbreaking population aging staffs. This demands CMC to come up with ways to efficiently serve a growing population of inmates with complex chronic ailments, like HIV infection, tuberculosis, hepatitis C, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. For this reason, upgrades to facilities and equipment will be important in order to maintain the quality/standard of care Elsevier 1999(pg 22-24).
Work cited
Mary Harvard, Correctional Managed Care sets standard for Texas nation. 2009. Web.
Robert M. Freeman, Correctional Organization and Management: Public Policy Challenges, Behavior and Structure, Washington, Elsevier 1999. pg 22-29.