(Note: This is Part 1 of a two-part series on initial health assessments.) Nelson Mandela Rule #30 says something that to us might seem obvious: A physician or other qualified health-care professional … shall see, talk with and examine every prisoner as soon as possible following their admission and thereafter as necessary. The United Nations …
Initial Health Assessments: Getting It Right from the Start Read More »
Marquette Cummings died an egregious death—not because of how he died, but rather who killed him. After being stabbed in the eye by another incarcerated person, Cummings was taken from St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville, Alabama to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital in critical condition. Even though Cummings’s mother said he was …
The Need for Independent Healthcare Staff in Prisons Read More »
Our correctional medicine experts are often asked to opine on cases involving injury and death at the hands of negligent (and sometimes deliberately harmful) medical providers; in those cases, the adverse health outcome can indicate the need for reform. But minimum standards regarding how to protect prisoners’ rights have already been spelled out. In 1955, …
We Already Know What to Do: The Nelson Mandela Rules Read More »
Correctional healthcare, like care in the community, involves a patient and a doctor who meet in an examination room. The patient voices his or her complaints, the doctor takes a history and then performs a physical examination. Perhaps some testing is needed. There is then a diagnosis and a recommended treatment. Straightforward, right? Not quite. …
The Responsible Health Authority in Correctional Healthcare Read More »
Even though chronic pain management in a correctional environment is challenging, standard of care in correctional practice is that chronic pain must be responsibly managed and treated. To do so requires the following components: The physician has to take an appropriate history, perform an examination, order indicated diagnostic testing, and involve specialist consultation as needed …
Improving Chronic Pain Management in Prisons and Jails (Part 2 of 2) Read More »
