A Call for Patient Advocacy (by Jeffrey E. Keller MD)

Being incarcerated in a jail or prison sucks.  Almost by definition, incarcerated inmates are disadvantaged.  They no longer have free choice about where they live, what they eat, what they can purchase, what work they can do or how much they can earn.  One thing that incarcerated inmates do have access to is medical care.  And those of us who provide that care are justifiably proud of our efforts on behalf of our patients.

Sometimes, though, we can get trapped in our own little world of the medical department and forget the other aspects of inmate life that we don’t see every day, like where they sleep, what food they eat and how they spend their time.  We may think that those aspects of inmate life have nothing to do with our medical mission, or at least that we have no say in how the rest of the prison or jail facility is run. However, many of these other aspects of inmate life affect the medical well-being of our patients.  

An obvious example is food.  On the outside, doctors emphasize the importance of eating a healthy diet.  It is important, patients are told, to eat lots of fresh vegetables and fruit and to limit consumption of white carbohydrates and meat fat.  “Don’t buy junk food, like sweets and chips!” outside patients are told, “Instead snack on healthy foods like nuts and fruit.”  But incarcerated inmates often have no choice in what they are given to eat at meals and there are no healthy options (none!) offered on many commissaries.

I have found in my years of practice in jails that the quality of food provided to inmates at meals varies greatly from jail to jail.  Some jails do pretty well at providing truly heart-healthy, balanced meals that actually include real vegetables and fruits.  On the other hand, jails that pursue “low-cost at all-cost” food service companies, not so much.  In addition, what is actually on the tray given to an inmate may not resemble the “diet plan” that was shown to jail administrators. 

Similarly, jail commissaries rarely offer any heart-healthy choices.  The justification from the commissary companies is always an economic one: “Those don’t sell well.”  Ramen noodles and candy evidently sell very well, just like they do in the free world.

However, since crappy diets and crappy commissary choices impact the health of our patients, we correctional physicians have the right and even the obligation to advocate on behalf of our patients. When a knowledgeable diabetic patient tells me that the diabetic diet actually has more carbs per meal than the regular diet, I, as her doctor, have the obligation to investigate.  It is not that hard to walk down to the kitchen, talk to the responsible sergeant and kitchen supervisor and see if the story is correct.  In my experience, it often is!

Similarly, if the commissary lacks any heart healthy options, I have the right and even the obligation to advocate on behalf of my patients.  It is not heard to schedule a meeting with responsible sergeant and the representative of the commissary company.

In my experience, these advocacy meetings often work, especially if you are persistent.  If the commissary provider has to look you in the eye every month when they make their jail visit, eventually, they will make appropriate changes.  Same with the food service provider. 

It is possible to do this without being obnoxious or overbearing.  Just persistent in advocacy for the health of our patients, who cannot do this for themselves. Such advocacy actually works to improve the health of our patients.  Our job does not stop at the doors of the medical department.

As always, what I have written here is my opinion. I could be wrong! I would like to hear your opinion. Please post in Comments!

This article was originally published in CorrDocs, the publication of the American College of Correctional Physicians, (here)

The Best of Jail Medicine: An Introduction to Correctional Medicine has been published!

Those of us who have practiced medicine in jails and prisons (correctional medicine) know this is a great job! We often see patients who have never had easy access to medical care. As a result, we get to diagnose and treat a larger variety of medical diseases than most medical professionals. We get to see the striking improvements our patients make due to our interventions. Since correctional medicine is largely free from traditional government/private insurance, we are freed from ICD-9 codes, diagnostic-related-groups (DRGs), and billing. We work with a disadvantaged and underserved population that appreciates our efforts and are grateful to have us. Our work is emotionally rewarding!

But it is also true that correctional medicine is different in important ways from medical practice “on the outside.” For example, we cannot fire our patients and they cannot fire us. Because of this, we must learn “verbal jiujitsu” skills to effectively communicate without animosity. We also must be scrupulously fair with our patients in a way that simply does not happen on the outside. And, of course, we must practice in a loud, hectic concrete and plexiglass building with TSA style security checks. These differences can be enough to overwhelm some medical newcomers with sensory overload.

The Best of Jail Medicine: An Introduction to Correctional Medicine consists of 47 articles from the popular Jail Medicine blog that discuss must-know aspects of practicing medicine in a jail or prison.  Each section contains several articles highlighting a different essential aspect of correctional medicine.

  1. Why Correctional Medicine is a Great Job
  2. Communication with Incarcerated Patients
  3. Unique Operations in Jails and Prisons
  4. Comfort Items: The Special Problem of Correctional Medicine
  5. Treating Withdrawal—Every Time
  6. Issues of Medical Care in Jails and Prisons
  7. Difficult Patients
  8. In My Opinion

The Best of Jail Medicine: An Introduction to Correctional Medicine is available now on Amazon.com (here)

JailMedicine and ACCP

I recently turned 65 and decided that it was time to slow down a little bit. Part of this slowing down is to retire from the administration of JailMedicine and turn JailMedicine over to a new caretaker. Fortunately, I have found the perfect organization to take JailMedicine over–the American College of Correctional Physicians, better known as ACCP.

ACCP is THE professional organization for all Correctional Medicine Practitioners, including affiliate membership for Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants. It is the perfect organization to continue publication of articles devoted to Correctional Health Care. ACCP has assigned Todd Wilcox MD the primary responsibility of running JailMedicine, assisted by a committee of other ACCP members (including me) who will contribute articles, answer comments, update the blog and generally make JailMedicine better than ever!

JailMedicine has been a big part of my life for the last ten years. I very much appreciate everyone who has read my thoughts and rants, subscribed and commented.

The work we do as Correctional Medical Practitioners is important! We provide healthcare to an underserved and often neglected population. We soldier on despite often being underfunded, working in a difficult environment and having to pay attention to security issues that other medical practitioners are not even aware of!

Thank you for your work in Correctional Medicine and for your support of JailMedicine!

Here’s to the continued success of JailMedicine and to the continued success of our work!

Jeffrey E. Keller MD

Do You Understand the Requirements for Multiple DEA Licenses?

I have found that many correctional practitioners, especially in jails, do not understand the license requirements of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and, as a result, do not have all of the DEA licenses that they are legally obligated to obtain. 

Take, for example, a correctional physician that we will call Dr. K who is employed full time a a large urban jail and has had a DEA license for that jail for many years.  On the side, she also provides medical services to three other smaller jails, where she does clinics once a week. The question is whether her one DEA license covers her activities at the other jails.  Dr. K has always thought that she only needs one DEA license—just like she only needs one Driver’s License—and it will cover all of her activities. 

But the real answer is, “No,” Dr. K is not in compliance with DEA regulations.

Continue reading

Utilization Management is Different in Corrections

This is an important fact that I have learned from many years working in prisons and jails: Most correctional practitioners do not understand how Utilization Management in a prison system works. They misunderstand what the goal of the UM process is. They misunderstand the process of submitting requests. And they misunderstand how decisions are made. It took me a full three years of working in a prison system before I wrapped my head around how UM was supposed to function. This is because UM within a correctional system is fundamentally different than UM in the outside world and also new incoming correctional practitioners are not taught how prison Utilization Management works or how to make UM requests properly.

To show how a prison is different than Utilization Management in a typical Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) in the outside world, let’s say that I am a primary care practitioner in the community who wants to order an MRI on one of my patients. As we all know from long experience, I can’t just order the MRI. I have to get it pre-authorized. To do that, I have to submit paperwork to the patient’s insurance company explaining why I want to do the procedure. Someone will review my request, but I will have no idea who this person is or what their qualifications are. The reviewer could be a physician, or it could be a nurse referring to UM guidelines.  I just don’t know and never will. Whoever that person is, they will either approve payment for the procedure or deny it.

Notice several important things about this interaction: Continue reading

Is a Concrete Cell Really the Best We Have To Offer Our Mentally Ill?

Consider the case of a 60-year-old patient I will call “Library Man.” While at the public library, Library Man took off most of his clothes and was talking loudly to no one in particular. The police were called, of course. He was charged with disturbing the peace and brought to my jail.

Jails basically have three types of housing areas. First are dormitory-style rooms with 60-100 residents. Library Man cannot be housed there—the young aggressive inmates would prey on him. Second are smaller cells that hold two to four inmates. The problem with these cells is that even if the jail could guarantee gentle cell mates, it would be hard to monitor Library Man in such cells. Such cells tend to be in out-of-the-way places and have small windows on the doors. The only place that Library Man can be reasonably housed in most jails is “Special Housing,” which refers in this case to a single-man isolation cell with lots of plexiglass to allow easy observation. Such rooms are designed to have nothing that someone could use to harm themselves, so they are made entirely of concrete and steel—even the bed. This is where Library man ends up—basically in a large concrete box.

Unfortunately, this is not a good place for Library Man to be. You may have guessed that Library Man is a homeless schizophrenic who had gone off of his meds. He is harmless–certainly not a danger to himself or to others. In his psychotic state, he does not understand why he was arrested and jailed. Library Man would benefit from familiar surroundings and normal social interaction with people. He will get neither of these in the alien and sterile environment of his concrete isolation cell. Continue reading

Grievance Responses PLUS Sample Grievance Guideline

Benjamin Franklin once famously quipped “nothing is certain but death and taxes.” However, Franklin did not work in a jail, otherwise he would have said: “Nothing is certain except death, taxes and grievances.”

On the outside, patients do not write grievances—they vote with their feet. If they dislike the medical care they are receiving, they will just go to a different doctor. In a jail, they cannot do this. We have a grievance system in Correctional Medicine because our patients cannot fire us (and we cannot fire them–discussed previously here). If jail patients are unhappy with their medical care, their only recourse is to write a grievance.

Grievances are not necessarily bad things. A medical grievance is sometimes the way by which jail patients alert us to significant problems that we may have not known about or mistakes that we made. I myself have had my butt saved in this manner—more than once! Many grievances are simply about communication errors. We have not yet adequately explained a medical decision to the patient.

Yet jail medical personnel often have a bad attitude about grievances. This is unfortunate, because medical grievances are an important—even essential—part of the jail medical system. I believe that the most important reason for the bad attitude is that people have not been taught how to write a proper grievance response. That, then is the topic of today’s JailMedicine post. Continue reading

Guest Post: A Prescription for Dog Food

Today’s Post was written by Rebecca Lubelzyk MD.  Rebecca works in the Massachusetts prison system. She is a past president of the American College of Correctional Physicians and the editor of CorrDocs, the official publication of ACCP.  This article was originally published in CorrDocs.

I’m on a medical school listserve that publishes writings and academic accomplishments of faculty and students. One week, a mindfulness moment was added to address the stress that physicians feel. The well-intentioned addition brought forth a fairly online virulent discussion about the non-medicine stress that disgruntled physicians feel every day, and how a “mindful moment” will do little to change the extreme performance demands generally imposed upon our profession.

I followed the discussion peripherally but with interest. It was clear all the contributors were dedicated professionals who loved their patients and providing care to them and their families. However, the bitterness towards the insurance/compensation/financial system was prevalent.

How bad it was “out there” became even more apparent when I had a prospective physician shadow me in clinic for a day. I explained how there can be several benefits to correctional medicine (your “no show” rates are essentially nil, patients have their blood pressures and blood sugars checked by a nurse, diets, commissary purchases can be reviewed in detail, etc.) I expressly noted the unique challenges, including the requests for non-medical items or privileges as well as the negative attitudes one encounters when the patient doesn’t want to hear the word “no”.

The physician candidate surprised me, stating that it was the same on the outside. Continue reading

Top Five Articles from 2018

2018 was a great year for JailMedicine! Noteworthy events from the year include:

I introduced a new feature–Sample Guidelines–which turned out to be very popular. I intend to add many more sample guidelines this year. Please let me know what guidelines you would like to see!

I began a new blog on MedPage Today entitled “Doing Time: Healthcare Behind Bars” (found here) that introduces our world of Correctional Medicine to outside medical professionals who have no idea what we do. This has also been well read.

Readership increased substantially in 2018. This may be because I published more articles . . . Thank you to everyone who read JailMedicine this year!

Without further ado, these are the five most read articles from 2018:

Abscess Incision and Drainage, a Photographic Tutorial

I was given the opportunity to create a tutorial of the classic method of lancing an abscess when a friend of mine came to my office with a great cutaneous abscess on his back.  This has been, by far, the most read JailMedicine article of all time.

Removing Microdermal Implants, A Photographic Tutorial

Microdermal implants are so common as to be ubiquitous.  Almost all of th jewels can be unscrewed from the base, which is my preferred way to deal with them in a jail setting.  However, occasionally, patients want to have the implant removed entirely. It is not hard, but many practitioners have never done it and so do not know how.

A Better Way to Drain Abscesses: The Berlin Technique

I have a confession to make.  I no longer (usually) incise and drain abscesses in the manner that I taught on the photographic tutorial above.  My dermatologist friend and colleague, Neelie Berlin, showed me this nifty technique that uses a 4mm punch biopsy tool  It is quicker, easier and just as effective for the majority of uncomplicated skin abscesses you will see in your clinics.  You just have to order the punch biopsy tool!

What’s the most cost-effective way to treat scabies? The answer might surprise you

Scabies is so common in jails that every jail medical professional should know how to recognize this itchy little pest. It is not too hard as this post points out.  Also, It turns out that treating scabies with oral ivermectin is less expensive and easier than using topical permethrin cream.

Medications at High Risk for Diversion and Abuse In Correctional Facilities

Many seemingly benign medications are commonly diverted and abused in correctional facilities.  The risk of abuse for some of them so overwhelms any potential benefits of these drugs that I argue that they should rarely be used in jails and prisons.

What was your favorite post from JailMedicine?  What should I address in future articles? Please comment!

Is My Patient Faking?

This article was initially published on MedPageToday, found here.

I remember walking into one of my jails and seeing a patient on the floor of his cell twitching and shaking. “Don’t worry about him,” said the sergeant on duty. “He’s faking it.”
Boy, that spun me up! Nothing will make me more anxious than hearing “he’s faking” or its close cousin, “he’s malingering.” I hate and fear those words. Now, I know that medical personnel, both in my jails and in the emergency departments where I used to work, get upset when they think that they are being deceived or manipulated by a histrionic patient. But charging a patient with “faking it” is almost always a bad and dangerous idea. Continue reading