Inside the Walls Perspective

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Inside the Walls Perspective
Arizona Department of Corrections Telemedicine
Program

• Debbie Pangborn RN
• Program Administrator

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8TH AMENDMENT OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION
Provides that Inmates have the right to health
care
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Correctional Health Care

• Remote Location
• Availability of Specialist Providers
• Security
• Transportation
• Prison Setting

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Telemedicine Goals

• Improve delivery of Health Care
• Increase security
• Decrease costs
• Reduce number of outside transports
• Improve availability of specialty services
• Provide timely response to health needs

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Why Correctional Telemedicine ?

• Access to a wide variety of medical expertise
• Shortened diagnostic treatment process
• Decreases sense of professional isolation that
  may occur

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ADC Telemedicine Sites
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Carondelet St. Marys HospitalTucson, AZ
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Maricopa Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ
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Analyzing the Benefits

• Assessment critical to establish delivery of care
• An assessment program should be documented
• Allow the providers the opportunity to learn the
  technology through training and trial runs
• Patients and providers will be more comfortable
  and will experience higher quality information
  exchange

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Security and Safety Benefits

• Reduce Correctional Officer staff overtime
• Reduce the number of officers required to
  transport
• Reduce vehicle maintenance costs
• Reduced the risk of escape
• Increased public safety

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Cost Savings/Avoidance per FY

• Cost Per Telemedicine Consult 63.32
• Cost Per In-Person (Outside) Consultation
  233.85
• Total Telemedicine Cost 549,066
• Total In-Person Cost 786,021
• Cost Avoidance per Consultation 70.54
• Total Cost Avoidance 237,146

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Opportunities

• Continuing medical education
• Conferencing
• Networking with other sites
• New technology

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Challenges

• Costs to establish and support a telemedicine
  program
• Acceptance of new procedures technology
• Additional duties for existing staff
• Technical problems

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Correctional Medical Professionals
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Think Beyond the Box

• Technology does not have to make life more
  difficult
• Email, fax, voice mail, are all considered
  Telemedicine tools

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Telemedicine Brochure and Posters for Inmates
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Step by Step Telemedicine ConsultvsTraditional
offsite Consult
10 Steps to create a telemedicine encounter 22
Steps to create an In-Person encounter
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Commitment

• A commitment must be made to applicability of the
  technology
• Health care professionals take their cue from
  colleagues ... be positive and upbeat
• To be successful we must become a well organized
  user group
• What works is what is attempted

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Teamwork Champions
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In Conclusion

• There is no doubt as to the benefit of
  Telemedicine in the correctional setting ...
• The savings are well documented and the
  enhanced security is without question!

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• Any questions contact
• Debbie Pangborn, RN
• debbie_at_azcorrections.gov
• 1-602-542-5179