Originally Posted by Orca I wanted to get some feedback from those working in major correctional institutions about the method used for notifying inmates of medical appointments.
The reason I am asking is that my facility has instituted a very time-consuming and, in my opinion, ineffective and wasteful system for notifying inmates. We once had a system where officers handed out individual appointment slips. This has been replaced with a system in which the nurse has to post appointment lists in every housing unit (after already walking the entire yard once for pill call) and taping notices to the wall in each quad.
Some of the appointments are for as early as 7:00 AM, and they are not the first thing inmates look at after being locked down all night. There is also the problem of notices being pulled down or falling off before they are seen, and I see a confidentiality problem with it. Any ideas?
Reply to ORCA:
Our state prison also posts these appointment lists. We post all Med Clinic appts., all Dental Clinic appts., all sick call appointments in the dorm nursing stations ( have 4 units of these, plus seg, which we give the posting list only to custody for ). The lists get made up and distributed by 2pm the day before appointments to the mailboxes of the dorm custody officers, who do the postings. We also post these lists in a locked outdoor bulletin board near the dining hall. Our prison is set up like a campus, and inmates are housed in dorms unless they are in segregation (then they are single-celled). They have jobs during the day and evening, attend college classes, GED training, etc, so they are out and about and can check out the list by the dining hall. This system has worked well for us for many years, with a population of inmates close to 1300. The only appointments we do not post, but use a call-up system for, are the specialty clinic appointments when we use contract providers from outside, who hold clinics at certain times of the month. Med Clinic handles these, too, and has to call each dorm to have the inmate report. It usually works out, also. Does that help at all?
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