NCJ Number
202808
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 65 Issue: 6 Dated: October 2003 Pages: 72-75,122
Date Published
October 2003
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article focuses on increasing correctional physicians’ productivity while maintaining quality.
Abstract
The field of correctional health care is a highly competitive environment, and corrections health care providers often decrease the length, quality, and depth of patient contacts in response to increasingly heavy workloads. Focusing on the Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) prison population, the article describes ways in which prison staff may avoid implementing shortcuts that compromise clinical and documentation quality. Once Georgia’s DOC began logging the amount of time physicians spent doing certain tasks for prisoners, unnecessary tasks were identified and eliminated, allowing more time for quality patient care and documentation. By limiting the amount of time spent reviewing charts and by visiting patients only once when necessary lab reports and ancillary support members were available, Georgia’s DOC physicians saved a tremendous amount of time and boosted their overall productivity. Substantial productivity increases were made possible with proper monitoring, education, and organization.