by Bob Walsh
The California Health Care Facility (aka Bedlam) is a massive prison hospital located just outside of Stockton. It has more beds (about 2,800) than all of the rest of the hospitals in San Joaquin County combined. The idea was to centralize and hopefully improve the health care of the large number of physically or mentally ill prisoners in the formerly great state of California. How well it has performed is another question.
I remember when the place was opened it was plagued by problems that seemed puzzling to a reasonable outside observer. Things like frequently running out of basic personal or very basic medical supplies, fairly frequently. Its not like the state does not have expertise in the area, they already run a couple of decent size mental health facilities. You should not run out of things like blankets, socks or incontinence pads on a regular basis if your storekeeper is doing their job and is competent at it. (They did finally get those kinks worked out, more or less.)
Also, the facility does remarkably little actual medical care. They spend a FORTUNE shipping inmates to the nearby county hospital or other hospitals for actual medical treatment.
The facility was primarily dinged for follow-up and follow-thru, as well as failure to make "sound assessments and accurate diagnoses." Tests were often not reviewed in a timely manner and necessary follow-up care or outside referrals were slow-dragged.
One particularly egregious case involved an inmate who had a distended stomach and significant pain. The doctor ordered a belly x-ray but didn't specifically tell the on-call doctor to check the damn thing. The inmate died five hours later due to a bowel obstruction.
Another case involved an inmate with a persistent leg infection. The doctors didn't get around to reviewing the wound cultures for THREE WEEKS. A further case involved a failure to review heart monitor results for FIVE WEEKS for an inmate who was having a "possible cardiac event."
Medical care in the state prison system, including this one, is overseen by a receiver appointed by the federal courts. That receiver, J. Clark Kelso, has declined comment on the report. The report says generally that the health care in six of CA prisons, including the prison hospital, has gotten worse over the last couple of years.
Lack of staff is getting the blame, as usual, for most of this. The DOC pays about 20% over the going rate for medical staff.
4 comments:
I've never heard of a good prison hospital.
I can remember having to ration toilet paper to our SHU inmates at Corcoran in the early 90's because we couldn't get a sufficient supply from our warehouse. Really pissed them off, and of course, they blamed those of us working in the units. No good reason for that sort of thing.
CDCR rarely hires the best and the brightest. Even when they do, they are often treated so poorly that they soon quit.
I know back in the old days prisons attracted the dregs of the medical profession because you did not need malpractice insurance and you did not need any sort of bedside manner. It is supposed to have changed. I am unsure I would bet on that, at least if painting with a broad brush.
@ Bob, ya, I can remember a physician we had whose license had actually been revoked who was working under the supervision of another doctor at our facility.
Yup. Only the best and the brightest.
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