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Telepsychiatry for Corrections
Formulary Adherence
The adherence to a strict corrections formulary is a specific example of where CFG and InSight have saved considerable dollars for its partners within corrections. As corrections based psychiatry positions are often difficult to staff, many facilities are driven to work with community practitioners that lack a sensitivity to the costs of medications and the high potential for abuse within a correctional facility. With a high prevalence of behavioral health issues and through non-corrections experienced providers, many facilities have seen particularly high pharmacy bills related to psychiatric medications when working with community psychiatrists. CFG’s experience as an "at-risk” provider within corrections has taught its medical leadership and psychiatric practitioners to be particularly cognizant of formularies and the cost of drugs. This fiscal responsibility has filtered to InSight through its shared medical leadership and pool of employed clinicians with CFG. Telepsychiatry Cost Implications in jails InSight’s experiential data has shown that on average a trip to the hospital for an inmate has a cost of nearly $2,600 in terms of transportation and officer overtime alone. This does not include the cost for the hospitalization, where the average length of stay for an inmate often spans hours or even days. Due to the current economic constraints, correctional institutions are seeking ways to increase efficiency and lower costs while still providing high quality care. InSight’s telepsychiatry services address these needs for routine care and medication management as well as for immediate responses in times of psychiatric crisis. Telepsychiatry Applications for County Jails
Benefits of Telepsychiatry Generally, the benefits of any telepsychiatry program within a correctional facility can best be summarized in terms of rapid access to evaluation and care. Telepsychiatry represents 24/7/365 access to a corrections-focused psychiatric clinician within one hour of a request for service. Telepsychiatry can be integrated within the system of care of any facility through dedicated infrastructure and a specific operational model. Through rapid access to psychiatric evaluation and care, telepsychiatry programs offer not only high quality clinical care to the inmates receiving the services, but significant downstream benefits to the jail in terms of reducing the need for unnecessary offsite transports that are expensive and risky as well as the potential to reduce staffing and overtime expenses for custody staff. With telepsychiatry, correctional facilities are able to conduct psychiatric evaluations quickly and at a fraction of the cost of an in-person evaluation. Often utilizing existing video-court televideo equipment, inmates are evaluated by a psychiatric specialist within minutes of the request so that their mental health can be assessed and appropriately addressed. For crisis situations this application greatly reduces the potential for prisoners to hoax an illness to leave the facility and alleviates the burden of transportation and long waits within an Emergency Department. |
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