U.S. jails are outsourcing medical care — and the death toll is rising

U.S. jails are outsourcing medical care — and the death toll is rising

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A Reuters data analysis finds that jails with healthcare overseen by private companies incur higher death rates on average than those with care handled by government agencies. The story of a Georgia jail that hired Corizon Health Inc reveals the hidden cost of privatized inmate healthcare.

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Matthew Loflin was coughing up blood, struggling to breathe and losing consciousness in his cell while awaiting trial on drug-possession charges in this historic Southern city. “I need to go to the hospital,” he told his mother in a jailhouse phone call. “I’m gonna die in here.” It was March 28, 2014, and his seven weeks at the Chatham County Detention Center had been a blur of blackouts and racing heartbeats. The jail’s senior medical staff – Dr. Charles Pugh and two well-credentialed nurses – agreed he needed hospitalization. But the move was opposed by a senior manager at their employer, Corizon Health Inc, which held a multi-million dollar contract to manage the jail’s healthcare, according to court records and former medical staff. When Loflin's X-ray showed a suspicious spot in his chest on April 7, Pugh tried another plan: He sent Loflin to a cardiologist, believing the specialist would want him hospitalized. After a quick exam, the cardiologist sent him straight to the hospital, but it was too late. Loflin, 32, deteriorated quickly, suffering irreversible brain damage. He died April 24.

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In the last years of Corizon’s watch from 2014 to 2016, prescription drugs went missing, patients deemed gravely ill by medical staff were denied hospitalization, mentally ill inmates went untreated and records were falsified, Reuters found. Weeks passed with no doctor on site, leaving care to nurses and video calls with doctors. The jail’s 400 mentally ill inmates, nearly a quarter of its population, were treated by a sole psychiatrist. Corizon said it put patient care first and told its staff to hospitalize inmates when needed. Yet an inmate died from a treatable heart condition after his doctor’s requests for hospitalization were denied. A guard was crippled by an inmate who hadn’t gotten her meds. Another inmate died from a blood clot in his leg 32 hours after he crawled across the floor begging to go to the hospital.

Long article but worthwhile. It's an indictment of the privatization of prison healthcare, and of states that don't give a **** about the health and safety of human beings.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2TrAJkE