ISCC PRISONERS MISSING MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS DUE TO LACK OF NOTIFICATION
In what is becoming an epidemic at the ISCC, hundreds of medical appointments every month are being missed by prisoners simply because the prisoners aren't notified that the appointments have been scheduled. In addition to failing to address the medical needs of the prisoners, it constitutes a violation of prisoners rights to be free from cruel and usual punishment through deliberate indifference to medical needs.
As it stands, when a prisoner has a medical appointment at the ISCC, a designated staff member (usually the corrections officer assigned to the medical department) will telephone the housing unit to which the prisoner is assigned, and ask that the prisoner be sent to the medical department. While unit staff most often will page the prisoner on the tier, the noise levels in these areas are so out of control (staff refuse to address the issue) that people cannot hear the page. Other issues include the fact that the PA stem is often unintelligible, prisoners may be in their cells (unit staff can page them on the in-cell speaker, but rarely will), prisoners are at work, at school or recreation, or are otherwise off the unit. Even when someone advises unit staff that another prisoner who was paged is off the unit (and notifies staff EXACTLY where they are), it is extremely rare that staff will notify another area that a specific prisoner is needed for an appointment. Thus, the appointment is missed, with the prisoner none the wiser in some cases.
There is a process in place - but unused - to provide notice to prisoners that they have medical appointments at the ISCC. It is known as the '"call out" system. In fact, the ISCC has spent thousands of dollars in creating the electronic call out system which consists of a graphics generator / computer hooked to the facility in-house television cable feed. The medical department simply sends a copy of their patient appointment list to designated staff who then upload the list to the appropriate call out page. In some cases, medical staff themselves can enter the data into the system.
On the television (channel 5 in this case) the system is just a continuous loop of slides, much like a Power Point presentation. Many of these slides contain memorandum, (many of them months to years old and out of date), announcements for activities and other garbage prisoners have to sit through to be able to read important information, like the medical call outs. Unfortunately, the call outs are either blank, or they are for appointments weeks in the past. Sometimes someone will post an appointment list on Tuesday, though the appointments are for the preceding day. Medical staff say this is the fault of administrative staff, while administration staff point the finger at medical staff.
When the system works, medical call outs for the upcoming week are posted, containing the prisoner's name, number, date/time of the appointment(s) and what the appointment is for (eye doctor, dental, chronic care, etc.). This allows not only the prisoner himself the opportunity to check the call out (at least one of the day room televisions is SUPPOSED to be dedicated to the call out channel throughout the day - but it's not) but if I see someone in the call out list on my unit, I will tell him he is on the list - and he can verify the fact himself. Further, this allows prisoners to make arrangements with work/school supervisors to be absent, and virtually guarantees prisoners will show up to their appointments (some of which have waited months to be seen) on time and ready for what medical procedure awaits them.
A simple alternative to putting call outs on the television is to simply print a list of appointment scheduled for the next day on paper and post it on the units. Medical personnel however refuse to do this, saying they don't have the staff or time to do so. This despite contractual requirements that medical staff are to be at every unit every day to pick up Health Service Requests (HSRs). I suppose that when the Health Services Administrator at the ISCC (and most other IDOC facilities) is not a medical professional, and has no medical training, that's what we get.
Is their a conspiracy by Centurion (the newly contracted health services provider for the IDOC) to reduce the number of patients to be seen by just not telling them they have an appointment then noting in the prisoner's medical chart that they have refused treatment? Seems farfetched, but with the number of appointments being missed, and nobody doing anything about getting it straightened out, it's looking a lot more like this is the case.
Prognosis? Well, I'll let you know. (Oh, just realized that my medical appointments are WAY overdue... I'd better look into that).