The Winter 2014 issue of Perspectives in Health Information Management features articles on ICD-10 readiness, student expectations of EHR use, as well as mental health services and health information exchanges in the justice system.
Jails have often been compared to islands because they are thought to be cut off from the community both physically and perceptually. Few people understand that besides being places of confinement, jails function as health care providers. The separation of jails from community results in disjointed health care services and treatment for individuals cycling in and out of jail. Healthcare providers in the community have little knowledge of the care their patients have received in jail; the same can be said of jail health providers about care provided in the community.
The concentration of incarcerated individuals with mental health and physical problems in the United States has led to the labeling of jails and prisons as the “hospitals of last resort” for those unable to access healthcare services in the community. As funding for community behavioral health services has dwindled, the number of people with serious psychiatric conditions in the nation’s correctional facilities has grown.
Secondary use of large and open data sets provides researchers with an opportunity to address high-impact questions that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive and time consuming to study. Despite the availability of data, generating hypotheses from huge data sets is often challenging, and the lack of complex analysis of data might lead to weak hypotheses. To overcome these issues and to assist researchers in building hypotheses from raw data, we are working on a visual and analytical platform called PRD Pivot.
Sharing health information across correctional boundaries presents many challenges. Three such projects in Connecticut may be of value in informing other jurisdictions of similar opportunities. This article describes the development and implementation of an interagency release of information (ROI) document and process, a voucher program to provide discharge medications at the time of release, and a statewide research-oriented health information network.
