CorrectHealth to provide in-house care

In an effort to save on manpower costs, the Lafourche Parish Government has inked a one-year deal with Georgia-based medical group CorrectHealth to provide 24-hour on-site care to the parish detention center.

The annual healthcare contract came up for renewal in June. CorrectHealth, established eight years ago as Georgia Correctional Healthcare, won out over prior provider Lafourche Ambulance Service, who held the parish contract for three years.

“I am not saying that Lafourche Ambulance Service did not do a good job for us, but we need medical professionals that can handle on-site medical cases without having to transfer the inmates to Thibodaux Regional Medical Center,” said Major Marty Dufrene, who heads the Lafourche Parish sheriff’s Correctional Department.

Parish President Charlotte Randolph said her decision to hire CorrectHealth was based on the company’s ability to offer more medical professionals that were qualified to treat inmates within the correctional facility’s walls.

Unlike other correctional facilities, Lafourche’s detention center does not have an infirmary. Instead the medical staff and equipment are housed in a medium-sized room inside the jail, according to Lt. Cortrell Davis, the assistant warden.

“Just having licensed medical staff on hand around the clock will be a tremendous help because some of the unnecessary hospital trips will be cut out and we will begin to save money,” Dufrene explained. “We have 275 inmates here. We don’t need a doctor here full-time, but we need certified nurses that can assess patients and determine whether they need to see a doctor.”

CorrectHealth’s hired staff can X-ray and splint injuries, draw blood and other specimens for lab work, administer medication and provide some psychiatric services via video. The company provides its own medical equipment, which includes an EKG machine, an X-ray machine, basic life support equipment and all other medical necessities needed to care for inmates.

According to Dufrene, Correct-Health can provide essentially any service previously received by inmates at the emergency room. Dr. Stacey Greene, a New Orleans physician, will see inmate patients twice weekly. The company is in the process of hiring a psychiatrist who will provide services weekly at the Lafourche jail.

CorrectHealth has partnered with Thibodaux dentist Dr. William Barletta to treat inmates. According to Dufrene, this is the only treatment that will require inmate transportation.

Davis said the Lafourche Ambulance contract put added strain on the detention center’s sheriff deputies and the facility’s $1 million operating budget because manpower and money was redirected to transport inmates to physicians for mild or moderate medical needs.

“Not having medical equipment – like an X-ray machine or an EKG machine – made it harder for us because every time an inmate had a suspected broken limb or complained of chest pains, we had to send them out along with one of our deputies,” Davis said. “This new group has all of the medical equipment that is needed when assessing an inmate prior to sending them out.”

More serious medical emergencies will still be transported to Thibodaux Regional, he said.

Randolph’s administration reports that $437,000 was spent solely on inmate health care last year.

Records indicate that approximately $35,000 was used to pay deputies responsible for transporting inmates to Thibodaux Regional. Approximately $287,000 was used to pay for ambulance transports to the hospital, as well as hospital care costs and off-site doctor visits. The remaining $115,000 was spent on medications and medical supplies.

According to the law, Dufrene said the detention center must provide them with three meals daily, a place to sleep and adequate healthcare.

“Many of the people at the detention facility are being held over until their court date, which means many of them have not been convicted of anything just yet,” the major said. “The laws that govern a correctional facility state that while inmates are in our custody, we have to take care of them.”

Last week, CorrectHealth hired two full-time registered nurses and two full-time emergency medical technicians.

Dr. Carlo Musso, a native of Franklin, La., and president of CorrectHealth, said there is a growing need to provide adequate healthcare inside the correctional facility.

A certified emergency room physician for 23 years, Musso began seeing correctional patients in Georgia emergency rooms where he was working. He quickly determined that many of the patients could be treated on-site at the jail.

“We were seeing things that could have been handled at the facility if they had adequate care and equipment on-site,” Musso said. “This had to be costing the correctional facilities a lot of money.”

Along with a group of Georgia emergency room physicians, Musso devised a plan to cut medical costs at Georgia correctional facilities by offering on-site care to inmates. CorrectHealth was borne out of that effort.

“We developed a method for cutting costs and improving the efficiency of health care delivery within the secured, confined areas of a correctional facility,” Musso explained. “We minimized inmate movement and decreased security and liability exposure for clients, saving time, money and resources. We have developed the right way, the ‘correct way’ as we like to call it, of providing correctional health care.”

To assist in Lafourche’s transition, CorrectHealth brought in Jefferson Parish Correctional Center’s Health Service Administrator Jean Llovet, a 12-year medical veteran. Llovet has been employed with CorrectHealth since January 2006, when the group began treating inmates in Jefferson Parish.

“CorrectHealth came in at a critical time in Jefferson Parish because it was after the storms and we were lacking medical services in the area,” she said. “It has been wonderful working with CorrectHealth because they have given us the means to provide quality health care to the inmates, and I am here to help Lafourche get its start.”

Musso still recalls when CorrectHealth first came to Louisiana.

“We came into the parish right after Katrina, we had to work as an independent medical organization because there was no ‘charity hospital’ available,” he said. “We have been established for about eight years now, and I think we did some of our best work when we started at the Jefferson Parish facility.”

Today, CorrectHealth provides services for Jefferson, Lafourche and Plaquemines parishes.

As president of the company, Musso said he is not coming into the parish wearing blinders. He knows that the detention center is overcrowded and space will be limited. “At the end of the day adequate health care still needs to be provided to the inmate,” he said.