Tag: Jail Medicine

They Might Be Faking

It was great to gather again for the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association’s annual Correctional Health Division conference. This year, I presented on non-psychiatric (“medical”) malingering. Here’s my PowerPoint:

We could perhaps tackle psychiatric malingering next year (hint, hint). In some ways, this is easier to deal with as presentations seldom require urgent off-site transport. Standardized tests also make determinations more secure.

Many thanks to Holly Compo, Tom Wells and Randy Willis for inviting me to participate, and for onsite support. ✸

Vital Signs Are Truly Vital

I’m looking forward to presenting at the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association’s Correctional Health Division Conference on October 13th. I’ll be discussing the use of clinical decision rules in assessing inmates for chest pain, head injuries and other high-risk presentations. You can find my PowerPoint here.

My title is a riff on the National Early Warning Score (NEWS), which has good negative predictive for really bad stuff like cardiac arrest, ICU admissions and death. I previously wrote about it for Today’s Hospitalist (and PDF version here).

Many thanks to Heather Qunell and the other conference organizers for inviting me to participate! ✸

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Postscript [10/18/2021]. Here’s a PDF of the final program.

Jail Medicine

This week, we paused from life’s bustle to celebrate a remarkable public-private partnership. CentraCare Health, based in St. Cloud, Minn., began discussing correctional health care (“jail medicine”) with its host counties about three years ago. This ultimately resulted in CentraCare being named as the health authority (a statutory term) for the Benton County Jail and Stearns County Jail.

I’m fortunate to be part of the team that spun up the program. Originally, it was just Katy Kirchner, Heather Qunell, Cindy Henze and me squatting in a vacant office. There were only two desks, so I typically sat on the floor with my laptop.

The program and team quickly grew to include infirmaries in the jails and a clinic to serve inmates following release to the community. Our providers—all stellar people and clinicians—are Zach Dorholt, Bri Eriksson, Lori Korte, Julie Moriak and Cat Standfuss.

The program also owes its success to incredible nurses and support staff, and unwavering executive support. On the CentraCare side, Kelly Macken-Marble and Kathy Parsons have championed the partnership. And from the counties, Captains Susan Johnson (Benton) and Mark Maslonkowski (Stearns), the jail administrators, have been fantastic colleagues.

Many thanks to CentraCare for involving me in this deeply rewarding opportunity! §