In January, it was discovered that the Inmate Health Services Central Office process for tracking Inmate letters and grievances and copying medical records, was unable to handle an increasing volume. In an effort to solve this problem, an interdisciplinary team was Armed to improve and create better systems for the Central Medical Records Program. As a direct result of this team, the following improvements to the Medical Records Program have been implemented:

All processes of the Medical Records Program area have been flow-charted. This ensures that all staff involved know exactly what their roles and responsibilities are in responding to requests for information.

• A computerized Access tracking system was developed by team members To date, there are 2,000 entries this year. This system automates cover sheets, request forms, reports, notification of approaching deadlines that simplifies information retrieval and decreases duplication of effort by health staff.

• The Repository which receives all medical records upon an inmate's release and also retrieves records when an inmate is returned to custody is no longer backlogged and overwhelmed since:

• An outside vendor was brought in to copy medical records for legal and continuity of health care issues - freeing up staff to handle day-to-day functions.

• Two years of records were pulled, documented and placed in archives so new charts could be unpacked and filed. 

• Forms and systems were created to speed up and document Repository actions.

The department illustrates the excellent improvement in turnaround times even while volume continued to increase. 

• Grievances 25.95 days to 15.18 days 
• Inmate letters 18.82 days to 5.42 days 
• Medical Records 35.27 days to 7.17 days

Due to the development of processes and systems, these improvements now continue without additional staffing.

Updated on November 09, 1999