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NCCHC News
A Warm
Welcome to Our New Accreditation Director
NCCHC is
pleased to welcome Jennifer Kistler, MPH, as our new director of
accreditation. Jennifer possesses a solid background in public
health, with expertise in accreditation and continuous quality
improvement in state and county systems.
Before joining us in April, Jennifer spent five years with
the Ohio Department of Health’s Office of Policy and Leadership
as a local health department consultant, helping the state’s 131
county and city health departments to meet state performance
standards. She worked with these agencies in areas such as
public health education and preparing for the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention’s national public health
performance standards assessment.
She also administrated Performance Ohio, a Web-based
instrument for evaluating all state agencies with the goal of
improving performance and productivity. In addition, she was
involved in the Multistate Learning Collaborative, a program
funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to develop
voluntary accreditation standards and performance measures for
state and local health departments.
At NCCHC, Jennifer’s first major projects are the rollout of
the revised 2008 jail and prison standards, as well as the
introduction of new mental health standards and the Commission’s
new mental health accreditation program.
“I look forward to working with our dedicated partners for
the advancement of correctional health care,” Jennifer says.
“NCCHC continues to move in a positive direction as we strive to
help further improve quality and efficiency in health services.
We also are looking to enhance communication and improve the
accreditation experience for all involved.”
Jennifer earned a master’s degree in public health
(epidemiology) from Ohio State University and a bachelor’s
degree in neuroscience and psychology from Ohio Wesleyan
University.
We also send our gratitude to Jennifer’s predecessor, Judith
Stanley, MA, CCHP-A, who dedicated more than 10 years of
outstanding service to NCCHC and the field as a whole. She
continues to serve in a consultative role while settling into
semiretirement. (Spring 2008)
Board Member
Update
Alvin J. Thompson, MD, was honored by the American College
of Physicians as recipient of the Ralph O. Claypoole Sr.
Memorial Award. Bestowed at the ACP’s annual meeting in May, the
award is given to an outstanding practitioner of internal
medicine who has devoted his career to the care of patients, is
highly respected for his clinical skills and has been a role
model as a member of a clinical faculty or department of
medicine.
Thompson is a long-standing member of the NCCHC board of directors,
representing the American Medical Association for more than 20
years. After more than 60 years of practice and teaching, he is
an emeritus clinical professor of medicine at the University of
Washington.
In announcing the award, the ACP (also a supporting organization of
NCCHC) cited Thompson’s career-long dedication to the strategic
mentoring of community organizations and individuals. In 1969,
he developed the unique health plan of the Seattle Model City
program. In 2005, he was cochair of the task force that guided
the development of the acclaimed Puget Sound Health Alliance.
Thompson also was the founding president of the Washington State
Association for Biomedical Research. He has been president of
all of his city, county and state professional organizations and
has served as ACP governor for Washington and Alaska. He was
elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1978. His current
service to NCCHC includes participating on the finance committee
and representing the Commission to the AMA’s House of Delegates.
(Spring 2008)
Correctional
Health and Preventive Medicine
For the second consecutive year, Donald Kern, MD, MPH, CCHP,
organized and moderated a concurrent session on correctional
health care at the annual meeting of the American College of
Preventive Medicine, held in Austin, TX, in February. Titled
Correctional Public Health: Current Clinical and Research
Challenges, the session featured three speakers presenting
different examples of teamwork between correctional health and
public health at the federal, state and local levels. Charlotte
Kent, PhD, of the CDC's Division of STD Prevention, spoke on STD
and TB control programs; Diana Schneider, DrPH, MA, of the
Division of Immigration Health Services, reviewed TB screening
and treatment for immigration detainees; and Ingrid Binswanger,
MD, MPH, of the University of Colorado, Denver, spoke on her
study of risk of death after release from prison. The 90-minute
session drew several dozen practitioners, researchers and
students; conference evaluation results showed impressive 100%
favorable ratings for the session overall and for each of the
speakers. Kern represents the ACPM on the NCHC board of
directors. (Winter 2008)
CorrectCare™
Turns Over a New Leaf
Six years ago, we redesigned CorrectCare,
freshening its look and features while maintaining our balance of
news, articles and commentary from the field along with NCCHC
business. We got great feedback except for one thing. A
reader survey found that the publication got high ratings
editorially, but
the newspaper format was a bit clumsy.
Now, in its 22nd year, CorrectCare
is undergoing yet another transformation. It's the same magazine you know and love, but
trimmed down, toned up and looking good, if we dare say so. We’d
love to hear your thoughts. Let us know what works, what doesn’t
or anything else that’s on your mind. Write to
editor@ncchc.org. (Winter 2008)
Here Come
the 2008 Standards!
NCCHC’s new standards have been polished, reviewed, polished
some more and are now going to press. Since the first editions
were published 30 years ago, the correctional and health care
communities have relied on the Standards for Health Services
as the benchmark for health care delivery in correctional
settings. These new editions for jails and prisons incorporate
many improvements to assure state-of-the-art care.
For
ordering information, visit the
Publications section or call 773-880-1460. For an in-depth
discussion about the new standards, be sure to attend Updates
2008.
Board Member
Update
• Robert E.
Morris, MD, began his term as chair of NCCHC's
board of directors during the board's annual meeting in October. Morris
represents the Society for Adolescent Medicine on the board.
He is the
medical director for the Juvenile Services Division of the
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
and also is a professor of clinical pediatrics
at the UCLA Medical Center.
• Joseph V. Penn, MD, CCHP, is the chair-elect. He represents the
American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry on the board,
and is the director of psychiatric services at the Rhode Island
Training School, Cranston.
• Two new members have been elected to the board:
–
Eileen Couture, DO, RN, MS, represents the American College of
Emergency Physicians. She is the interim chair of correctional
medicine/nursing of Cermak Health Services, which provides
health services for the Cook County (IL) Jail.
–
Capt. Nicholas Makrides, DMD, MA, MPH, represents the American
Dental Association. He serves as the chief dentist for the
Federal Bureau of Prisons, Washington, DC.
(Fall 2007)
Heads Up on
New Health Assessment Standard
Managing inmate health care is fraught with difficulty.
NCCHC understands that better than anyone. That’s why we are
pleased to announce an important change to our Standards for
Health Services that will transform health assessment in
prisons and jails. To be unveiled at the National Conference on
Correctional Health Care, this forward thinking change permits
greater flexibility in health care delivery. The likely
consequences are many: better staffing and care, improved
patient outcomes, fewer legal risks and potential cost savings.
For over 30 years, NCCHC has led the movement to
improve correctional health care, setting national standards
that enable facilities of all types to provide constitutionally
acceptable care. These standards are endorsed by the medical
community and accepted in the courts.
Having guided thousands of facilities of all types and
sizes, we are the world’s leading authority on correctional
health care. At the same time, we work with our supporting
organizations and other leading professional health care
associations, and keep close tabs on community practices to
ensure that our correctional health care standards are
clinically sound and state-of-the-art.
The forthcoming new standards will be reviewed at the
National Conference
during the preconference seminars on Saturday, Oct. 13, and a
concurrent session on Wednesday. Oct. 17.
We look forward to giving you steadfast support
throughout the process of transitioning to the new standards.
(Summer 2007)
Board Member
Update
NCCHC welcomes the following three new members to its board
of directors.
• Patricia Blair, PhD, LLM, JD, MSN, is the representative of
the American Bar Association. She is a health law attorney in
private practice and an adjunct associate professor at the
University of Texas at Tyler.
• Robert Gogats, MA, is the representative of the National
Association of County and City Health Officials. He serves as
the health officer for the Burlington County Health Department,
Westampton, NJ.
• Ronald Wiborg, MA, MBA, is the representative of the National
Association of Counties. He is the contracts and grants manager
for the Hennepin County Department of Community Corrections,
Minneapolis, MN.
In other
board news...
•
Carl Bell, MD, CCHP, moderated a Capitol Hill briefing in honor
of National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day. A coalition
of national mental health, counseling and education
organizations attended. Bell is executive director of the
Community Mental Health Council, Chicago, and represents the
National Medical Association on NCCHC’s board.
• Kleanthe Caruso, MSN, CCHP, was elected to the board of
directors of the Texas Nurses Association. Caruso is vice
president for patient care operations and chief nursing officer
at the University of Texas Health Center at Tyler. She
represents the American Nurses Association on the NCCHC board.
• Douglas Mack, MD, CCHP, attended the American Medical
Association House of Delegates meeting on behalf of NCCHC. Now
“retired” in Colorado, he represents the American Association of
Public Health Physicians. He also recently completed a 300-mile
“Ride the Rockies” biking event.
(Summer 2007)
NCCHC
Launches Online Correctional Health Care
Buyers Guide
If you source or purchase products for your department, you now
have a powerful tool at your fingertips. The NCCHC Buyers Guide
is a search engine that continually indexes the Web sites of all
companies represented in the directory. Visitors can easily
locate products and services unique to this field without the
clutter of a general Internet search. The Buyers Guide gives you
the option of performing a keyword-driven search that mirrors
traditional search engines, or a category-specific search. Both
methods produce the most relevant results on the Web. With the
downloadable desktop search application, you can search for
products and services from a small window on your desktop,
making the process both convenient and time-efficient. The
Buyers Guide also includes a Request for Proposal (RFP) tool
that enables you to contact a group of suppliers with one click
of a button. (Summer 2007)
Opioid
Treatment Education
NCCHC has developed an
educational CD to help correctional facilities manage substance abusers in their charge. Produced through a
grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, the CD features a presentation by substance
abuse treatment expert Kevin Fiscella, MD. Fiscella represents
the American Society of Addiction Medicine on NCCHC’s board of
directors and is an associate professor at the University of
Rochester’s Department of Family Medicine. The program offers 1
hour of CME/CE credit. The CD will be sent at no charge to
facility administrators at prisons and jails nationwide.
Additional copies will be available for purchase. (Winter 2007)
NCCHC Board
Member Update
• Preventive
Medicine Meeting Focuses on Correctional Health
For the first time, the American College of Preventive
Medicine’s annual meeting included a panel on correctional
health care. ACPM hosted over 700 academics, researchers, public
health physicians and physicians-in-training at the five-day
meeting in February.
Speakers
included Donald Kern, MD, MPH, CCHP, who represents ACPM on the
NCCHC board, Mary Applegate, MD, MPH, B. Jaye Anno, PhD, CCHP-A,
Lester Wright, MD, MPH, and Lawrence Gostin, JD. The talks were
followed by a lively question and answer session. (Thanks to
Dr. Kern for the report on the meeting.) (Winter 2007)
• Robert E.
Morris, MD, was selected as chair-elect of the National
Commission’s board of directors at its annual meeting, held Oct.
29 in Atlanta. His term as chair will begin next October, after
the 2007 board meeting. Morris represents the Society for
Adolescent Medicine on the board, and has long chaired NCCHC’s
juvenile health committee. He works as professor of pediatrics
at the University of California Los Angeles.
• The NCCHC board also welcomes new member Ronald C. Moomaw, DO,
who represents the American College of Neuropsychiatrists.
Moomaw is director of clinical services and chief psychiatrist
for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Bureau
of Mental Health Services. He also practices in various
community settings. His background includes work as an Air Force
flight surgeon.
• Sheriff B. J. Roberts has been elected sergeant-at-arms on the
executive committee of the National Sheriffs’ Association. The
position is the first step in a path that often leads to
presidency of the committee. Roberts heads the City of Hampton
(VA) Sheriff’s Office. He represents the NSA on the NCCHC board
of directors and is vice chair of the accreditation committee.
• David W. Roush, PhD, was one of several juvenile justice
experts who presented testimony at the June meeting of the
National Prison Rape Elimination Commission in Boston. He spoke
on the implications to juvenile justice facilities of the Prison
Rape Elimination Act, including staffing and training issues
related to sexual assaults on juveniles in confinement. Roush
represents the National Juvenile Detention Association on the
NCCHC board.
• William J. Rold, JD, CCHP-A, served on the Committee on
Ethical Considerations for Revisions to DHHS Regulations for
Protection of Prisoners Involved in Research. A project of the
National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine, the
committee’s report, Ethical Considerations for Research
Involving Prisoners, was published in July. The report will be
the subject of an article in the next issue of CorrectCare. Rold
represents the American Bar Association on the NCCHC board.
(Fall 2006)
New
look for JCHC
If you subscribe to the Journal of Correctional Health Care,
you know that it has a new look and format, as well as a new
publisher, Sage Publications, whose roster of academic,
educational and professional journals is vast. Still owned by
NCCHC and edited by John R. Miles, MPA, JCHC is now more
valuable than ever. Visit its new Web site to learn about
benefits such as access to Sage Journals Online, e-mail alerts,
online subscription management and more:
http://jchc.sagepub.com
(Spring 2006)
Clinical Guidelines for Adolescent Care
NCCHC is issuing
clinical guidelines for the most common and most problematic
conditions seen among juveniles in confinement. As with our
guidelines for adults, these also are based on clinical practice
guidance from other national organizations but adapted for
correctional populations and environments. The first two
guidelines address asthma and
seizure disorder. Others still in development address obesity,
HIV, diabetes and hypertension. See the
Clinical Guidelines
page of the Resources section to download these documents.
(Spring 2006)
Straight
Talk on Opioid Treatment in Corrections
To
help correctional administrators better understand the issues
and the potential benefits of opioid replacement therapy, NCCHC
is sending a
brochure
to administrators at thousands of jails and prisons. Created in
collaboration with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration, the brochure outlines how
corrections-based opioid therapy programs can help in treating
inmate addictions cost-effectively. It also touches on the
federal guidelines on operating OTPs in correctional facilities,
and explains how NCCHC can assist facilities interested in
establishing OTPs. (Spring
2006)
NCCHC Board
Update
Thomas J. Fagan, PhD, is being honored by the American
Psychology Association with its 2006 Award for Distinguished
Professional Contributions to Practice in the Public Sector. The
award will be presented at the APA’s annual meeting in August.
He also is a past recipient of the Special Achievement Award of
the APA’s Division 18, Psychologists in Public Service.
In honoring Fagan, the APA pays tribute to the important work he
has done in the field of correctional psychology. Fagan spent 23
years with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, developing policies,
procedures and quality assurance measures in what was an
emerging discipline. By 1991 he had become director of clinical
training for psychology services. He also did significant work
in the areas of hostage negotiation and suicide prevention.
Since retiring from the FBOP in 1999, Fagan has taught at the
college level and is now an associate professor of psychology at
Nova Southeastern University in Florida.
Fagan has represented the APA on NCCHC’s board of directors
since 1996, and served as board chair in 2004.
(Spring 2006)
AMA
Endorses Opioid Replacement Therapy in Corrections
The American Medical Association's house of delegates has
adopted a policy of support for "Opiate
Replacement Therapy Programs in Correctional Facilities"
(resolution no. 443). The action was taken at the AMA's annual
meeting in June. The resolution calls for the AMA to endorse
this medical treatment model as "an effective therapy in
treating opiate-addicted persons who are incarcerated" and for collaboration with NCCHC and the American Society of
Addiction Medicine in this endorsement. To read the entire
resolution, visit the AMA Web site at
www.ama-assn.org/meetings/public/annual05/refcomdannotateda05.pdf.
Commission Receives SAMHSA Grant to Aid Opioid
Treatment Education, Programming
The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration has awarded NCCHC a three-year grant to make
clinically sound opioid treatment services more available in
correctional facilities, with the ultimate goal of improving
patient outcomes. Read more...
(Spring 2005)
Searching
for Common Ground: One Year Progress Report
Over the past year, NCCHC funded by the JEHT Foundation, has conducted a
search for excellent models and best practices in community
reentry. Read the progress report.
(Summer 2004)
NCCHC Founder Passes Away
The field of correctional
health care has lost its patriarch, and many of us have lost a
very good friend: Bernard P. Harrison, JD.
Read about his remarkable life. (Spring 2004)
New
AMA Policy Backs NCCHC Standards, Accreditation
The American Medical Association
has adopted a policy of support for the National Commission on
Correctional Health Care’s standards for health services and
its accreditation program. The policy “encourage[s] all
correctional systems to support NCCHC accreditation,” and
calls for finding ways to increase funding for correctional
health services. Read the full
story. (Spring 2004)
Accreditation of Opioid
Treatment Programs
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, has granted NCCHC the authority to accredit
opioid treatment programs throughout the country. Accreditation
by NCCHC allows opioid treatment programs based in correctional
facilities to obtain certification from SAMHSA as required by
federal law. One of only six accrediting bodies so authorized,
and the only one specializing in corrections, NCCHC has
developed standards that are based on federal regulations and
that recognize the special nature of correctional facilities. An
OTP seeking accreditation by NCCHC need not be in a facility
whose health services are accredited. To learn more, visit the
OTP Accreditation page or contact NCCHC's director of accreditation at OTPinfo@ncchc.org.
(Spring 2004)
Purchase
the OTP standards online.
Institute of Medicine Honors NCCHC Founders
Bernard
P. Harrison, JD, and B. Jaye Anno, PhD, CCHP-A, were
honored for their pioneering efforts that have appreciably
improved correctional health care.
Read
more... (Fall 2003)
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