ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS

INTEGRATION WITH CORRECTIONS

CASE MANAGEMENT
2009-2011 Syscon Justice Systems. Al l Rights Reserved.
S yscon J ustice S ystem s Fall 2011
WHITEPAPER
E H R / J M S I n te g ra ti o n 2
The El ite EHR system has been developed specifically for corrections agencies. As a resul t, al l
aspects of the system are based on corrections best practices and are tightly integrated with
the key features and functions inherent within the El ite JMS. As a resul t, the medical intake
process can be tightly integrated with an agencys standard booking procedure through use of
customizable workflow features. This al lows medical intake to occur at any point in the overal l
booking process or it can be maintained as a total ly independent business process.
I n tro d u cti o n
Best practices in the Corrections industry have developed over decades to incorporate the
concept of a single unified record for each offender; a unique case file that incl udes the
complete and detailed history of an offenders rel ationship with a corrections agency. It is
through this consol idated view of an offender that l ine officers and case workers concerned with
al l aspects of security inmate, staff and publ ic develop a knowledge and understanding of the
individual inmate.
That an inmates medical and treatment history should be a part of this unified record is ever
more important in an age of increasingly complex heal th records legisl ation, an aging and
sickening inmate popul ation, constantly increasing heal th care costs, and the ongoing threat of
inmate l awsuits.
To meet this need, Syscon has developed a sophisticated and corrections-specific Electronic
Heal th Records (EHR) system that is ful ly integrated within our comprehensive Jail Management
sol ution. Syscons El ite EHR comes with industry-leading ease-of-use features and yet is
efficiently designed with advanced methodologies to meet your current and evolving medical
management, reporting and privacy requirements.
S i n g le D a ta E n try a n d I n ta k e P ro ce ssi n g
E H R / J M S I n te g ra ti o n 3
The efficiently designed integration between correctional and medical information el iminates
redundancy in data capture and provides instantaneous access to information subject to system
security user profiles. Furthermore, a complete history of key inmate heal th information is
avail able to medical personnel at al l times.
Implementation of a series of pre-defined triggers makes the EHR system a proactive tool for
notifying staff when critical situations arise. This coul d incl ude automatically sending messages
to medical personnel when an inmate being booked requires immediate attention.
In addition, the system can pop-up on-l ine messages rel ated to medical /security issues (for
example, the inmate is diabetic and requires insul in 4 times per day) that al l staff must be aware
of, incl uding at time of booking.
S ch e d u le s a n d M o ve m e n ts
Syscons integrated JMS/EHR package el iminates the possibil ity of schedul ing confl icts by
util izing a unified schedul ing module. Al l scheduled activities (courts dates, internal hearings,
program events, education cl asses, cl assification meetings, medical referral s and appointments,
etc.) are maintained in a single data table. As a resul t, when staff attempt to schedule an event
that is in confl ict with an al ready scheduled activity the system wil l immediately notify the staff
member of the conflict and provide options for handling the situation. These options may
incl ude modifying the newly introduced event, al lowing the confl ict to exist until some future
time, or notifying the original event author of the confl ict and working toward a
schedule compromise.
E H R / J M S I n te g ra ti o n 4
An additional feature resul ting from integration with the JMS is the ability to view future
scheduled events and plan the distribution of medical services based on this information. This
el iminates the time-consuming effort required to find the location of an inmate for, say, required
medications, when an inmate is moved without the prior knowledge of medical staff.
Ale rts a n d R e stri cti o n s
The TAG OMS incl udes a detailed Alerts sub-system that prominently displays important
information about an offender on every inmate specific screen. Standard corrections alerts
(V)iolent offender, (S)uicidal , etc. are as important to medical staff as they are to l ine officers. In
addition, through the EHR system, qual ified medical personnel can add medical alerts that wil l
be of equal interest to security, cl assification and program personnel .
Alert Details LOV
E H R / J M S I n te g ra ti o n 5
The OMS al so handles offender restrictions for commissary purchases within the Commissary
module. An important inter-rel ationship exists between the Commissary module and the
EHR system; when dietary restrictions are entered into the EHR system these restrictions are
automatical ly carried over to the Commissary module. For example, an inmate that is identified
as a diabetic will be unable to purchase items containing sugar from the commissary.
C o st R e co ve ry
The abil ity to recover some of the costs associated with the provision of medical services to
inmates is an important step toward maintaining fiscal viabil ity within a corrections organization.
Recognizing this, we have specifical ly designed the EHR system to integrate ful ly with the El ite
Inmate Trust Accounting package of the JMS, thus ensuring that opportunities for billing
inmates for services are not lost. Pre-defined obl igations can be identified against an inmates
trust account and funds withdrawn automatical ly based on appl icable payment rules.
H o u si n g a n d I n te rn a l L o ca ti o n Tra ck i n g
Accurate, real -time tracking of an inmates current internal location (for example, gym, l aw
l ibrary) and bed location is val uable when attempting to locate an inmate for the purpose of
administering medical treatment. Furthermore, the abil ity to readily obtain inmate cl uster
views at the unit and facil ity level s allows medical personnel to disseminate services in a more
coordinated fashion. Only ful l integration with the JMS can make this avail able.
C o m p li a n ce a n d I n m a te L a wsu i ts
The abil ity to l ink data on medical treatment within the framework of a consol idated offender
record al lows an agency to advance a stronger defense against inmate lawsuits cl aiming
negl igence or fail ure to comply with legisl ative rules and regul ations or court-mandated duties.
E H R / J M S I n te g ra ti o n 6
6500 River Road
2nd Floor, Richmond, BC
V6X 1X5 Canada
Tel : 604 606 7650
83 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0HW
Tel : +44 (0) 203 178 3148
www.syscon.net
Fax: 604 606 7654
Tol l Free: 1 888 797 2662
2009-2011 Syscon Justice Systems. Al l Rights Reserved.
T h ro u g h -C a re
If an offender is transferred from one facil ity in an agency to another, the entire offender record
incl uding al l medical detail s and history is transferred automatical ly. This minimizes the need
to move hard copy files (and the corresponding creation of dupl icate file entries) and eliminates
the possibility that errors are made during the transfer of critical medical data.
Furthermore, integration of the OMS with EHR enables medical staff to receive automatic,
real -time messages rel ated to the future transfer or release of an inmate. This al lows staff to
efficiently remove an inmate from medication rounds, cl inic appointments and other scheduled
events, thus saving time and expense.
Equal ly important, OMS/EHR integration ensures proper through-care of service via the
coordination of medical treatment with external service providers such as community care
facil ities and other corrections medical providers.
T h i rd P a rty D a ta
Final ly, the issue of the control of inmate medical data is of the utmost importance. If a
corrections organizations medical suppl ier maintains the inmates heal th records on a system
that they provide, there may wel l be difficul ties and certainly del ays in recovering offender
information shoul d the medical contract expire or be terminated. Maintaining this inmate
medical data as an integral part of the agencys own OMS guarantees the agency will always
have access to vital inmate medical data.
C o n clu si o n
In summary, we bel ieve a clear and strong argument has been made for integrating your
Electronic Heal th Records system within an overal l Jail Management System.
In the corrections environment, heal th and security are inter-dependent. By implementing the
necessary security matrix such as that offered with the El ite JMS sol ution it is now possible
to give your organization the best of al l worl ds: a sophisticated inmate heal th records system
sharing information with a comprehensive JMS when it makes logical and legal sense while, at
the same time, ensuring that data privacy concerns are appropriately addressed.
Syscon Justice Systems El ite Electronic Heal th Records is this sol ution.
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