Forensic Nurse Magazine

April 20, 2004 — A new patient-management system is being used by the Virginia Beach Sheriff's Office to screen inmates for medical problems. PrimeCare Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of OCG Technology, Inc., reports that their PrimeCare Patient Management System Version 9 is being used at two jailhouses in Virginia Beach City and Hampton City, to identify prisoners that may require chronic care.

With 20 to 30 new inmates a day, the need for chronic care may go unnoticed at the initial admission screening. The Prime Care system asks all the critical questions and alerts the staff to potentially serious and life-threatening healthcare situations in the jailhouses' population.

Using Prime Care, the inmate completes a detailed medical history by answering complaint-specific questions drawn from 280 symptom and problem-oriented medical sources. From this questionnaire, Prime Care generates a preliminary report containing the inmate's current problems, medications and allergies, all positive and significant negative subjective responses, vital signs and a list of the diagnostic considerations triggered by the responses. Prime Care documents the doctor's findings, test results, assessments, treatments, prescriptions and follow-up instructions. The physician's decision-making process and diagnoses are recorded along with services rendered, tests and procedures performed, and medications prescribed. The doctor or nurse's role as note taker is eliminated; more hands-on time is available for diagnostic assessment and treatment, and two additional inmates an hour can be processed using Prime Care.

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