Non-emergency Healthcare Requests and Services

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Control Number: 401.06.03.037 Version: 5.0 Title: Non-emergency Health Care Requests and Services Page Number: 4 of 5 Idaho Department of Correction to applicable contract medical provider policy and procedure must be reviewed and approved by the health services director, or designee, prior to implementation. • Mental health requests will be received daily and screened by a qualified health professional. If the request describes the overt intention of self-harm or harm to others, IDOC policy 315, Suicide Risk Management, will be implemented. All other mental health requests will be placed in a box to be picked up by mental health staff for triage. • Not every sick call request requires a sick call appointment; however, when a sick call request describes a clinical symptom, a face-to-face encounter between the inmate and the qualified health professional is required. This requirement applies to mental health and dental symptoms as well. • Following this triage, medical and dental requests that involve a clinical symptom must be seen by a qualified health professional within twenty four hours (seventy two hours on weekends) for evaluation and treatment. • Following triage, mental health requests that involve a clinical symptom must be evaluated by mental health staff within twenty four hours. • Each request for health assistance will be evaluated and must be documented in the inmate healthcare record utilizing the subjective, objective, assessment, plan (SOAP) charting format. Each request that involves a clinical symptom requires the use of a Nursing Assessment Protocol. The inmate must be provided with an explanation of the assessment findings, any further recommended treatment or evaluation, and any patient education relevant to the request for health assistance. All encounters will be dated, timed, signed, and placed in the healthcare record. (Note: In addition to this requirement, a sick call log must be maintained to record, at a minimum, the name of the inmate, the date of the request, the nature of the request, and to who/whom/where the inmate was referred.) • All inmates, regardless of housing assignment, must have access to regularly scheduled sick call. The frequency and duration of sick call must be sufficient to meet the needs of the inmate population and must coincide with other routine inmate activities in the facility (i.e., it cannot take place at an unusually early or late time of day). • Sick call or provider appointments for non-segregated populations are conducted in an area appropriate for the evaluation of the complaint. Inmate healthcare records must be available to the healthcare staff at the time of the sick call contact. Each inmate will be seen on an individual basis in a designated area to ensure privacy and confidentiality. • Inmates who receive a referral to a provider must be seen within fourteen days of the qualified health professional’s assessment at sick call when: ♦ Indicated by protocol. ♦ The patient requires a higher level of evaluation and/or care. ♦ Nursing assessment is deferred.