Improving Care for Incarcerated Patients

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

The Inmate Care Services Project is a collaborative effort between the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS), the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s (LASD) Medical Services Bureau (MSB) and the University of Southern California (USC). The overarching themes of this partnership have been: to improve access to specialty care, quality of care, coordination and communication; to provide care coordination resources to aid in case management for patients with complex medical needs; to increase the quality of services provided to jail patients; to increase onsite medical services within the Los Angeles County Jail (LACJ) system; to reduce the number of unnecessary transfers out of the jail setting; to reduce unnecessary outpatient specialty care visits at LAC+USC Medical Center (LAC+USC); to reduce emergency department visits by enhancing existing resources; and, to direct as much inpatient care as possible to the Jail Ward at LAC+USC. As a result of this partnership, an estimated 1,900 emergency room visits have been prevented. Over 500 hundred cases have been referred for care coordination, result in better communication and more timely follow up for medically complex patients. The reduction in hospital transports has saved the County of Los Angeles and estimated 4.5 million dollars in reducing hospital and transportation costs.