Delivering primary care in prison: the need to improve health information
Delivering primary care in prison: the need to improve health information
Background: electronic patient records and access to electronic information resources are the cornerstones of delivery of modern primary care, and they will be necessary to deliver effective evidence-based patient care, provide needs-driven health care, assist research and improve quality of services. However, prison health needs assessments carried out in the South East region suggested that modern information technology was lacking in prison primary care. This is despite the fact that the principle of 'equivalence of care' has been guiding the recent prison healthcare reforms in response to concerns about quality of prison healthcare services.
Methods: we visited all four male adult prisons in the Thames Valley area and conducted one-to-one semi-structured interviews with healthcare staff to investigate the information available to them, the quality and uses of the data, and their current information systems. We also ran a workshop with prison healthcare managers and other healthcare staff from prisons in the Thames Valley area.
Results: primary care staff in prisons record almost all clinical data on paper and do not have access to electronic clinical records nor to the internet. The main perceived barriers to implementing health information technology in prisons were concerns about potential breaches of security and discipline in prisons, anxiety about data security and a culture that gives low priority to health in prisons.
Conclusions: to provide 'equivalence of care' for prisoners, primary care trusts need to implement full electronic clinical records in prisons and ensure staff have access to resources on the internet.
Adult, Computer Security, England, Humans, Information Systems, Interviews as Topic, Male, Medical Records Systems, Computerized, Primary Health Care/organization & administration, Prisons/organization & administration, Quality of Health Care
191-194
Anaraki, Sudy
87c7c049-dca6-4921-9ef1-e3f969c22e75
Plugge, Emma
b64d2086-6cf2-4fae-98bf-6aafa3115b35
Hill, Alison
55020310-08eb-4a32-97fb-94c7bed2ec38
Anaraki, Sudy
87c7c049-dca6-4921-9ef1-e3f969c22e75
Plugge, Emma
b64d2086-6cf2-4fae-98bf-6aafa3115b35
Hill, Alison
55020310-08eb-4a32-97fb-94c7bed2ec38
Anaraki, Sudy, Plugge, Emma and Hill, Alison
(2003)
Delivering primary care in prison: the need to improve health information.
Informatics in Primary Care, 11 (4), .
(doi:10.14236/jhi.v11i4.566).
Abstract
Background: electronic patient records and access to electronic information resources are the cornerstones of delivery of modern primary care, and they will be necessary to deliver effective evidence-based patient care, provide needs-driven health care, assist research and improve quality of services. However, prison health needs assessments carried out in the South East region suggested that modern information technology was lacking in prison primary care. This is despite the fact that the principle of 'equivalence of care' has been guiding the recent prison healthcare reforms in response to concerns about quality of prison healthcare services.
Methods: we visited all four male adult prisons in the Thames Valley area and conducted one-to-one semi-structured interviews with healthcare staff to investigate the information available to them, the quality and uses of the data, and their current information systems. We also ran a workshop with prison healthcare managers and other healthcare staff from prisons in the Thames Valley area.
Results: primary care staff in prisons record almost all clinical data on paper and do not have access to electronic clinical records nor to the internet. The main perceived barriers to implementing health information technology in prisons were concerns about potential breaches of security and discipline in prisons, anxiety about data security and a culture that gives low priority to health in prisons.
Conclusions: to provide 'equivalence of care' for prisoners, primary care trusts need to implement full electronic clinical records in prisons and ensure staff have access to resources on the internet.
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: October 2003
e-pub ahead of print date: 1 December 2003
Keywords:
Adult, Computer Security, England, Humans, Information Systems, Interviews as Topic, Male, Medical Records Systems, Computerized, Primary Health Care/organization & administration, Prisons/organization & administration, Quality of Health Care
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 485312
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/485312
ISSN: 1476-0320
PURE UUID: c24b578f-7078-4f87-9855-2f1a85c2b9b2
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Date deposited: 04 Dec 2023 17:40
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:57
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Author:
Sudy Anaraki
Author:
Alison Hill
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