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| Prison medical care tied to deaths |
| By Birmingham News |
| Published: 04/25/2005 |
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Prison medical staff provided poor, incomplete or substandard medical care to the three inmates who died last year at Alabama's Tutwiler Prison for Women, according to a physician who monitors the prison's medical system for a federal court settlement. Dr. Michael Puisis of Illinois, an expert in correctional health care, also suggests in a report that negligent, error-ridden medical care might have led to two of the three deaths. His report is based on visits to the Wetumpka prison March 7-10 during which he reviewed records, interviewed staff and toured parts of the prison. It was required by a 2004 federal court settlement of a lawsuit over crowded conditions and medical care at Alabama's only prison for women. With current patients, Puisis reported that private contractor Prison Health Services lacked follow-up, made mistakes in prescribing drugs and gave substandard care to 19 of 22 prisoners whose charts he reviewed. Women with HIV, staph infections, diabetes and other conditions were consistently denied treatment, he wrote. PHS Vice President Ben Purser said last Wednesday that he could not comment because he could not reach Alabama staff familiar with the report because they were in the field. Efforts to reach the Department of Corrections failed. The department contracts with PHS, a for-profit company based in Tennessee, to provide medical care in all state prisons. The care it offers at Tutwiler, Limestone and Donaldson prisons has been scrutinized most closely because of federal lawsuit settlements between prisoners and the state. Dr. Samuel Englehardt, a retired obstetrician and the primary doctor at Tutwiler at the time of the review, worked there before PHS took over and was retained by the company. "Based on chart reviews, Dr. Englehardt should not be providing general internal medical care to the patients," the report states. PHS recently added a full-time medical director at Tutwiler, a requirement of last summer's settlement of the lawsuit. Efforts to reach Englehardt last Wednesday failed. PHS medical staff at Tutwiler said all questions must go through the Department of Corrections. |
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