Administrative Meetings and Reports
I had lunch with an old colleague last Friday. This morning, my contractor came by to conduct a final punch list for my recent bathroom remodel. What do these two things have in common and how does it relate to this issue and how we are saluting our correctional officers and employees? Stick with me and see if I can pull it all together.
Let’s start with my lunch. The purpose was for me to catch up on what was going on at my old facility and to provide some guidance. It was cordial enough. We exchanged your typical niceties, then we dove into the agenda. Yes, even though it was “just a lunch,” there was an unofficial agenda that would drive the conversation.
There were several items that we wanted to cover and only a short time to do it. We made a concerted effort not to get off topic. After our main topics were covered, we made sure that we had covered any old business. There was some. For us, it was to make sure we kept communication lines open. An unanswered text from months ago caused concern that we weren’t. Then, there was the new business. Where do we go from here? We identified a few key points and made sure we knew who was responsible for which item. With that, the meeting was done. Over. We parted with a map, some direction, on where to go from here.
As for my meeting with the contractor. Let’s say that it wasn’t as enjoyable as my lunch with an old colleague. I still had an agenda, and we went down the list of points to be covered on the bathroom remodel. The toilet was just “shimmed” up, not installed properly. The shower doors were installed wrong, and water is pouring onto our new floor. The exhaust fan was installed, but they cut the hole too big and didn’t bother to try and fix it, trim it, or even hide the gap between the fan and the drywall ceiling. There are a few other “attention to detail” items that seem less trivial that I’ll try not to fixate on.
But here’s the point. The two meetings were same. One was just more enjoyable than the other. We covered the agenda. We went over any old business and made sure we allowed time for new business. It was purposeful and we didn’t let our emotions interfere with the business at hand.
This is exactly what the NCCHC standard A-04 Administrative Meetings and Reports is meant to do. It is a systematic way to keep you on point. It is meant to make sure that your facility’s health and correctional administrators coordinate the health care delivery system through joint monitoring, planning, and problem resolution.
But wait a minute. I promised to tie this into how we are saluting our correctional officers and employees. Here’s the rub. Over the last two years, the pandemic has forced us, yes all of us, to talk to each other. Problem solve together. Plan together. Report things to each other. Many times it was virtual. I get it, but we communicated with each other. We shared things with each other. How could we have successfully navigated COVID-19 without it? Finally, I hope, the importance of the health care of the incarcerated population and how correctional health care relates to custody and how custody relates to correctional health care was being discussed and planned.
So, here’s my shameless attempt of making an uninteresting topic relate to our salute to you. Here’s to you. All of you. Thank you for navigating these tough years together. Thank you for talking to each other. Thank you for keeping an open mind to things that you think aren’t your responsibility. Thank you for standing your post when those around you were falling. Thank you for your service to your community, your agency, and to those that are in your charge. From all of us at the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, we salute you!
__________________________
JIM MARTIN, MPSA, CCHP Vice President, Program Development jamesmartin@ncchc.org
AMY PANAGOPOULOS, MBA, BSN, RN Vice President, Accreditation National Commission on Correctional Health Care amyp@ncchc.org
NCCHC Jail Commander Conversations: Administrative Meeting and Reports
The purpose of the Jail Commander Conversation is to provide an easy-to-use tool that gives the commander an opportunity to have a more in-depth conversation with the health care team about the health care operations. These topic areas are selected since NCCHC surveyors are seeing trends in survey items needing additional attention.
Why Is This Important? Despite how easy it is to be in compliance with this standard, findings related to administrative meetings and reports continue to be some of the most frequently scored standards and compliance indicators. However, the commonly missed standards are easily fixed, and we’ll help you learn how. This standard is found in governance and administration and helps establish a health care system that ensures access to care, professional administration of all aspects of health care, and monitoring and quality improvement policies that effectively process health care issues from identification through resolutions.
Administrative meetings are: • Attended by the correctional administrator and the responsible health authority (RHA) or their designees, and other members of the medical, dental, mental health, and correctional staffs as appropriate.
• Held at least quarterly. Minutes or summaries are made and retained for reference, and copies are available and reviewed by all appropriate personnel.
Health staff meetings: • Occur at least monthly to address pertinent health care issues. Minutes or summaries are made and retained for reference, and copies are available and reviewed by all health staff.
• Statistical reports of health services are made at least monthly. They are provided to the correctional administrator and others as appropriate and are used to monitor trends in the delivery of health care.
Sample Survey Observations from Recent Surveyors' Findings
Observations related to administrative meetings and reports:
• Administrative meetings are not attended by custody staff
• The facility has a strong mental health program but no one from mental health attends the administrative or the health staff meetings. There seems to be a disconnect between health care and mental health care.
• Statistical reports are not shared with custody staff. The jail administrator is not aware of inefficiencies that exist.
• Minutes or summaries of the meetings are not shared, reviewed, or available to all health staff.
Potential contributing Factors:
• Health care leadership is not invited to administrative meetings
• Disconnect and no open communication between two programs (MH and Health)
• CQIs and/or statistics are not conducted or collected