An independent oversight team has found improvements in the quality of care provided to people incarcerated in Santa Barbara County jails, and also identified areas that still need work.
“ The idea is that we’re providing that independent, objective oversight,” said Aaron Stilwell, the Correctional Healthcare Quality Improvement Manager with the county’s Health Department.
He and his counterpart Dr. Carrick Adam were hired to monitor healthcare in county correctional facilities.
Santa Barbara County contracts with the private healthcare company Wellpath to work with patients in two jails and in the Juvenile Justice Center.
The new report from the County Health Department, submitted to the county Board of Supervisors last week, evaluates Wellpath’s performance from July to September of last year.
“ I'm happy to say that since we've come on board, we've seen a steady improvement,” Stilwell told KCBX.
Stilwell mentioned an area of improvement is in managing patients’ withdrawal symptoms.
“Wellpath has expanded the medication assisted treatment program and eliminated the waitlist for patients dealing with substance use disorders,” the report said.
At the adult jails, areas that still needed improvement included maintaining an up-to-date diagnosis list, “provision of medication prescriptions at release, and follow-up for medical needs identified during intake screening or from sick call requests.”
Wellpath was the subject of a Santa Barbara County Grand Jury investigation last year.
At the Northern Branch Jail, a 57-year-old woman died after her abdominal pain went untreated and unevaluated. The jury found that her death could have been avoided with better care.
Wellpath didn’t respond in time to KCBX’s questions about their work in Santa Barbara County correctional facilities.
