Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 2, 1995 TAG: 9510020072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Eight dialysis patients have died at Greensville Correctional Center since December, a number that could be a statistical aberration, but a figure large enough to require an investigation, experts said.
The investigation will be conducted by the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center's Division of Nephrology, Virginia Department of Corrections officials said.
Last month, the Corrections Department asked the company that provides health care at the prison to pay for and conduct an independent audit of the dialysis unit.
St. Louis-based ARA Health Services Inc., trading under the name of Correctional Medical Systems, provides health care at Greensville, the state's largest prison, with 2,600 inmates. Greensville is where the most seriously ill dialysis patients are sent.
Problems at the infirmary at the prison just north of Emporia have been reported for several years and go beyond the dialysis unit. The chronology of real or alleged shortcomings indicates at least some predated ARA.
The infirmary opened in 1991 with $258,000 worth of X-ray equipment and a 10-bed respiratory isolation ward that did not work properly then, nor two years later, the newspaper said.
Inmates could be sent elsewhere for X-rays, but tuberculosis patients had to live in improperly ventilated rooms. By the time repairs were made to the X-ray equipment, the warranty had expired.
More problems were uncovered in a 1993 study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission and were documented in other public records - inadequate recordkeeping; noxious odors from the biohazard waste room; and, in the dialysis unit, day-old blood sometimes was found on the floor when the morning shift arrived.
Inmates interviewed said medical care at the prison has not improved since 1992, when ARA took over. They said the problems have persisted since 1993, when the legislative commission's study said serious deficiencies had put inmate and staff health at risk.
The Corrections Department says the problems found in 1993 have been remedied. The Greensville facility is the only accredited prison infirmary in Virginia.
The experts' probe of the dialysis unit could take four weeks to complete, the Corrections Department said. A summary of the findings will be made public.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB