Report: Prescription use down in Ohio prisons

A new report from a nonpartisan legislative group has found that Ohio bought nearly 300,000 fewer prescriptions, a 16 percent drop, for inmates in 2011 than it did in 2009 (Source: "Prescription drug spending is down for Ohio prisons," Freemont News-Messenger, Oct. 15,  2012).

According to the report from the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee, a legislative committee that provides oversite to the state's prisons, the reduction in prescription drugs is primarily because of fewer prisoners and changes made to the prisons' healthcare system after a 2003 lawsuit.

Stuart Hudson, chief of correctional health care for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction attributes the reduction in prescription drugs to a policy change that provides in-house doctors at the state's prisons, rather than contracting with outside physicians. He said in-house physicians have greater familiarity with the prisoners they care for and can better explore underlying causes of health problems.

"When you have a physician that works in the facility eight hours a day, five days a week as opposed to a contractor that comes and goes ... you don't have that continuity of care (with contractors)," he said.