Abstract Details

Title Providing Quality Teleneurology Consults to a State Prison System

Topic General Neurology

Presentation(s) P3 - Poster Session 3 (5:30 PM-6:30 PM)

Poster/Presentation
Number 4-063

Objective We sought to establish a teleneurology program to provide quality neurological care to prisoners within state correctional institutions and to reduce the time and resources needed to provide neurological care.

Background Prisoners remain a population of individuals with limited access to quality and timely healthcare. Most correctional facilities are located in rural locations while the majority of neurologists are located in urban settings. This spatial asynchronism results in longer wait times for patients and costly resources to transport prisoners to neurology clinics.

Design/Methods

We describe our experience implementing a teleneurology program within a state prison system. Data collected was reviewed and analyzed as part of our teleneurology quality program. Additionally, we compared the latency of consult approval to when the patient was seen for initial and follow-up consults when utilizing teleneurology versus in-person neurology clinics.

Results Of the 148 consults scheduled from 01/16/2018 to 09/30/2018, 120 (81%) were completed, with 90 initial and 30 follow-up consults within 22 state correctional institutions. The majority of consults were referred for movement disorders (26, 22%). Prisoners were seen quicker for initial consultation via teleneurology (m rank 45; mdn 24 days) compared to in-person clinic (m rank 60; mdn 47 days), but the difference was not statistically significant (U=113 ,p= .24, r = .12). Similarly, prisoners were seen for follow-up appointment sooner via telemedicine (m rank 15; mdn 7 days) compared to in-person neurology clinic (m rank 16; mdn 14 days), but this difference was also not statistically significant (U=89 ,p= .78, r = .05).

Conclusions

Following administrative approval, prisoners were seen sooner via teleneurology compared to in-person clinic. While the differences in wait times were not statistically significant, the convenience of the consult and saved resources proved teleneurology as a valuable service to the prison system.

Authors/Disclosures
Barbara K. O'Connell, MD (Allegheny Health Netword) PRESENTER	No disclosure on file
Chris Hackett, MA	Mr. Hackett has nothing to disclose.
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
Prarthana Prakash, MD (Brown Neurology)	No disclosure on file
Kevin M. Kelly, MD, PhD	Dr. Kelly has nothing to disclose.

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