title: Characterizing medical providers for jail inmates in New York State.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  People who are incarcerated exhibit high rates of disease, but data evaluating the delivery of medical services to inmates are sparse, particularly for jail settings. We sought to characterize the primary medical care providers for county jail inmates in New York State.
  
  
  METHODS
  From 2007 through 2009, we collected data on types of medical care providers for jail inmates in all New York State counties. We obtained data from state monitoring programs and e-mail questionnaires sent to county departments of health.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In counties outside New York City (n = 57), jail medical care was delivered by local providers in 40 counties (70%), correctional medical corporations in 8 counties (14%), and public providers in 9 counties (16%). In New York City, 90% of inmates received medical care from a correctional medical corporation. Larger, urban jails, with a greater proportion of Black and Hispanic inmates, tended to use public hospitals or correctional medical corporations as health care vendors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Jail medical services in New York State were heterogeneous and decentralized, provided mostly by local physician practices and correctional medical corporations. There was limited state oversight and coordination of county jail medical care.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY 10032, USA. nos9021@nyp.org
authors.forename: Noga
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shalev
authors.forename: Mary Ann
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Chiasson
authors.forename: Jay F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Dobkin
authors.forename: Gunjeong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009518:New York; D011329:Prisoners; D011330:Prisons; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires