New hospital boosts services at Dannemora prison

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March 9, 2009

<a href="mailto:avanvalkenburg@pressrepublican.com">By ANDREA VanVALKENBURG</a> The Press Republican Mon Mar 09, 2009, 10:28 AM EDT

DANNEMORA — As medical services expanded and improved over the last 70 years, Clinton Correctional Facility’s hospital changed with the times.

But increased demands of patient care, officers, health providers and inmates began to outgrow the hospital’s small, aging quarters.

So when the construction of a larger state-of-the-art health-care unit began in 2005, many saw the $22 million project as a much-needed improvement for the largest maximum-security prison in the state.

IMPROVEMENTS

“It’s a tremendous leap forward,” Superintendent Dale Artus said recently. “It meets the modern health-care needs of our inmates much better.”

After years of anticipation, the four-story complex opened last August and staff transitioned into the new 63,000-square-foot unit, which features more secure holding areas, a larger pharmacy, additional office space and an entire floor dedicated to the growing mental-health unit.

Artus credits the staff and their ideas with helping to get the new unit up and running smoothly.

For Elizabeth Blaise, a senior nurse specializing in preventive care and health education, the improvements have made her role as a chronic-care nurse much easier.

“It’s more modern and more up-to-date,” the 19-year nursing veteran said.

She noted the enhanced computerized data system that helps her track records and prescriptions.

“It’s so much better ... and I can do a lot of patient teaching now. I absolutely love it.”

Supervising pharmacist Paulette LeDuc also praised the unit, saying, “It’s much better for us. It’s more efficient overall, and there’s less distractions. And it’s more secure.”

NEW TECHNOLOGY

Beyond the heavy prison gates, there’s a new digital X-ray machine, spacious infirmary, high-tech dental and optometry units and a specialized telemedicine machine that’s connected to an outside medical center for emergency patient-care assistance.

“The physical layout is so much more efficient,” Artus said as he walked around the floors. “And it’s a beautiful complex.”

MORE NURSES

The health-care unit has physicians, nurse practitioners, dentists, dental assistants, pharmacists, a phlebotomist, X-ray technician, mental-health team and a full staff of nurses, who together treat about 8 percent of the inmate population each day.

Artus said the unit brought a slight increase in the nursing staff to help ensure the best patient care for the nearly 3,000 inmates being housed at the facility.

STATE’S NEWEST

Department of Correctional Services spokesperson Erik Kriss said the code-complaint unit was part of a statewide “health-care plan of action” that was initiated in the early 1990s to bring new or rehabilitated health units to every maximum-security and most medium-security facilities.

Outside the department’s five regional medical units, the new Clinton Correctional Health-Care Unit is the largest in the state and was the last to be constructed.

“To provide health care to that many inmates,” Kriss said, “it makes sense to have a modern facility ... It’s just a matter of keeping up and keeping modern so we can provide (the best care possible).”

Kriss said the former hospital, which is now being used for other purposes, still housed pieces of the operating rooms that date back to the old Dannemora State Hospital.

“As our chief medical officer says, you can’t practice good medicine in a museum.”

E-mail Andrea VanValkenburg at:

avanvalkenburg@pressrepublican.com