Telemedicine services to a county jail

Local and county jails rarely offer telepsychiatry services to their inmate s. We have established a telepsychiatry pilot project between the Kansas Un iversity Medical Center and the Lyon County]ail in Emporia, Kansas. A total of 264 telepsychiatry consultations were conducted with jail inmates. Of t hese, 70 were initial evaluations and 194 were follow-up visits; only one i nmate refused to be seen. Approximately one-third of all inmates were seen for psychiatric consultation within one week of their incarceration and 68% were seen within one month of incarceration. Among lessons learned during the first year of service were: the monthly demand for consultations was fi ve times greater than projected; moderately to severely ill inmates with a broad range of psychiatric illness can be seen and treated effectively usin g videoconferencing; and the technology was accepted by the jail personnel and the inmates alike and integrated into the jail's routine in terms of th e delivery of psychiatric care.