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Abstract: 

A recent research study, “Efficiency of Health Care in State Correctional Institutions” by Christopher S. Hollenbeak, Eric W. Schaefer, Janice Penrod, Susan J. Loeb, and Carol A. Smith, published in the journal Health Services Insights draws some surprising conclusions about what determines the efficiency of a correctional health delivery system—and it is the patients, not the health care providers, who seem to have the biggest impact on the delivery of care. While the results show correlation, not causation, even the report’s authors are at a loss to explain their findings, including that capacity and crowding, security level and location had little effect on health care delivery, but that prisons that had a higher percentage of white inmates were less efficient, and so were prisons with more inmates confined for parole violations.

Keywords: Determinants in the efficiency of a correctional health delivery system; University of Pennsylvania

Affiliations:  1: Pace University School of Law Library.