Evaluation of Transitions Clinic: A Post-Release Clinic for Recently Released Parolees With Chronic Medical Conditions

Overview

The purpose of this study is to study the effectiveness of the Transitions Clinic, a post-release clinic for parolees with chronic medical conditions, in achieving increased primary care engagement, lower rates of inappropriate hospitalizations, psychiatric emergency service and emergency department use, and decreased recidivism. We hypothesize that subjects receiving parolee-targeted care in the Transitions Clinic will have increased rates of non-emergency department ambulatory care and outpatient mental health care, lower rates of hospitalization, psychiatric emergency service (PES) utilization, emergency department (ED) utilization, decreased total hospital length of stay, and decreased recidivism compared to patients receiving primary care from other safety-net providers.

With ever increasing numbers of released inmates, policymakers are developing policy initiatives and directing funding towards community reentry programs for recent parolees to decrease recidivism and improve health outcomes. These reentry programs are comprehensive efforts that coordinate social and medical services for recently incarcerated people to achieve these aims. Due to documented poor health outcomes in this population and the resultant costs on the public health system, provision of medical care will be an integral part of these reentry initiatives. The manner in which medical care is incorporated into community reentry programs and directed to recently released prisoners needs to be studied to guide architects of reentry programs, policymakers and allocation of funding. The Transitions Clinic (TC) was founded to address the medical needs of recently released prisoners. The TC is a pilot project designed to target primary care medical services to parolees in San Francisco and aid in coordination of medical and social services. It operates within the San Francisco Department of Public Health(SFDPH)-affiliated Community Health Network (CHN) and is part of the Safe Communities Reentry Council, a city-wide, collaborative effort of the Sheriff's office, Public Defenders' office and local community organizations to improve reentry services and outcomes for the 1500 annual parolees to San Francisco. The proposed project will prospectively examine the effectiveness of the TC in achieving increased primary care engagement, decreased acute health care utilization and decreased recidivism. After intake in the TC, patients will be randomized to continued, parolee-targeted care in TC versus referral to safety net medical providers for non-targeted care. We believe that the results of the study will assist policymakers by improving our understanding of the: 1. effect of targeted and non-targeted medical care provision to post-release prisoners on primary care engagement and utilization 2. effect of targeted and non-targeted medical care provision to post-release prisoners on inpatient hospitalizations and emergency room and psychiatric emergency service utilization. 3. effect of targeted and non-targeted care provision to post-release prisoners on recidivism 4. costs for provision of targeted versus non-targeted medical care to post-release prisoners (Do we want to do a cost analysis?)