Texas Department of Criminal Justice
The Department of Professional Standards is responsible for investigating all medically related offender grievances at the second step of the grievance process. Complaints from third parties concerning medical services are investigated by the department's Patient Liaison Program. In addition, the nurses and investigators perform the Sick Call Request Verification Audits.
It is the responsibility of the TDCJ Office of Health Services Monitoring to provide the agency with clinical expertise and guidance. Issues and inquiries requiring clinical investigation, consultation or monitoring including review of offender deaths, are handled by these TDCJ physicians, dentists, psychologists, and nurses.
Operational Review audits are performed by clinical and administrative staff. These audits are comprehensive onsite compliance audits of a unit's health care delivery. The audits are designed to ensure access to care by monitoring across every health care discipline (i.e., medical, nursing, dental and mental health) as well as quality of care. The Operational Review process requires that each facility be audited every three years to ensure compliance with policies, procedures, and standards. Operational Review Audits are scheduled approximately fifteen months from the date of the American Correctional Association audit. This scheduling affords that no unit goes longer than 18 months without an onsite audit of their health services department.
The Correctional Managed Health Care (CMHC) Quality Improvement (QI) Program is coordinated by the Office of Health Services Monitoring staff. The Quality Improvement program is jointly administered by all three partners of the Correctional Managed Health Care programs (i.e. TDCJ, UTMB, and TTUHSC). The program's purpose is to provide an integrated, clinically driven, state-of-the-art QI system which adds value to the quality of healthcare services provided to TDCJ offenders, is consistently/continuously applied/measured, and meets or exceeds regulatory requirements.
This department coordinates the transfer of offenders who require intake and/or reassignment for medical purposes. The Health Services Liaison is also responsible for conducting medical screenings of offenders who are entering facilities or programs where specific medical criteria must be met.