COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC HEARING BEFORE JOINT COUNCIL COMMITTEES ON PUBLIC SAFETY AND HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES - - - Room 696, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, 6/11/02, 10:30 a.m. - - - RESOLUTION NO. 010598 PRESENT: Councilman Angel Ortiz, Chair Councilman Darrell L. Clarke Councilman Frank DiCicco Councilman W. Wilson Goode, Jr. Councilman Frank Rizzo Council President Anna C. Verna - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2 6/11/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH HUM. SVS. - RES. 010598
A quorum has been established on the Public Safety Committee and Health. We will now have a committee meeting on Resolution No. 010598, and I'd just like to read into the record some of the findings of the last two years of report. We have Council President Verna, Councilman Frank Rizzo, Councilman Clarke, Councilman Wilson Goode, and Councilman Frank DiCicco. Over the last two years, this committee has had hearings on medical services that are being provided to the City of Philadelphia. The hearings were commenced at a time in which, and because of the untimely death of Jose Santiago, who died from the lack of treatment and not being assessed quick enough for his insulin problem. The committee, after hearings and reports that were submitted to the prison system by private consultants hired by the City of Philadelphia, presents the following and has the following recommendations: The contract should be immediately revised to that health-service objectives are 3 6/11/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH HUM. SVS. - RES. 010598 quantifiable or measurable. The contract should establish clear requirements for treatment standards of care, especially for chronic illnesses, including diabetes, AIDS, and mental-health conditions. A system of financial penalties should be assessed for failure to meet performance goals. PHS has a contract of this nature with the City of New York, so they should have no objections in complying with similar provisions in our local contract. We recommend the City immediately overhaul the existing PHS contracts that are consistent with the letter and spirit of this recommendation and report back to this Council Committee at its next public hearing tentatively planned for October. Should PHS not agree to such terms, then the City should move ahead to cancel the existing contract and secure the services of other health providers or consider other government- sponsored health-care service delivery models. The contract term. The PHS contracts are annual, with multi-year renewal options. This 4 6/11/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH HUM. SVS. - RES. 010598 is done with many contracts in the City to avoid an added bureaucratic layer involving City Council approval. However, the City can no longer afford to arbitrarily continue issuing contracts of this size and magnitude without a degree of City Council review. The City Council should revisit its role and authority with regard to automatic contract renewals, particularly those having implications for the health and safety of the City's residents. The prison health contract should not be renewed beyond FY 2003 without City Council approval. City Council should enact the appropriate legislation if necessary. Operations audit. Over the course of the last eight months, we have been working with the office of City Controller to develop the criteria and standards for a comprehensive operations audit of PHS Incorporated, the health services provider. The audit will look at identifying deficiencies, but would provide operational recommendations for improvement, which, we believe, would go a long way in producing 5 6/11/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH HUM. SVS. - RES. 010598 costs-savings and improving the service delivery. A contract for services has been developed with estimated costs of the order of approximately $100,000. We have spent much more this in lawsuit settlements. It is, therefore, recommended that the City immediately make the financial appropriations to begin this audit by September of 2002. A status report will be requested at the October public hearing of this hearing. -- An independent board. Too many incidents and circumstances surrounding inmate deaths and other legitimate complaints of inadequate care have signaled a need to establish an independent prison health monitoring board. Many service providers and community activists are recommending the creation of such an entity.
The health board would assume responsibility for reviewing the goals and performance of the health delivery system in our prisons. The envisioned board would be comprised of experts on infectious diseases, behavioral health, and primary medical care. The composition of such a board could include, for example, clinical experts with prison utilization review 6 6/11/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH HUM. SVS. - RES. 010598 experience, retired or independent prison health physicians, City Council representation, prison health activists, as well as representatives of major medical bodies for chronic illness such as the American Diabetic Association and the American Heart Association. The board would serve as an independent watchdog of the prison health care system. Details of such an entity are still being developed, and consultation with appropriate City officials and health professionals and community providers must still take place. We believe this independent board created by an act of this legislative body. A specific legislative initiative will be proposed for this Council's consideration. Finally, Council's continuing investigation of the delivery of medical and behavioral services in the Philadelphia system has brought to the foreground evidence and stories of substandard treatment jeopardizing the lives of human beings and enhancing the City's exposure to liability. Thus, there is still much information the City needs to provide this committee in order 7 6/11/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH HUM. SVS. - RES. 010598 to make a better and balancing evaluation of the state prison health care in our city. For example, we need and will be requesting, among others things, the entire inventory of past and current cases and claims against PHS and/or the City and the identity of all doctors and their medical license numbers employed by PHS and documentation indicating whether approval was granted by the Health Commissioner to permit PHS to employ doctors who might have been the subject of disciplinary action or medical malpractice defendants. These recommendations are simple, they are to the point; they just go to try to bring together information so that we do not continuously incur into the problems of liability and lawsuits that have been the current practice over the last ten years. I submit this report to the committee. All right? Do you want to make a motion?
Mr. Chairman, I move that the Interim Committee Report of Resolution No. 25 10598 be approved by the committee. 8 6/11/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH HUM. SVS. - RES. 010598 (Duly seconded.)
A motion has been made that the report be approved by this committee, and the interim committee report by this committee has been made and properly seconded All those in favor say aye. All those opposed, say nay. The ayes have it. The Interim Committee Report on Resolution 10598 stands approved. It will be submitted to the whole Council in the next session. This committee stands in recess. - - - (Committee proceedings end at 10:45 a.m.) 9 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia's meeting of the Committee on Public Health and Human Services of Tuesday, June 11, 2002, are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. RE: Resolution No. 010598 _______________________________, Josephine Cardillo Registered Professional Reporter and Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)