NaphCare’s Chief Medical Officer and Corporate Director of Psychiatry to Present at NCCHC’s Spring Conference

By NaphCare Inc

Published: 04/15/2011

| Company Profile | CorrectSource

Article:
Dr. Donald Kern, MD, MPH, CCHP, NaphCare’s Chief Medical Officer and Dr. Keith Courtney DO, CCHP, NaphCare’s Corporate Director of Psychiatry, will be presenting at the 2011 National Commission on Correctional Healthcare’s (NCCHC) “Updates in Correctional Healthcare” spring conference.

The NCCHC conference takes place in Phoenix, Arizona, May 21st-24th. Dr. Kern and Dr. Courtney will be presenting on Monday, May 23rd from 1:15-2:15pm. Dr. Kern and Dr. Courtney’s workshop, titled “Sweet Schizophrenic or Daffy Diabetic: Mental Health Meets Medicine” will focus on skills for mental and medical health professionals to enhance collaborative approaches to patient care. Some of the topics that will be discussed at the seminar are how medical and mental health professionals can best communicate their joint patient’s needs, what kind of medical issues are likely to overlap, and how documentation helps to provide continuity of care.

Dr. Kern says the attendees of this seminar will hopefully develop an appreciation for the other side in medicine. “Oftentimes, medical and mental health care professionals look at a patient’s condition and say that it’s not their area of expertise, when in fact the primary concern is for the overall care of the patient. The best long term solutions will be those that are coordinated and consistent.”

Dr. Courtney will review the recent changes made by the U.S. Department of Justice regarding the rate of jail suicides. “In many correctional facilities, mental health staff and medical staff have little, if any contact with each other. Their schedules are often different; they may not share facilities; and, in some facilities, they do not share medical records. A collaborative approach not only provides better treatment and management of patients, but can provide a supportive and shared team approach to managing some of society’s most complicated medical and mental health patients.”

Dr. Courtney is board certified in psychiatry and has spent over 15 years in the correctional psychiatry field. He is presently serving the mental health needs at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas, NV. He helped to develop the mental health portions of TechCare(TM), NaphCare’s Clinical Operating System. Dr. Kern has worked in the medical correctional field since 1995. He is board certified in internal medicine and in public health and general preventative medicine. He oversees all clinical aspects of NaphCare services. He has major roles in Continuous Quality Improvement, Utilization Management, and Pharmacy operations.