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Patients in police custody policy and procedure

Accreditation Connection, February 20, 2006

The following is published with permission from A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital in Oneonta, NY.

Policy:

Patients in police custody must be accompanied at all times by a corrections or police officer.

Procedure and considerations:

1. If the patient is in handcuffs, the decision to remove them prior to examination will be at the discretion of the officer. 

2. Patient confidentiality will be maintained as much as possible.

3. As an inpatient, the patient should be placed in a private room or alone in a semiprivate room.

4. Care and treatment will be coordinated with the police agency and medical and nursing staff. Guidance will be obtained from the officer with regard to:

• Need for limitations on visitors
• Need for limitations on television and telephone access
  Who is to be notified in case of a medical emergency or change in patient condition and who is to carry out this notification

This information should be noted on the patient care kardex as well as entered  by the attending physician as an order where appropriate.

5. Any officers staying with the patient will be provided with the information pamphlet entitled, Guidelines for Law Enforcement Personnel. These are located in the emergency eepartment and on the nursing units.

6. Prisoners in restraints (handcuffs and shackles) will be monitored in accordance with hospital policy.

7. Patients in the custody of police are discharged only with an officer. All discharge arrangements should be coordinated with the guidance of the officers, including:

• prescriptions and how they will be filled
• the need for a nurse to nurse report
• if an inmate, what information is to be relayed back to the correctional facility and to whom

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