Audit  Audit of the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office—A Review of Healthcare and Inmate Deaths

In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) for the period July 1, 2020 through December 31, 2022.

The purpose of our audit was to determine the following:

• whether WCSO complied with and implemented the requirements of Section 932.17(2) of Title 103 of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations (CMR) and WCSO’s Policy 932.17 (Guidelines for Serious Illness, Injury or Death) regarding the deaths of inmates in its custody;
• whether WCSO held quarterly meetings with its contracted healthcare providers and reviewed quarterly reports regarding healthcare services for inmates in accordance with 103 CMR 932.01(3);
• whether WCSO provided its inmates with medical screenings upon admission and physical examinations within 14 days after admission, in accordance with its Policy 932.06 (Admission Medical Screening) and its Policy 932.07 (Health Appraisal/Physical Examination);
• whether inmates at WCSO received medical care after submission of sick call requests in accordance with Wellpath’s “Nonemergency Health Care Requests and Services” Policy (HCD-100_E-07) for WCSO; and
• whether WCSO provided initial mental health assessments to all inmates in its custody, in accordance with 103 CMR 932.13 and its Policy 932.13 (Mental Health Services and Suicide Prevention).

Our audit revealed no significant issues that must be reported under generally accepted government auditing standards.