Appendix B: Request for Response Definitions

Definitions for "Community Standard" and "Evidence Based."

Table of Contents

Best Practices

Practices that are based on the collective experience and wisdom of the field.

Community Standard

The “Community Standard” for medical, dental and mental health Services shall mean the scope and quality of Services, including diagnostic testing, preventive Services, and after care considered appropriate, in terms of type, amount, frequency, level, setting and duration which is appropriate to the patient’s diagnosis or condition. The care must be medically necessary and consistent with generally accepted practice parameters as recognized by health care providers in the same or similar general specialty who typically treat or manage the diagnosis or condition, help restore or maintain the patient’s health, prevent the deterioration or palliate the patient’s condition, prevent the reasonably likely onset of a health problem, or detect an incipient problem. The “Community Standard” shall be interpreted in light of a prison system environment, taking into consideration the unique nature of the delivery of health care to an Inmate population within a prison system, and taking into account the Inmate’s individual history of incarceration and present circumstances. Accordingly, Services should be Evidence Based and should incorporate Best Practices utilized by health care professionals in prison systems.

Evidence Based

Services that are founded upon published literature that demonstrates the efficacy of services provided in prison systems, and are capable of being audited against established standards. “Evidence-based” practices mean that (1) there is a definable outcome(s); (2) it is measurable; and (3) it is defined according to practical realities.

5.             These definitions are quoted from the Department of Correction’s Request for Response “Comprehensive Health Services to Massachusetts Prison Population (RFR 14-DOC 9004—Prison Health Services).”

Date published: January 9, 2020

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