Nashville Convention Center, Room 207A
Saturday, August 14, 3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. CT
Track: Treatment
The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global crisis, and due to congregate
setting in prisons, it can be harder to contain than in the community. Effective vaccines
are the real solution to achieve herd immunity and effectively contain transmission.
Even though it is important for inmate patients to get vaccinated, it has been a real
challenge in procuring the vaccines, learning about the procurement process, the
storage and handling process as well as being an effective advocate for our patients as
social media is filled with information and misinformation.
In Mississippi, VitalCore HS, MDOC & Mississippi Department of Health worked
together to implement an operational plan with emphasis on education without
encroaching on an inmate’s rights to accept or refuse the vaccine. This was immensely
successful as more than 80% of inmates received the vaccine and we became one of
the first prison systems in the nation to achieve herd immunity.
Moderator: Gayle McGee, Director of Health Services, Mississippi Department of
Corrections, Jackson, Mississippi
Speakers: Burl Cain, MS, Commissioner, Mississippi Department of Corrections,
Jackson, Mississippi; Kathy Hogue, MBA, BSN, RN-BC, Director of Operations,
VitalCore Health Strategies, Walnut Grove, Mississippi; Raman Singh, MD, Medical
Director, VitalCore Health Strategies, Baton Rouge, Louisiana