In 2011 her private psychiatry office shut down. “It’s a dream that’s come to an end,” Charolette Hoffman, 64. “No matter what we do, we can’t really make it financially. You can’t sell a practice that’s not making money.” Pittsburgh Business Times
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Allegheny County Jail psychiatrist loses security clearance
March 6, 2015
By Molly Born
Psychiatrist Charolette Hoffman
Charolette Hoffman had been hired through a temporary staffing agency on a six- to 12-month basis, said John DeGhetto, regional medical director for Corizon Health Inc., the Tennessee company that took over management of the jail infirmary in September 2013. Neither he nor a county spokeswoman would say why her clearance was revoked.
Dr. DeGhetto told members of the county’s jail oversight board Thursday that two part-time psychiatrists are filling in as the company continues to look for a full-time psychiatrist, which he described as an ongoing process. Dr. Hoffman could not be reached.
“A psychiatrist at a facility like this is a critical component,” said board chairman and Common Pleas Judge Joseph K. Williams III.
Dr. DeGhetto said he agreed and noted an overall shortage of such professionals in Pittsburgh: “The psychiatrist is a needed person, and unfortunately, as of [Wednesday], we do not have a full-time psychiatrist.”
A Corizon spokeswoman in January said 29 people were employed in the jail’s mental health department. At the time, that included one full-time and one part-time psychiatrist; one psychologist; three full-time, three part-time and two per-diem psychiatric aides; five full-time and three part-time mental health specialists; six full-time and two part-time drug and alcohol counselors; a director of drug and alcohol; and a psychiatric physician’s assistant.
In the monthly Corizon update to the board, Dr. DeGhetto said a second doctor had been hired for the facility. The doctor, whose name was not immediately available, will join internist Abimbola Talabi, who a Corizon spokeswoman in January said works at least 30 hours per week at the facility.
“We now have over the contracted hours of physicians … the intent is to have three physicians at the site,” Dr. DeGhetto said.
Dr. DeGhetto did not mention Dr. Hoffman’s status in his presentation and only addressed it after county council President John DeFazio raised the issue.
Mel Packer, a member of the newly formed Allegheny County Jail Health Justice Project, called for the county to break its contract with Corizon Health, which oversaw an inmate mortality rate here that was double the national norms for jails.
“It’s the right thing to do, it’s the moral and ethical thing to do, and it’s the only thing to do if we expect to shed the image and shame that Corizon has brought to this institution and to our county,” he said.
Judge Williams said jail oversight board members and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald are working to “rectify this situation.”
“That’s all that I’m at liberty to share with you right now, but I would hope that you would bear with us for a short period of time and see if the trajectory begins to change in terms of the experience that people are having at the Allegheny County Jail.”