A Nebraska Officer of Inspector General of Corrections report into the death of Niccole Wetherell, an inmate at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women, showed that the lack of an EHR system in the facility violated a state statute and contributed to Ms. Wetherell's death.
Ms. Wetherell died of cervical cancer on Feb. 26, 2021, at age 40. She had gone from September 2010 to August 2019 without getting a Pap smear; state prison policy stipulates that women between ages 30 and 65 receive a Pap smear every three years.
"Asked why Ms. Wetherell went so long without a Pap smear, the nurse practitioner who is the primary care provider at Nebraska Correctional Center for Women told the OIG that until recently, because of the Department's lack of EHR, the facility medical department had no method of tracking when patients were due for Pap smears and other preventive care," the OIG report said.
A 2015 Nebraska statute mandates that prisons "establish and administer policies that ensure that complete and up-to-date electronic records are maintained for each person committed to the department."
Despite the statute, records were kept with handwritten paperwork and included "kites," passed along from inmates requesting medical care, according to the Oct. 11 report.
Ms. Wetherell was serving a life sentence for her role in a man's murder at age 18. She was described as a model inmate in the report.
Editor's note: Becker's has reached out to the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women for comment and will update the article accordingly.