In the News
Kristine DeKany, Medical Director at the Hernando County Detention Facility, was recently asked by Dr. Gary Fielderman to assist with creating an accredited master’s degree program in Correctional Health Care Administration.
No such program currently exist in the United States.
The goal of creating the program, which is being headed by the Atlas Health Foundation, is to improve the performance of health services in corrections by enhancing the medical competence and recognition of managers through continuing education.
DeKany worked in conjunction with Dr. John May, Chief Medical Officer for Armor Correctional Health Care, and Kevin Lenhart, former Health Services Administrator for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, who were each called as subject matter experts during a meeting at the University of Central Florida to lay the foundation for this much-needed program.
The discussion group was comprised of seven doctors, DeKany and another master level health administrator. After the meeting, the panel at UCF agreed that this specialty area of Health Care Administration would need a curriculum all its own and they seemed committed to developing such a program.
Dr. Reid Oejten, from UCF, asked if he could call on DeKany, if needed, to draw on her 17 years of Correctional Healthcare knowledge to assist in the process.
DeKany said, “It was very exciting being part of this process.”
