I Provide Medical Care at an ICE Processing Center. The Media is Wrong.
The call came in the middle of the night. A resident at the Joe Corley Processing Center, where I work, wasn’t breathing. His pulse was weak, and he wouldn’t wake up.
A fellow nurse on the night shift and I raced to his dorm. We got him on a stretcher and administered CPR as it rolled down the hallway. By the time the ambulance arrived less than 10 minutes later, we had stabilized him. He was treated at the hospital and released back into our care a week later. It turns out he had an undiagnosed heart condition until we saved his life.
Joe Corley, located outside of Houston, is managed for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Marshals Service by my employer of ten years, the GEO Group. As Health Services Administrator at the facility, I oversee a medical staff of 35, including certified medication aides, licensed vocational nurses, medical record clerks, doctors, dentists, dental assistants, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and licensed social workers providing mental health services.
ICE processing centers have been at the forefront of recent political debate. I’ve seen horrible accusations about facilities like the one where I work, and I hear elected officials calling for persecution of those working to serve those entrusted to our care. I have even had people suggest to me that we don’t provide any medical care at all. This could not be further from the truth.
The comprehensive nature of our care stems from a strong set of beliefs, principles I share with my colleagues in the GEO Health Services Division. I believe every human being deserves medical care; this is a matter of human dignity. It doesn’t matter if you committed a crime — whether a violent offense or an immigration violation — or are from another country. Those we care for deserve someone to listen attentively, to give them their all, which is what my team does daily.
In the ten years I have worked at the Joe Corley Processing Center, I have personally treated thousands of individuals — and my team has helped many more. We act as a doctor’s office, urgent care clinic, and emergency room. Our patients get the same treatment as everyone else, including specialty medical care from doctors in the community and nearby cities.
We have diagnosed hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol in immigrant patients who had never before seen a doctor. A few years ago, one man reported abdominal pain and weight loss, and we sent him to a specialist for diagnosis and subsequent treatments. It was colon cancer, and thankfully, he is now in remission.
Many of the individuals we see come to us from other facilities, which provide us with medical records. However, on average, five to ten people arrive per day who have never seen a medical provider in their life and thus have no medical history. Two to three of these individuals is likely to have a previously undiagnosed medical condition.
New arrivals are greeted by a nurse, who does a quick evaluation to assess any immediate needs. Within twelve hours — but typically within two — we complete an intake package with a full medical history.
Anyone who has a non-urgent medical issue is seen by a doctor the following day. All prescriptions are filled and a baseline set of labs are drawn. If a specialist is needed, we send the patient out to see any number of doctors: cardiologists; neurologists; gastroenterologists, oncologists, urologists. The same doctors you and I would see.
Healthy patients with a clear history are still given a complete physical within two weeks. For routine sick calls, which are monitored daily by our medical team, individuals are typically seen that day; at most within 24 hours.
Should anyone have an urgent concern during their stay, there is a button in each living quarter that goes directly to central control. They are immediately taken to our on-site medical clinic, where is staffed 24/7. Concerns, such as chest pain, are evaluated immediately, including an EKG. Luckily, 95 percent of such cases are indigestion or heartburn.
Naturally, it has not escaped our notice that we are now at the center of a political storm. The prevailing narrative many people seem to have about my company is upsetting to those of us on the front lines. It is unfair, ill-informed and just plain wrong.
I could be working at a hospital, a private clinic, or any number of places away from the media glare. Yet I am here, and proudly so, giving people the best medical care possible. My medical colleagues and I put our hearts and souls into our jobs. We do our best to help people, and we do. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
Brandi Buendel is health services administrator at the Joe Corley Processing Center in Conroe, Texas.
