Robert Pear of The New York Times reports that 94 percent of nursing homes in the United States violated federal health and safety standards in 2007 according to a recently released federal study. Although only 17 percent of nursing homes had violations that threatened the lives of residents, many were cited for abuse, neglect, confusing [...]
Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
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Fish oil industry stresses Chesapeake Bay
March 5th, 2010 
Beth Tisha Thompson, of WTTG-Washington, D.C., reports on the overfishing of menhaden, small silvery fish critical to the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay. The Virginia-based company Omega Protein uses these fish for their production of Omega-3 fish oil supplements as menhaden have a high concentration of this valuable oil.
Prescription drugs linked to seventy percent of Milwaukee overdoses
March 2nd, 2010 Beth In an analysis of prescription drug deaths in the Milwaukee area, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Tom Kertscher found of the 1,200 overdose deaths in an eight-year period, some 70% involved prescription drugs.
Agencies in New Mexico impeded fraud and elder care investigations
February 23rd, 2010 Beth An ongoing series in The New Mexico Independent explores allegations that state agencies interfered with fraud and elder abuse investigations. The Medicaid Fraud Division stated that Human Services Department and the Health Department had “withheld, ‘filtered’ and ’sanitized’ information and documents requested by investigators, hindering numerous investigations.“ Medicaid Fraud The series led to an attempt [...]
Texas slow to penalize nursing homes where residents suffer
February 19th, 2010 Mark Horvit Through interviews with families and advocates and a review of thousands of pages of public records, the San Antonio Express-News reports that some of the city’s most frail and vulnerable residents are suffering at the hands of their caregivers in Texas nursing homes. Yet state officials allow troubled nursing homes to continue operating with little [...]
Ex-residents slow to be notified of toxic water on Marine base
February 17th, 2010 Beth Despite a 2007 law requiring the Marine Corps to notify former residents of Camp Lejeune, N.C. that they may have been exposed to contaminated water between 1957 and 1987, many have never been notified while others are just now finding out, according to a report by Barbara Barrett of McClatchy Newspapers.
Database of dangerous caregivers incomplete
February 15th, 2010 Beth Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein of ProPublica reported on big gaps in a federal database that is supposed to alert hospitals to disciplinary actions against health care providers across the country. Over two decades ago, Congress “ordered up a national database allowing hospitals to check for disciplinary actions taken anywhere in the country against nurses, [...]
Claims by China-based stem cell broker misleading
February 5th, 2010 Beth In a pair of reports, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters Mark Johnson and Meg Kissinger examined the overblown medical claims and misleading marketing strategies of China-based Beike Biotechnology, one of many overseas operations marketing experimental stem cell treatments to desperate American families.
Mistakes in radiation treatments can be dire
January 25th, 2010 Beth A report by Walt Bogdanich of The New York Times looks at the risks associated with radiation treatments. Advancements in how radiation is administered have made it a more effective treatment. “The Times found that while this new technology allows doctors to more accurately attack tumors and reduce certain mistakes, its complexity has created new [...]
Many children lack second dose of H1N1 flu vaccine
January 19th, 2010 Beth As many as 80% of children in some states who received a first dose of H1N1 vaccine haven’t received a booster dose that’s necessary to fully protect them from swine flu, according to a USA Today review of immunization registry data from 10 states.
