The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "medical conditions" ...
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A rampant prescription, a hidden peril
The series investigated nursing homes’ use of antipsychotic medications on the elderly, a practice the US Food and Drug and Administration has long warned against because of potentially fatal side effects in people with dementia. The Boston Globe analyzed data from 15,600 nursing homes nationwide and found that about 185,000 residents received antipsychotics in 2010 alone, despite not having a medical condition that warranted such use. The series also revealed that Massachusetts nursing homes commonly use antipsychotics to control agitation and combative behavior in elderly residents who should not be receiving the powerful sedatives, yet state regulators seldom use their authority to reprimand or penalize facilities for this practice.
Tags: Antipsychotics; FDA; nursing homes; Alzheimer's disease
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"Disposable Soldiers"
Reporter Joshua Kors exposes the story of Sergeant Chuck Luther who was severely injured by "mortar fire while serving in Iraq." His injury took the form of intense headaches that caused his vision to black out. He was asked to sign documents that claimed he had a "pre-existing condition," and when he refused, he was locked in a closet for more than "a month, with armed guards enforcing sleep deprivation." Finally, Luther signed the documents, which stripped him of disability benefits and long-term medical care.
Tags: Iraq; disability; fraud; Camp Taji; U.S. Army; Fort Hood; medical care; pre-existing condition
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Doctor Lost Priviliges -- But Kept Clean Record
What started as an investigation of one doctor's questionable practices, led to a larger expose on St. Louis hospital violations and the state's lack of punishment for the doctors that are reported. The reporters found that most information about Missouri's problem doctors and unsafe hospital condition is swept under the rug.
Tags: hospital; FDA; doctors; hospital inspection; medical license
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Soldiers At Risk: Iraq Water Investigation
With temperatures rising up to “130 degrees or more” a day, why would the military be rationing water to only 2 liters a day per person? The answer is a water shortage. As a result, some soldiers are reporting from “serious physical problems with their kidneys, nerve degeneration, and even serious brain damage”. Further, some of these conditions went on for up to a year.
Tags: Iraq; Wars; medical professionals; officers; Army; Veterans Administration; defenders; troops
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Captive Care
“The story is about third-world conditions in the prisoner care facilities operated by the Tarrant County public hospital, John Peter Smith, and the efforts of the hospital’s new CEO and COO to fix the problems”.
Tags: health care; medicine; medical services; patients; poor; equipment
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Insurance Denied
"The article explores how health insurance companies deny coverage- or, in some cases, refuse to pay claims after initially approving coverage- for people believed to have pre-existing medical conditions."
Tags: medical issues; loan; coverage;
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The Forgotten
This story is an inside look at the systematic warehousing of more than 17,000 adults and children in Serbia's mental institutions. Dateline NBC gained unprecedented access to remote, government-run facilities and found alarming and sometimes life-threatening conditions. The institutions are remnants of Serbia's communist past and symbols of a deeply ingrained prejudice against the mentally disabled and their families. Serbia's medical establishment continues to advise parents to put their mentally disabled newborns into institutions, and the government provides virtually no support for those who choose not to. In mental institutions throughout Serbia, Dateline found adults and children crammed into fetid rooms and metal cribs, their bodies emaciated, atrophied and disfigured. Some residents appeared to be children but they were actually young adults whose growth had been stunted by years of institutionalization. One of our most disturbing discoveries came while staying overnight in a dangerously overcrowded institution. There we learned that children are routinely tied to their bed railings for long periods of time - a practice that one disability rights organization says meets the legal definition of torture under international law.
Tags: mental health; Serbia; child abuse; patient abuse; patient rights; mental institutions
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Unapproved Drugs
The government is paying millions for risky medications that have never been reviewed for safety and effectiveness but are still covered under Medicaid, an Associated Press analysis of federal data has found. Tax payers have shelled out at least $200 million since 2004 for such drugs. Yet the Food and Drug Administration says unapproved prescription drugs are a public health problem, and some unapproved medications have been dozens of deaths. Millions of private patients are taking them as well, and their availability may create a false sense of security. The AP analysis found that Medicaid, which serves low-income people, paid nearly $198 million from 2004 to 2007 for more than 100 unapproved drugs. Data for 2008 were not available but unapproved drugs still are being sold. The AP checked the medications against FDA databases, using agency guidelines to determine if they were unapproved. The FDA says there may be thousands of such drugs on the market. The medications are mainly for common conditions like colds ad pain. They date back decades, before the FDA tightened its review of its review of drugs in the early 1960s. The FDA says it is trying to squeeze them from the market, but conflicting federal laws allow the Medicaid health program for low-income people to pay for them.
Tags: Medicaid; unapproved medicine; medical reporting; Food and Drug Administration; prescription drugs; medical review
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Prisons' Legal Strain
Eight class-action lawsuits won by inmates rights lawyers have led to the state of California mandating "fixes for past failures that have already cost taxpayers more than $1 billion and will cost nearly $8 billion over five years." Included in that bill are improvements in the ways prisoners are treated, like health care and "general confinement conditions." An outbreak of Valley Fever at one prison is included in the coverage of these issues. One of the ways the state seeks to balance the prison budget is a plan to release 22,000 "low-risk offenders" early.
Tags: Prisons; health care; medical conditions; confinement conditions; prison health care; Valley Fever
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How A Long Island Nursing Home Got It's Way
"Ten Filipino nurses at a nursing home in Smithtown, Long Island were charged with endangering patients for resigning en masse to protest working conditions." Further investigation showed that U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer helped the home, which had "contributed more than $75,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee."
Tags: FOIA; senate; nursing home; medical care; Philippines; nurses; campaign contributions; Democrats; SentosaCare; politics