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 "patient safety" ...
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Hospital at Risk
My investigation of the Minnesota Security Hospital, a state-run facility that provides psychiatric treatment to nearly 400 adults deemed "mentally ill and dangerous," uncovered high rates of violence and injuries of employees and patients at the facility, a critical shortage of psychiatrists, and widespread confusion among employees about what to do when a patient becomes violent. I found that much of confusion was the result of the abrasive, threatening management style of head administrator David Proffitt, who was hired in 2011 to reform the facility. I began investigating Proffitt and found he was hired without a basic background check. I uncovered many troubling details from Proffitt's past, including domestic violence, a PhD from a now-defunct online degree mill, a forced resignation from his previous job as the administrator of a private psychiatric hospital in Maine, and other failings. The state ordered Proffitt to resign and the Minnesota legislative auditor began an audit of the department's hiring practices. The assistant commissioner of the Department of Human Services who led the hiring search also resigned. The governor proposed $40 million in renovations to address safety concerns. Regulators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration visited the facility for the first time in 21 years. The facility also implemented new training for employees to reduce violence. My investigation of the facility continues.
Tags: Psychiatrists; domestic violence; injuries
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Patient Safety Crisis at Parkland
This investigation takes a look at Parkland Memorial Hospital, which mostly treats Dallas' most vulnerable patients, the poor and the elderly. The findings are shocking and extensive, including patient neglect, unsupervised practices from doctors in training and poorly trained psychiatric technicians.
Tags: hospitals; psychiatric care; patient neglect
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"Lifesaving Drugs, Deadly Consequences"
This investigative piece looks at worker safety issues that affect "the nation's healthcare providers." Health care employees are often put in harms way by handling drugs that are meant to save the "lives of cancer patients," but can be "human carcinogens," too. This report shows that regulation on exposure to these types of drugs in the workplace is weak.
Tags: FOIA; health insurance; Occupational Safety and Health Administration; cancer; OSHA; drugs; chemotherapy
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The Radiation Boom
The reporter provides insight into the medical community's inadequate safety protections. Within these hospitals, the reporter documents the number of patients burned by the radiation of new machines, little government oversight,poorly trained personnel, and outdated equipment.
Tags: radiation; hospital; technology; FDA; overdoses
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"Hidden Mistakes"
In Connecticut, the "adverse-event" law is supposed to ensure that hospitals report medical accidents that cause harm or death to patients to the state Department of Public Health. The law was revised in 2004 and since then the number of reported adverse-event cases has dropped "dramatically," suggesting that the medical mishaps are not being shared with the public and the state.
Tags: Bridgeport Hospital; Connecticut Center for Patient Safety; Connecticut Department of Public Health; Wendy Furniss; malpractice; Hartford Hospital; Terri Schiavo; Institute of Medicine
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Dead by Mistake
This series documents the massive number of deaths and injuries caused from preventable medical errors. These errors cause "more deaths than traffic accidents', more specifically they cause nearly "200,000 deaths per year" Behind the numbers are the people who trusted the medical system, including the 30 individual cases spotlighted in this series. Furthermore, once the problems were revealed the medical community and the government failed to take the effective steps necessary to solve the problems.
Tags: Medical; medicine; health care; hospitals; errors; patients; risk; victims; death; mistakes; safety; system
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Fatal Flights
The nation's medevac programs are dominated by private companies with stiff competition and widespread safety failings. The high rate of accidents in the medical helicopter field is due to entrenched complacency. The Post uproots the severe lack of safety in a field the public typically views as heroic.
Tags: medevac; helicopter; hospitals; safety; Washington Post; patient; rescue; Federal Aviation Administration; National Transportation Safety Board; deaths; crash; medical; flight; crew;
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Dead by Mistake
Studies indicate that the death toll for preventable deaths by medicine has more than doubled in the last ten years. "Death by Mistake" assesses the headway being made in the medical industry to reduce likeliness of preventable death.
Tags: medical; preventable; death; Trevor Nelson; Institute of Medicine; patient safety; adverse events;
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Culture of Resistance
The Seattle Time analyzed millions of computerized hospital records, death certificate and other documents to track the swath of one of the nation's most widespread, and preventable, epidemics. In its investigation, the Times gained access to state files that revealed 672 previously undisclosed deaths attributable to the infection. The Times also found that in Seattle's largest public hospital, some patients who are infected with contagious MRSA are roomed with non-infected patients because of overcrowding. In at least a dozen cases, the Times proved that death certificates were inaccurate or incomplete when it came to MRSA.
Tags: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA); Washington state; health and safety; infectious diseases; epidemiology; staph infections.
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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