Health
Accidental deaths remain a problem for the medical industry
Hearst Newspapers reveals widespread failure ten years after a federal report implored the medical industry to cut in half the annual death toll from medical errors and hospital-caused infections, estimated at 200,000. Among the failures: the federal government doesn’t even tally the nation’s leading category of accidental deaths. Some states tried but most failed. Hospital…
Read MoreDetails revealed about deaths at Memorial Medical Center after Katrina
An investigation by Sheri Fink of ProPublica reveals “what really happened to some of the patients who died at New Orleans’ Memorial Medical Center in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.” Among her findings, Fink reports that more patients than had been previously reported were given lethal injections, and some of those patients were near death…
Read MoreCommon weed killer taints water supplies
As part of its ongoing series on water pollution in America, The New York Times looks at the impact of atrazine, a popular weed killer, on our water supply . Recent research indicates that exposure to low concentrations of atrazine may be linked to low birth weights, birth defects and menstrual problems. The Times investigation…
Read MoreUniversity of Wisconsin linked to ghostwritten articles
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters John Fauber and Meg Kissinger reviewed unsealed court records and found that at a time when fears were growing about the link between hormone therapy and breast cancer a drug company paid the University of Wisconsin Medical School to sponsor ghostwritten medical education articles that downplayed the risk. The article is…
Read MoreNurse drug prevention program loosely monitored
In their continuing investigation into failed oversight of California’s nursing board, ProPublica and the Los Angeles Times found problems within the state’s drug diversion program. Diversion is intended to help nurses overcome substance abuse problems without losing their nursing license. The investigation found “participants who practiced while intoxicated, stole drugs from the bedridden and falsified…
Read MoreProblem nurses, lax oversight leave patients at risk
In a continuing investigation into failed oversight of California’s health professionals, ProPublica and The Los Angeles Times found the California Board of Registered Nursing, responsible for the oversight of 350,000 nurses, “often takes years to act on complaints of egregious misconduct, leaving nurses accused of wrongdoing free to practice without restrictions.” An analysis of the…
Read MoreGeorgia ill-prepared for public health emergencies
A recent evaluation found the state of Georgia is poorly prepared to face public health emergencies. “Federal agencies, nonprofit groups and the state’s own documents depict a public health system that lacks sufficient money and, at times, basic competencies, an examination by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found.”
Read MoreHealth care czar profited from companies under investigation
Nancy Ann DeParle, who heads the White House Office on Health Reform, made more than $6.6 million since 2001 serving as a director of corporations that faced scores of federal investigations, whistleblower lawsuits and other regulatory actions, according to government records reviewed by the Investigative Reporting Workshop. The story by IRE award winner Fred Schulte…
Read MoreIowa air pollution levels nearing federal limits
“The air across Iowa is so polluted that the state is perilously close to violating new federal limits aimed at protecting human health. Yet Iowans have no way of knowing what chemicals they are breathing because of a limited – and often inaccurate – system of monitoring pollution statewide, a Des Moines Register investigation found.”…
Read MoreFDA inspection failed to catch tainted syringes
An investigation co-published by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica reveals that the Food and Drug Administration failed to prevent the distribution of tainted syringes linked to several deaths and serious illnesses. “Three months before the pre-filled syringes were shipped in October 2007, an FDA inspector visited the plant in North Carolina where they were made.…
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