Health
Harmful care a pattern at Chicago care facility
A Chicago Tribune investigation uncovered a pattern of harmful care at Alden Village North, a Chicago home for children and adults with developmental disabilities. Thirteen times in the last decade, residents have died under circumstances that led to state citations for neglect or failure to investigate. Instead of cracking down, regulators have allowed the problems…
Read MoreOvertime abundant for staff of mental health complex
An analysis by Journal Sentinel reporters Meg Kissinger, Steve Schultze and Ben Poston has found two medical directors in charge of care at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex collected overtime totaling more than $300,000 at a time when federal inspectors twice declared patients there were unsafe. Overtime for Behavioral Health Division employees rose 42%…
Read MoreDeaths in adult homes went unreported
Michael J. Berens, of The Seattle Times, uncovered hundreds of deaths inside state-licensed adult family homes indicating neglect or abuse, but the deaths were not reported to the state or investigated. Adult homes areless-regulated, less-expensive elder care options found in dozens of states. The Times reported that deaths indicating neglect occur at strikingly higher rates…
Read MoreEfforts of USDA egg graders called into question following recall
Alison Young of USA Today reports that food safety watchdogs are critical of the U.S Department of Agriculture staff on site at the two Iowa egg processors linked to the recent egg recall. They “question whether USDA egg graders should have noticed the vermin problems cited by the FDA, potentially preventing the recall of a…
Read MorePatients in Peril series
From a violent patient allowed to roam free to a pregnancy case that violated policy at every turn and nurses who falsified documents to cover their mistakes, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation exposed a raft of problems at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex, home to the county’s most vulnerable residents. Reporters Meg Kissinger and…
Read MoreInvestigateWest:Cruise Ships Dump Waste To Dodge Laws
An InvestigateWest report on the billion dollar cruise ship industry in the Washington-Alaska cruise market found that most ships avoid tougher state regulations and dump their waste in Canadian waters between the two states, despite state efforts to adopt stricter standards for sewage and wastewater discharge.
Read MoreMedicare billing fraud points to double-standard in care
The Dallas Morning News published a two-day installment in its ongoing investigation into allegations of Medicare billing fraud and poor patient care at one of the nation’s leading medical schools and its teaching hospital in Dallas. Among The News‘ findings: Faculty at UT Southwestern were letting resident doctors-in-training treat the hospital’s mostly poor, minority patients with little…
Read MoreFood service at stadiums often riddled with health code violations
A story by Paula Lavigne, of ESPN, reveals some unappetizing realities about food service at the 107 stadiums used by the MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL across the country. Through a review of inspection records from local health departments, Lavigne revealed that at “30 of the venues (28 percent), more than half of the concession…
Read MoreDespite no data to prove case, NY institutions receive more state dollars for residents with alleged criminal backgrounds
Institutions for developmentally disabled New Yorkers have taken a new approach to care: locked units for people who officials say have had a brush with the law, according to an investigation by Mary Beth Pfeiffer of the Poughkeepsie Journal. In Part 2 of the ongoing series, “Money Pit/Money Makers” the newspaper revealed that the state…
Read MoreSecondary chemo exposure a threat to healthcare workers
An InvestigateWest investigation revealed that the same powerful chemotherapy drugs that have saved hundreds of thousands of patients’ lives for decades have at the same time taken a potentially deadly toll on the health of hospital and clinic workers who handled them. The federal government, despite knowledge of the potential risks, continues to let these…
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