Holiday reading: Hospitals sue patients; team helps people die with dignity
Filed under: Government, Health data, Health journalism, Hot Health Headline
Hopefully, readers of Covering Health will have some time off over the holidays. Here are two fairly extensive projects that we recommend for reading if you have some spare time.
Nonprofit hospitals sue patients
In an eight-month investigation, reporters Fred Schulte and James Drew of The (Baltimore) Sun found that over the past five years some of Maryland’s 46 nonprofit hospitals have received millions of surplus dollars from the state’s unique payment system “even as they sued tens of thousands of patients over unpaid bills. Many of these suits have been filed against patients in the poorest areas of the state.”
The reporters found that hospitals have won at least $100 million in the past five years in debt collection suits, have added interest rates at twice the rate allowed for other debts and have placed 8,000 liens on patients’ homes. They also found that Maryland doesn’t closely monitor hospitals’ debt collection practices and doesn’t have standards to determine who qualifies for free or reduced-price care.
The investigation has prompted statements from the University of Maryland’s Medical System and Johns Hopkins.
End-of-life care
Lee Hancock of The Dallas Morning News explores palliative care, which combines “traditional medicine with pain relief, spiritual counseling, and practical advice” for patients near the end of their lives and their families.
The Baylor University Medical Center’s palliative care team has cared for 2,000 patients since its creation in 2003. “Hancock and photographer Sonya N. Hebert spent almost a year at Baylor, documenting some of the most difficult and meaningful moments in the life of any nurse, doctor, patient or family member.”
The online presentation includes engaging and emotional video of patients and family members, as well as a nurse and doctor on the palliative team who discuss what they do and the limits of medicine and technology.
Other elements of the package include a timeline illustrating how technology has extended life, questions to help people plan their medical wishes, first-person pieces from Hancock and Hebert and many resources.
Coverage of nursing home rankings varies
Last week the the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released new ratings for nursing homes - both for-profit and nonprofit - that uses a five-star system to measure quality, staffing and health inspections, plus an overall score. Not surprisingly, coverage of Nursing Home Compare in many newspapers focused on the ratings assigned homes in their readership areas.
This makes sense, of course, because readers are less likely to be interested in CMS ratings for out-of-town nursing homes. And in an era where newspapers are increasingly orienting their pages toward ‘hyperlocal,’ the new CMS rating system - which is akin to the ranking in a Zagat restaurant guide - serves up a local angle on what is actually a national issue.
Some coverage, however, dug a little deeper. USA Today, for instance, conducted its own analysis contrasting the performance between for-profit and nonprofit nursing homes. And, while the Houston Chronicle played up the local angle, the paper also examined the data more closely, as it pertained to homes in its region, and highlighted reservations about the CMS ranking system. And a U.S. News & World Report blog pointed out some shortcomings.
There was a long list of stories about the system, and we’re wondering what you think about some of the approaches taken. Should the local angle trump other discussion? How important is it for a local newspaper, no matter how big, to poke around the data for more tidbits? Drop us a line.
What’s hot on the AHCJ Web site
Ever wonder how other people are using the AHCJ Web site?
Here are the most visited resources on HealthJournalism.org this year (through Nov. 30):
- Election 2008
- AHCJ Resources
- Tip sheets
- AHCJ Publications
- Talking Health
- Reports and Studies
- W.Va. paper chronicles state’s oral health problem
- Web sites
- Health Journalism 2008: Stories, tip sheets, webcasts from the conference
- List of health blogs and twitterers
- Right to know (formerly First Amendment)
- “Covering Hospitals” online module
- Slim guides
- Barack Obama - Health care
- Resources for covering Obama’s health care proposal
AHCJ unveils assistance for ‘downsized’ members
Although AHCJ membership continued to increase this year as more journalists learned of its training opportunities and useful services, the group recognizes the strain under which the news media finds itself. The economic downturn has resulted in layoffs, buyouts and downsizings in several industries, including our own.
AHCJ’s board and staff believe it’s important to retain all the talented professionals who make up our membership. The tremendous AHCJ network built over the past decade is too valuable to all of us.
“It’s worrisome – and sometimes heartbreaking – to see great journalists leaving their paid staff positions for uncertain futures,” says Mike Stobbe, AHCJ’s membership chairman. ”Some will probably struggle, at least for a little while, until they find their feet in new ventures.”
With that in mind, AHCJ is announcing a Transition Assistance Program to help members who are forced into a job change. Any current AHCJ member who is laid off or is required to take a buyout, is eligible for TAP.
Learn about TAP’s benefits and how you can apply.
CMS adds rating system to nursing home data
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is expected to launch a “5 Star Quality Rating System” addition to its Nursing Home Compare Web site on Thursday. The ratings system is intended to be easier for consumers to use, as well as incorporating more data that has not been used in the past.
According to The Bakersfield Californian, “The new rating tool will use federal data to score each facility’s performance in three areas: health inspections, staffing and quality measures.”
While the link on the CMS Web site to the press release is not currently working, more information was available in an e-mail from CMS:
“The five-star information has been added to the site to condense the large amount of rich quality information already available on Nursing Home Compare. The more detailed information on quality measures, inspections, and staffing will remain available even after the five-star information is added.
The five-star system uses 10 of the 19 key quality measures currently posted on the Nursing Home Compare Web site, including the percent of residents who had pressure ulcers, the number of residents whose mobility deteriorated after admission, and whether residents received the proper medical care, as well as staffing levels in long-term care facilities.”
Quaid reaches settlement with hospital over errors
If you attended Health Journalism 2008 in March, you likely heard actor Dennis Quaid give an emotional talk about the medication error that nearly killed his newborn twins.
Dennis Quaid speaks to attendees at AHCJ's annual conference, Health Journalism 2008 in Arlington, Va., in March. Photo: Carrie Devorah
During the talk, Quaid said he was considering a suit against Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where the twins had received a dose of the blood thinner heparin that was 1,000 times what they should have gotten.
The Los Angeles Times reports today that Quaid and his wife, Kimberly, have reached a $750,000 settlement with the hospital. The Times says that “Cedars-Sinai Medical Center was not sued, though the hospital was described in a court filing as a ‘potential defendant.’”
The couple still has a suit pending against Baxter Healthcare Corp., which made the heparin. The Quaids started the Quaid Foundation in hopes of raising the standard of patient care and reducing errors in hospitals.
Reminder: Health Journalism 2009 will be in Seattle, April 16-19.
Catch up with AHCJ members; get book discount
The third edition of “Health Care Policy and Politics A to Z,” by NPR health policy correspondent Julie Rovner, has been published by CQ Press. The book includes updated information on long-term health care spending, abortion, Medicaid and Medicare, health insurance and the uninsured, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and more.
Julie Rovner
Rovner has arranged for AHCJ members to get a 30 percent discount on the book - find out how to take advantage of your discount.
AHCJ member news
Other AHCJ members have been winning awards, getting promotions, releasing books and CDs, speaking to groups, traveling and more - read about the latest member news now.
Survey unmasks health, medical journalists
A new study attempts to answer two key questions about health and medical journalists in the United States - what is their general profile and, at a theoretical level, what occupational practices and factors influence the scope and type of coverage of health topics seen in the United States? The researchers, who were funded by the National Cancer Institute, surveyed 468 reporters and editors representing 463 local and national broadcast and print media outlets.
Faces of health journalists: Journalists attend a panel at Health Journalism 2007 in Los Angeles.
For those of you who attended Health Journalism 2006 in Houston, this might sound familiar; the lead author, K. “Vish” Viswanath, presented early findings at that conference.
So who are we? The study, published in the Journal of Health Communication, found that almost 70 percent had at least a bachelor’s degree; 19 percent have a master’s degree; 4.5 percent have a doctorate, including about 3 percent with an MD. Almost half of the respondents graduated with a degree in journalism and 13 percent with a degree in communications. Eight percent reported they were life sciences majors in college.
Other revealing facts: Minorities are severely underrepresented among those reporting on health and medical science in the United States. Almost 97 percent identified themselves as non-Hispanic and about 93 percent as white. Sixty-seven percent of the respondents were women. The average age of those surveyed was 44 and more than one-third had been working as journalists for more than 20 years, although not necessarily covering health the entire time.
Overall, initial story ideas come from a news source - and health care providers were the most relied upon source, especially among local reporters; while national reporters more often turned to researcher and scientists. Sources were followed by press conferences or press releases. When it comes to deciding newsworthiness, the “potential for public impact” and “new information or development” were cited nearly across the board, followed by “ability to provide a human angle” and “ability to provide a local angle.”
However, there were some significant differences seen between print and broadcast outlets. Journalists from broadcast media rely on story suggestions by sources (62.8 percent) or wire services (50 percent) more often than print reporters (47.9 percent and 37. percent, respectively). Print journalists have a more diverse range of ideas to initiate stories - while they rely on human sources, broadcast journalists were significantly more likely to report using scientific journals for their initial ideas (46 percent and 25 percent, respectively). Print journalists also rely more on government Web site.
Update: We heard from Viswanath, the study’s lead author. He summarized the findings:
The take away messages are three:
- Journalists work closely with sources to identify and develop health and medicine stories. It is therefore important for sources to work with reporters and be sensitive to their needs.
- Only a small percentage of journalists have majored in science in their undergrad programs
- Journalists desire training and appropriate tools to help them cover the stories better.
AHCJers write ‘blogs that will open your eyes’
USPharmD+ announced a list of “100 Global Health Blogs That Will Open Your Eyes” and it includes blogs written by several AHCJ members:
- Global Health Report: Journalist Christine Gorman covers what’s up and coming in health care, what needs to change and what actually works in keeping people well. Another blog from Gorman is on the list: The Health Media Watch.
- Pharmalot: Ed Silverman (who also contributes to Covering Health) writes about drug development, marketing and the companies involved from this blog.
- Superbug: Maryn McKenna’s blog about methicillin-resistant Staph aureus (MRSA)
- Health Affairs: Written by a number of journalists, including Susan Dentzer, this blog focuses mostly on U.S. health care policy.
- WSJ Health Blog: Scott Hensley contributes to and edits this Wall Street Journal blog.
Did I miss any AHCJ members who were on USPharmD+’s list? Let us know in the comments or send an e-mail to pia@healthjournalism.org.
Nonprofit, paper team up for project on med school
In a bid to maintain health coverage in communities where newspapers are stretched too thin, The Center for California Health Care Journalism has been hatched by the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California and the California HealthCare Foundation to report on issues of concern to Californians.
Michael Parks of USC and the Center for California Health Care Journalism (left), Mike Tharp (center) and Danielle Gaines of the Merced Sun-Star
The foundation felt that coverage of health policy in California was disappearing. It wanted to know if foundations and nonprofits could underwrite quality journalism while keeping it independent. And so it initiated a “proof of concept” in which a small group of journalists does stories, completely independent of the foundation, which funded the pilot project with $239,000 for six months.
The result: “Sowing Hope,” a series in the Merced Sun-Star exploring the quest for a University of California medical school in Merced, a town in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Thanks to the blend of nonprofit and traditional journalism, the newspaper gave its readers an “up-close and extensive look at UC Merced’s hope for a medical school,” according to Sun-Star executive editor Mike Tharp said
The center is part of a growing trend of nonprofits actively reporting health stories. In recent months, the Kaiser Family Foundation announced plans for its own Kaiser Health News. The Kansas Health Institute – supported by foundations – employs writers and editors in its own news service, and the foundation-supported Web site Florida Health News collects stories and does some original health reporting.
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Health Journalism 2010, AHCJ's annual conference, features a world-class program with story ideas, sources, stronger reporting skills, chances to meet newsmakers and network with other journalists.
- Health and education: Covering these intersecting beats
- Reporting on the business of health care
- Health reporting resources for journalists on state and local government beats
- Shortened Lives: How location, lifestyle affect health
- Covering a complex story for the long haul
- Aging in the 21st Century: Presentations and tip sheets
- AHCJ calls for better information from Joint Commission Web site
