About AHCJ: General News

Media Fellows on Health Performance named for 2010-11 Date: 08/03/10

COLUMBIA, MO – The Association of Health Care Journalists has awarded the first AHCJ Media Fellowships on Health Performance . The program, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, is meant to help journalists understand and report on the performance of local health care systems and the U.S. health system as a whole.

The 2010-2011 fellows are:

• David Gulliver, a freelancer writing for Health News Florida

Gulliver will use a data-driven approach to gauge how Florida health care serves the rich and poor, how some providers overcome their challenges and how others underperform despite having abundant resources.

• Yanick Rice Lamb, an editor and writer at Heart & Soul Magazine

Rice Lamb will examine delays that can leave poor and uninsured patients in hospitals for weeks or even months before they can be discharged to nursing homes or rehabilitation centers.

• Stuck in the Hospital: Some Uninsured Patients Wait Weeks and Months for Long-Term Care
• Project landing page
  

• Marshall Allen, a staff writer for the Las Vegas Sun

Allen will explore whether transparency about hospital quality improves the quality of care for patients.

• How to put patients first: Rising above a fear of malpractice suits, pioneers in health care safety enact seven pillars that work 
  
• First Do No Harm: Last year there wasn't a single fatal airline accident in the developed world. So why is the U.S. health care system still accidentally killing hundreds of thousands? The answer is a lack of transparency. 
• The Sun Shines a Light on Health Care: CJR.org reports on the "Do No Harm" series.

• Rosemary Hoban, a reporter with North Carolina Public Radio/WUNC

Hoban will compare North Carolina's system for treating the mentally ill with those in place in other states and how cuts have affected the systems of care.

• NC Voices: Mental Health Disorder
  

The fellows will continue in their current roles during the coming year, but also receive customized training, mentoring and financial support for field reporting and conference attendance. They are expected to complete a significant and unique reporting project by the end of the fellowship year in June 2011.

The program for mid-career journalists is intended to give print, broadcast and online reporters an opportunity to learn about examples of high-performing health care systems, to focus on innovations in care delivery, and to explore a system or its significant parts to determine what makes that system effective or ineffective. Fellows will be able to examine providers of care, insurers, regulators and policymakers.

The selection committee for the fellowship program included Marty Kaiser, editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Timothy McBride, professor and associate dean of public health at Washington University; Charles Ornstein, AHCJ president; Trudy Lieberman, immediate past president; and Len Bruzzese, AHCJ's executive director.

The Association of Health Care Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues. With about 1,000 members across the United States and around the globe, its mission is to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care reporting, writing and editing. The association and its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism provide training, resources and a professional home for journalists. Offices are based at the Missouri School of Journalism.

The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation that aims to promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable. The Fund carries out this mandate by supporting independent research on health care issues and making grants to improve health care practice and policy.