- http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120120/HEALTH_CARE/120129991
- http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120129/SUB/301299971
- http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120520/SUB/305209970
- http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120326/HEALTH_CARE/120329909
Provide names of other journalists involved.
none
List date(s) this work was published or aired.
Hospital board balks at Brooklyn mega-merger: Jan. 20; CEO rips into own board: Jan. 29; Ramon Rodriguez: The trials of a renegade CEO: May 20; Peninsula Hospital to close permanently March 26 If a link to a submitted article requires a subscription, please use this information: User name: contests@crainsnewyork.com Password: contests
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
This past year has been extremely challenging for financially fragile New York City community hospitals: three are bankrupt, and others are scrutinizing mergers and alliances that may help them avoid that fate. The four stories in this submission focus on two of these hospitals. Their executives blame their financial struggles on low reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare and on their high volume of uninsured patients. These articles chronicle a different story line– tales of mismanagement, ineffective boards of trustees, conflicts of interest, and exceptionally poor judgment. The board of Wyckoff Heights Medical Center brought in a new CEO, Ramon Rodriguez, in late 2011 to save the debt-ridden Brooklyn hospital. He immediately caused a major stir, not least because he fired nine doctors, replaced half the board and fought the Cuomo administration’s efforts to merge the hospital with two other Brooklyn institutions. In a profile that captures the florid personality of Mr. Rodriguez and the difficult health care scene in Brooklyn, Crain’s health editor Barbara Benson explains why New York hospitals are hemorrhaging money and why fixing the system is proving to be so difficult. Her Wyckoff stories detail conflicts of interest among the hospital’s board, the derailing of a potential merger deal that could have saved the hospital from financial ruin, and Mr. Rodriguez’s depression and penchant for penning outrageous emails that blast his own board and top doctors. (The New York Times covered similar ground — but that was three months after the Crain’s stories appeared.) Peninsula Hospital was the subject of award-winning stories Benson wrote in 2011 about a controversial executive who gained financial control of the ailing non-profit Queens hospital. In this story, she chronicled troubling factors that led to the hospital’s bankruptcy and abrupt closure. A source gave Benson a document that proved the hospital’s new CEO was briefed that conditions at its laboratory were so dangerous that unless they were immediately remedied the hospital was at risk of having state health officials shut down the lab. The CEO, Todd Miller, did not authorize the investments necessary to remediate conditions. His act of appalling mismanagement and hubris made the judge overseeing Peninsula’s bankruptcy case remove Mr. Miller from Peninsula’s helm in favor of a court-appointed overseer. As predicted, the state health department closed the deficient lab, an act that triggered Peninsula’s permanent closure. Financially troubled hospitals aren’t victims of low reimbursement rates alone. Their fiscal health is equally vulnerable to greed, stupidity and human error, as these four stories chronicle.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
The articles on Wyckoff Heights and Peninsula hospitals would never have been written if not for health editor Barbara Benson’s reputation in New York’s health care industry. She writes a daily newsletter, the Pulse, that is considered a must-read among industry insiders. As a result, she has the trust of sources who are willing to pass on internal communications and documents. In the case of these stories, insiders at Wyckoff Heights hospital entrusted her with private emails between the new CEO and board members. There is no defensible way for a hospital to insist all is well when there is a paper trail of venomous communications among top officials. Likewise, Benson’s reporting on Peninsula hospital was informed by internal hospital emails and documents whose authenticity was verified by lawyers involved in its Chapter 11 case. The court proceedings have been critical to story developments. Benson also constantly monitors bankruptcy filings in the federal court’s PACER electronic system.
Explain types of human sources used.
Aside from working the phones, Benson attended bankruptcy court proceedings for Peninsula Hospital and was able to interview the key players who would be deciding the hospital’s fate.
Results:
Crain’s broke the story that Peninsula Hospital’s new bankruptcy overseer was shutting the hospital down, news that that beat the AP by a day. Months after the competition stopped writing about Peninsula because it was closed, the bankruptcy case remains a top business story. In late December 2012, the Chapter 11 Trustee overseeing Peninsula’s bankruptcy was granted permission by the court to subpoena key executives who once ran the shuttered hospital, including the former CEO Todd Miller. The Trustee is hunting for examples of mismanagement and the facts behind Peninsula’s botched financial rescue. If she finds evidence of liability, the Trustee hopes to recover money for the hospital’s creditors through the facility’s directors’ and officers’ insurance policy. The Trustee will probe why state health officials ordered the hospital to close in April because its laboratory was in such terrible condition that patient care was threatened. According to one of the lawyers involved in the Peninsula bankruptcy, the Crain’s articles prompted the Trustee’s investigation. Benson’s Wyckoff Heights stories in January reported details of an investigation, conflicts among board members and the odd behavior of the hospital’s new CEO. Both the New York Times and Crain’s ran articles on January 4 about conflicts at the hospital. Benson expanded on the hospital’s woes in stories that ran in early 2012. It wasn’t until March 25 that the New York Times ran a front-page story–the product of a three-month investigation– that covered similar ground.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
There is no substitute for having a reputation in the industry for reporting fair health care stories. That reputation will draw key sources who have inside knowledge of a subject. Sources feel passionate about health care because at its best, good health care saves lives. At its worse, health care can attract frauds and opportunists, and sources are eager to turn to journalists to identify the bad players. After the Peninsula Hospital stories ran, in October 2012 Benson received an email from a man who said he was willing to produce documents and audio tapes that would prove widespread fraud– amounting to tens of millions of dollars– at a Brooklyn home care agency. He could have brought the documents to the New York Times, he said, but he had read the Peninsula stories and knew that the reporter understood complex aspects of health care. As journalists, once we tackle tough subjects, subsequent stories almost seem to write themselves — with the help of excellent sources.