- heraldtribune.com/article/20110808/ARTICLE/308089999
- heraldtribune.com/article/20110828/ARTICLE/308289997
List date(s) this work was published or aired.
Jan. 1, 2011; May 18, 2011; Aug. 7, 2011; Aug. 27, 2011
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
“Finding the lost through a different path” details the unique transformation of a dementia ward at a non-profit nursing home when the consulting psychiatrist introduced music therapy, massage and environmental changes. The need for anti-psychotic drugs for these patients dropped by 50 percent. I heard about the psychiatrist through word of mouth, and followed him on his rounds for several weeks. “Questions over hypnosis of boy” was a breaking new story. The father of a teen-ager who had committed suicide contacted me after I had interviewed him a week earlier, and told me that the high school principal had performed hypnosis on his son. I had until 9 a.m. to develop the story, interview specialists in hypnosis and suicide, talk to the principal and people who knew him, including other hypnotized students, and deliver the story, providing hourly updates for the web. This became a national news story, and the principal was removed from his position. “The death of Patient 15” grew out of my learning to use research tools on the AHCJ website. I read about Special Focus Facilities and learned that a Sarasota nursing home had earned this designation. A public records search of deficiency statements from the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration led me back to the chocolate chip cookie death. The nursing home was closed by the state three weeks after the story ran. The online edition of the story included a database on nursing home inspections in our region. “In labor too soon and left all alone” was the second-day story of a Medicare violation by the emergency department of our region’s largest hospital. I had a tip and filed a public records request with the state, and wrote the story of the violation from those reports. When the story ran, the patient came forward, and this was the narrative of her experience. The hospital made a public promise to change its emergency room operation, and has done so.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Public records were involved in the “Patient 15” and emergency room stories. Delays in getting reports of revisits to the nursing home slowed the development of the “Patient 15” story, which I had begun in April 2011. But my repeated requests on that story appear to have made the state more responsive on the second story (that is to say, I finally found a state employee who was willing to be more helpful).
Explain types of human sources used.
The first story about dementia patients was a straightforward feature that involved immersion in the daily life of a locked memory unit. The second story, about the hypnotizing principal, drew on the rapport I had formed with the father of a suicide, and community ties that made the principal willing to talk to me. Ours was the last interview he gave before his lawyer advised against it. The third story, Patient 15, involved a lot of academic experts on nursing home quality control, as well as patient advocates. I wanted to be sure I was being fair to the nursing home operators. The fourth story, on the hospital ER, is an example of a narrative on deadline, where I had an hour to establish a connection with the young patient and her mother, and get them to trust me with their details. I also worked hard to get the hospital to make a response that was beyond the usual bureaucratic defensiveness.
Results:
The psychiatrist I profiled in the dementia story was able to attract some grants to continue his work. The principal at the high school lost his job, and may face a criminal trial. The nursing home I wrote about was closed. The emergency room made changes, and passed its next state inspection.
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.
On the Patient 15 story, the former owner of the nursing home asked for a clarification, providing additional details and documents to prove that he was not connected to the business when the death occurred.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Two of these stories were breaking news, which I felt my years of experience as a journalist (although new to the health beat) allowed me to handle more fluidly. One, the dementia story, was just pure pleasure. The Patient 15 story grew as I went along, in length and complexity, and the next time I tackle a story like this I will find a better way to catalogue the voluminous reports by state inspectors, perhaps using some kind of content analysis software.