1. Provide the title of your story or series and the names of the journalists involved.
"A journey of risk, hope"
"Death spotlights gaps in surgery center oversight"
"Inquiry targets hospital staffers"
"Infant care at hospital probed"
2. List date(s) this work was published or aired.
Dec. 26, 2010; Nov. 30, 2010; October 12, 2010; May 6, 2010
3. Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
I cover the medical beat on the metro desk, including public and private hospitals and health systems. During the past year, I have investigated and written a number of stories about substandard care at one of our public hospitals, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center.
The two enclosed, "Hospital put babies at risk, audit finds" and "Infant care at hospital probed" showed hospital staff not only endangered babies by running a makeshift beauty salon in the neonatal intensive care unit, they also violated state regulations by keeping babies in the unit rather than transfer them to better equipped hospitals. I also investigated lax safety standards and regulation at private surgery centers. "Death spotlights gaps in surgery center oversight" highlights the case of Maria Garcia, a mother of five who died after she was operated on by two surgeons later investigated by the state medical board. While investigating the above cases, I spent much of the year chronicling the treatment of baby Dylan Catania, who was born with a rare brain defect that required radical surgery. In "A journey of risk, hope," I told his story with a multimedia presentation that included photographs, videos, graphics, a glossary and Q&A with Dylan's pediatric neurologist.
4. Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Due to HIPAA, at first, my Freedom of Information and Public Record Act requests did not yield much about Olive View. However, I was able to obtain medical records and documents from sources at the hospital, as well as internal memos verifying allegations of substandard care. FOI requests later yielded state records of correspondence between state and hospital officials that verified my early reporting that Olive View officials had violated state regulations by keeping severely ill babies in the neonatal intensive care unit rather than transfer them to better-equipped facilities. While the hospital refused to put me in touch with or allow me to talk with patients, sources put me in touch with several families who agreed to speak with me and share their medical records. For the surgery center story, I pulled scores of state medical board records, malpractice lawsuits, business licenses and autopsy reports as well as coroner's notes, most through FOI and PRA. I obtained copies of depositions in several cases, which I quoted from in the story. I also tracked surgery center listings, advertisements and staff lists online, (many change names and web pages frequently). For "A Journey of risk, hope," I reviewed Dylan's medical records, including MRIs, Dylan's family's notebook chronicling his treatment, as well as dozens of technical medical journal and textbook articles about hemimegalencephaly in print and online. I also reviewed the Hemispherectomy Foundation web site chat room posts and several family web pages.
5. Explain types of human sources used.
For the Olive View stories, I spoke with administrators, doctors, nurses and other medical staff at the hospital, as well as county medical officials. I also tracked down families whose babies had been treated in the Olive View NICU, some of whom I interviewed in Spanish. Sources at the hospital lead me to other stories, including an investigation exposing how Olive View social workers were being investigated for accepting gifts in exchange for sending elderly patients to particular nursing homes. For the surgery center story, I interviewed doctors, nurses and other staff/former staff at the surgery center I focused on, Anaheim Hills Surgical Institute. I used malpractice claims and autopsy records to track down relatives of patients who had died, including Maria Garcia, and interview them in English and Spanish. For Dylan Catania's story, I spent countless hours with the Catania family, at home, doctor's appointments and last-minute trips to the emergency room. I also repeatedly interviewed Dylan's pediatric neurologist and neurosurgeon, reviewing his medical records and technical aspects of the surgery, at times joined by our photographer and graphic artist.
6. Results (if any).
Olive View officials initially responded to our coverage by launching an inquiry into which staff had leaked information to the paper. We wrote about the inquiry, which failed to identify the source of the leaks. Hospital officials refused to put me in touch with families of babies who had been treated in the NICU. Yet when I tracked down families on my own, including the Vasquez family, hospital officials found and warned them not to talk to me. Hospital and county officials suspended NICU staff (some of whom were eventually fired), launched an internal review of the NICU and temporarily ordered staff to transfer babies from the NICU to better equipped hospitals. They were later investigated and faulted by the state as a result of our stories for failing to transfer babies. In response to our stories and the state investigation, hospital officials replaced their NICU director, added a half dozen additional neonatologists and other staff. Some of the parents whose babies died contacted lawyers in order to file lawsuits against the hospital. After the surgery center story ran. Dr. Mark Knight, one of the doctors at Anaheim Hills under investigation by the state medical board, had his medical license suspended. I received scores of emails from readers in response to Dylan Catania's story, as did Dylan's family, including some families whose children have seizure disorders, were unaware of hemispherectomies and are now seeking treatment. Other news outlets picked up the story, using our graphics with permission, an Dylan's occupational therapist has used the story to teach students at the University of Southern California.
7. 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 corrections.
8. Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
I love working on different types of stories at once, especially explanatory features, investigations and breaking news. If you're lucky, you get to do all that with a team of talented editors, photographers, videographers and graphic artists. I also benefited from having covered others beats: County government gave me the contacts I needed to cover Olive View, police and courts reporting experience helped me find the court documents I needed for the surgery center story and general assignment reporting taught me to pay attention to the details that made Dylan Catania's story so compelling.