The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "MAUDE" ...
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Patient Safety Crisis at Parkland
This investigation takes a look at Parkland Memorial Hospital, which mostly treats Dallas' most vulnerable patients, the poor and the elderly. The findings are shocking and extensive, including patient neglect, unsupervised practices from doctors in training and poorly trained psychiatric technicians.
Tags: hospitals; psychiatric care; patient neglect
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"Electronic Health Records: Will They Be Safer and Save Money?"
In this yearlong, multimedia project, reporters Schulte and Schwartz investigated the shift of paper medical records to electronic records. The report drew attention to the "challenges officials are facing in computerizing" the records. Some of the challenges include concerns of privacy and patient well-being.
Tags: records; MAUDE; FDA; Center for Devices and Radiological Health; database
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First, Do No Harm
This investigation focused on lax supervision of doctors-in-training, patient harm and alleged billing fraud at Dallas' premier medical school complex and its primary teaching hospital, which are financed largely by taxpayers. It also examined more broadly questions about medical training, patient care and healthcare fraud at teaching hospitals around the United States.
Tags: doctor training; patient harm; patient care; Medicare fraud; health care; healthcare; Dallas; medical school; hospital; billing fraud; surgery
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Toxic Neighbors
Industrial plants with toxic chemicals were located blocks from homes, apartment complexes and schools. Some were found across the street from residences. The staff mapped where hazardous material sites were located in relation to densely-populated areas.
Tags: housing; toxins; poison; factory; zoning; subdivision; inner city; EPA; health; chlorine;
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Unequal Justice
An investigation into Texas's justice system revealed that at least 120 killers were put on probation instead of required to spend time in prison. Texas employs a legal system which "scholars nationwide diagnosed as broken," in which juries made sentencing decisions based "as much on likes and dislikes as on facts." Also, judges repeatedly gave freed killers a second chance on probation violations because "they viewed probation as a chance for reform, not punishment."
Tags: legal system; courts; justice; death penalty; probation; murderers; killers; probation violations; juries; sentencing
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Road Hazards
Drivers with "poor safety records and histories of drug and alcohol abuse," poorly inspected and maintained trucks and lax enforcement of safety laws are the main problems affecting the truck driving industry in the state of Texas. The Dallas Morning News investigates, spurred by the case of Miroslaw Jozwiak, a trucker who falsified his log reports before causing a fatal accident, which he survived. The stories of those who perished in the crash are told, as are those of the people who survived the crash.
Tags: Miroslaw Jozwiak; truck drivers; truck safety; highway safety; fatal auto accidents; poor truck inspections
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As Good As New?
The recycling and re-use of medical devices labeled for one use only is called reprocessing, and is a controversial practice in the medical industry. Thousands of different devices are re-used by hospitals around the country, ranging from simple blood-pressure cuffs to highly-invasive catheters and biopsy tools. The practice saves hospitals millions of dollars, but consumers generally have no idea.
Tags: medical reprocessing; Food and Drug Administration; MAUDE data; recycling medical devices; re-using medical devices
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Windfalls of War: U.S. Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan
This investigation revealed that more than 70 American companies and individuals had been awarded up to $8 billion in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan over the past two years, This investigation examined the companies in detail, profiling their backgrounds, campaign contributions, ties to government and past history of contracting. A lot of shady coincidences were uncovered. For example, the top 10 contractors contributed $11 million to national political parties, candidates and political action committees since 1990.
Tags: FOIA
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The Water Barons
This project reveals and documents the increasingly common privatization of public drinking water systems worldwide and examines the impact of this new form of globalization. Three private water utilities companies, all based in France, dominate the worldwide market. This project raises concerns that a few companies could soon control a large chunk of the world's most vital resource. 31 researchers, writers and editors were involved in this twelve month investigation.
Tags: water; privatization; globalization; drought
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Making a Killing: The Business of War
This 11-part series by the International Consortium of International Journalists and the Center of Public Integrity examines the "economic conflict in the post-Cold War era and those who profit from it. Individual stories looked at how, amid the military downsizing and increasing number of small conflicts that followed the end of the Cold War, governments are turning increasingly to private military companies -- a newly coined euphemism for mercenaries -- to intervene on their behalf in war zones around the globe. Often, these companies work as proxies for national or corporate interests, whose involvement is buried under layers of secrecy. ICIJ also found that a handful of individuals and companies with connections to governments, multinational corporations, and sometimes criminal syndicates, in Europe, the Middle East and the United States, profited from these wars.Entrepreneurs selling arms and companies drilling and mining in unstable regions have prolonged the conflicts, in which up to 10 million people have died. "
Tags: Cold War; mercenaries; business; corporate interests; Middle East; Europe; war; conflict; death; military; ONLINE; cd; irewar03