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 "medical supplies" ...
-
PharmaWater
"The year-month long project by the AP National Investigative Team found that drugs- mostly the residue of medications taken by people, excreted and flushed down the toilet- have gotten into the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans in at least 24 major metropolitan areas, from Southern California to Norther New Jersey." A follow-up was written after the original series.
Tags: health; pollution; medicine; water; drinking water; urban; city; sewer system; waste management; pharmaceuticals; wildlife; fertility; birth control; estrogen
-
The Wexford Files
To save money on its contract with the New Mexico state corrections department, Wexford Health Sources cut costs and provided poor health care to inmates. In the wake of Wexford's cost-cutting, "chronically sick inmates were routinely refused off-site specialty visits. Other inmates waited for days, even weeks, to receive critical prescription drug renewals. Still other inmates were forced to lie in their own feces because basic supplies, like bed sheets, were in such short order." In addition, staffing was a problem in prison medical units due to Wexford not filling vacant positions as yet another means of cost-cutting. In the end, people ranging from "Wexford's top medical officers in New Mexico to nurses and administrative employees" resigned as a result of the effect of the company's belt-tightening on their ability to help patients.
Tags: Prison hospitals; Wexford Health Souces; poor health care; New Mexico prison system
-
Hijacking at the Hospital
Novation, a group purchasing organization based in Texas, was created to negotiate lower prices with medical supply manufacturers on behalf of one-third of the hospitals nationwide. It has been accused of actually raising prices and squeezing out small manufacturers. Thanks to an exemption granted by Congress, from anti-kickback laws, Novation is financed by the very manufacturers it's supposed to be fighting.
Tags: doctors; medical supplies; medical ethics; federal government; business ethics; Congress; kickbacks
-
Perilous Practices: a three-part series on the medical malpractice issue in Ohio
Political ads have been saying that so many doctors are fleeing Ohio over concerns about rising medical malpractice insurance rates that it has caused a health care crisis, in which the public is losing access to vital services. However, a closer look reveals that the doctor supply has not been dramatically diminished by doctors retiring early or moving away from the state. In fact, the number of doctors holding active Ohio medical licenses went up slightly even as insurance rates were exploding.
Tags: medical malpractice; Ohio State Medical Board; Ohio State Medical Association; Medical Liability Monitor; Ohio Supreme Court; U.S. Department of Human Services; Ohio Department of Insurance; American Medical Association; MD Anderson Cancer Center; UC Medical Center; malpractice fees; malpractice insurance; health benefits
-
Pharmacy Fakes
With this article, SELF Magazine broke the story of adulterated and counterfeit prescription drugs entering America's pharmacies. The article revealed for the first time, that counterfeiters had systematically infiltrated the domestic drug supply, gaining access to fragile medicines and diluting or falsely relabeling them in order to reap a high profit. They exposed how most of the nation's medicine passes through a vast gray market of wholesalers, and how weak enforcement of federal and state regulations makes it close to impossible to identify where our medicine has come from. The article contains personal accounts from patients who had been harmed by counterfeit medicine, and a report on a Florida investigation which had uncovered potential misconduct at 50 of the state's wholesale companies.
Tags: prescription drugs; pharmacies; counterfeit medicine; tainted drugs; Food and Drug Administration; Prescription Drug Marketing Act; pharmaceutical wholesalers; Florida Department of Law Enforcement; CVS ProCare Pharmacy; Healthcare Distribution Management Association; drugmakers; Jemco Medical International; relabeling; diluting; serostim; Serono; AIDS
-
Medicine's Middlemen
An investigation by the New York Times revealed that "just two companies could determine which life-saving drugs and other medical products most of the nation's hospitals bought and at what price. As national gatekeepers for billions of dollars in hospitals supply contracts, these two companies used their unregulated power to enrich themselves through pervasive conflicts of interest and self dealing... Until the Times examined them, these two for-profit companies, Premier and Novation, operated as they wished. They claimed they saved hospitals money by buying in bulk -- but never had to prove it. As private companies with no government oversight, they refused to disclose how they did business, including how much money the makers of the drugs and medical devices were paying them to get supply contracts. In this environment, Premier executives collected millions in personal stock options from the very manufacturers whose company products they were supposed to evaluate objectively. The buying companies steered thousands of hospitals to manufacturers in which the buying companies themselves had a financial interest."
Tags: Premier; Novation; drugs; medical; medicine; conflict of interest; private business; stock options
-
No title (id: 10951)
The Record's investigation proved temporary medical firms were able to supply unlicensed and unqualified therapists to hospitals and nursing homes to treat patients. As a result, bills have been introduced to keep a better eye on the situation and prosecute criminals, August - September 1994.
Tags: NJ Moore CAR CAJ Therapists Nursing homes Hospital care 20 pages
-
"Body Parts"
American Journal reports that tainted human tissue is making its way from Eastern Europe into the bodies of American transplant recipients. The investigation found that unscrupulous brokers had approached legitimate US tissue banks with offers to supply them with human tissue
Tags: transplants; Russia; FDA; Hepatitis-B; Health and Human Services; Latin America; TAPE; Script; transcript; organs; medical; hospitals; international; human tissue; tissue banks
-
No title (id: 9065)
WCIX-TV (Miami, Fla.) finds that dozens of South Florida medical clinics are defrauding the Medicaid and Medicare systems by allowing patients to submit hundreds of dollars in phony claims; doctors are being paid under the table to sign blank prescriptions for medical equipment companies; tax dollars are wasted, while unscrupulous clinics, doctors and medical supply companies are getting rich, Feb. 19 - 21, 1992.
-
No title (id: 6362)
The Times (Trenton, N.J.) uncovers a multimillion-dollar Medicare fraud scheme by a medical supply company; the firm obtained Medicare recipients' Social Security numbers, prepared medical supply prescriptions based on false conditions, had doctors sign incorrect documents, and billed Medicare, June - December 1989.
Tags: None