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 "military hospitals" ...
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Brain Wars: How the Military is Failing Its Wounded
The series uncovers a pattern of broken promises and ignored problems within the medical system for America's soldiers and veterans. Despite the hundreds of thousands of soldiers suffering from serious brain injuries, the military has continued to fail to diagnose and treat their injuries. In some cases, brain injuries were dismissed as headaches.
Tags: brain injury; veterans; military; military hospital; concussions
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Medicating the Military
The stories looked at the nature and scope of the use of prescription drugs in the military community, with a focus on psychiatric medications and painkillers. The reporting found that use of psychiatric medications has risen dramatically in the past several years and some doctors suggest it may be a factor in the military's suicide epidemic of recent years. Reporters found that many psychiatric drugs - including powerful anti-convulsants and anti-psychotic medications - were being used "off label", or in ways not formally approved by the FDA. Reporters found that many troops were taking up to 10 medications at a time in so-called drug cocktails that experts say are untested and unproven in these combinations. Reporters also found that deaths caused by accidental drug overdoses had tripled during the past several years and that the Army's specialty care units were quietly conducting internal investigations and making significant changes to hospital protocols to reduce risk of accidental deaths. Finally, they found that psychiatric drug usage was also up significantly among military children.
Tags: Military; Army; Veteran; Health; Wellness; Medicine; Drugs; Pain killers; Psychiatric Medication; Mental Health; Suicide; Depression; Military Children; Hospital; Prescription
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The Other Walter Reed
"Wounded veterans of the war in Iraq were housed in substandard quarters at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and faced neglect and bureaucracy as they sought medical care." Priest and Hull penetrated the secretive world of the Army's premier medical facility, Walter Reed Hospital, to document in chilling detail the callous mistreatment and neglect of America's war-wounded. Their expose — fueled by immersion reporting and fine narrative storytelling — fired a shot heard around the world and led to decisive action at the Pentagon.
Tags: veteran; military; Walter Reed; wounded; outpatient; medical facility; medicine; health; psychological; Public Service Pulitzer winner
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Dangerous Remedy
Robert Little of The (Baltimore) Sun reported that the U.S. Army has injected over 1000 soldiers wounded in Iraq with a medicine designed for hemophiliacs despite the fact that it is dangerous for people with normal blood. It can give them blood clots that could cause strokes and heart attacks. It costs $6000 per dose. Civilian doctors "have largely rejected it as a standard treatment for trauma patients." Army doctors say, in their experience, the drug saves lives by stopping hemorrhaging. Little says “Doctors in Iraq's emergency rooms, however, almost never care for their patients long enough to see firsthand whether blood clots or other complications have developed." Little reports that "the drug has never been subjected to a large-scale clinical trial to verify that it works and is safe for patients without hemophilia."
Tags: military medical system; Iraq; coagulant; Institute for Surgical Research; Germany; military hospitals; Food and Drug Administration; FDA; U.S. Department of Defense; DoD; Marines; Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs; U.S. Army Surgeon General; HIPPA; actionable intelligence; Recombinant Activated Factor VII; Novo Nordisk; coagulopathic bleeding;
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An Anthrax Dilemma
This investigation examined several aspects of the military's anthrax vaccination program and found that the military was not completely honest about the health and safety ramifications of the inoculations. For instance, the military did not report more than 20,000 hospitalizations that were caused by vaccinations. Nor did the military report deaths that followed the vaccinations.
Tags: anthrax; disease; military; vaccination; inoculation; federal government; hospitals; doctors; Lou Gehrig's Disease; veterans
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Fighting for Care
ABC News Prime Time Thursday continued their investigation of veterans' hospitals, which began in 1990. Among the many findings were: a surprising number of doctors still in training were left in charge of operating rooms and diagnostic situations while the doctors who were supposed to supervise them were not around; a disturbingly large number of mistakes and often fatal misdiagnoses; sloppy hygiene and unsanitary conditions; and retaliation against whistleblowers while incompetent administrators were promoted despite gross mismanagement.
Tags: Veterans; health care; military; hospitals; medical care
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Military Quacks
Carollo and Nesmith tell the stories of victims of medical accidents and misjudgments involving doctors employed by the U.S. military. "That means the patients were treated in an environment not governed by some of the most significant safeguards that help protect civilians from bad medicine." Under Defense Department rules, such incidents involving military doctors, are not even reported to the National Practitioners Data Bank.
Tags: malpractice claims; doctors; military hospitals; lobbying; public health; legislature
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Battling for Benefits
"Women have formally served in the United States armed forces for nearly a century, beginning with the creation of the Army Nurse Corps in 1901. But women are only now winning a long battle for veteran's health care services that has at times seemed as formidable as the conflicts they faced in two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf." Due to recent legislation over the last ten years, health care for female veterans has greatly improved. Female veterans now may receive monthly compensation payments for loss of a breast for reasons related to military service and benefits for children born with birth defects. However, "the VA recognizes that more improvements are needed . . . including providing greater privacy in hospital facilities and better inpatient psychiatric care for women." In addition, "veterans groups point to other ways in the VA could more effectively help women: developing better programs for those women veterans who are homeless; paying more attention to the specific health care needs of women; and giving the special women veterans' coordinators more time to do their job." Reporter Karen Lee Scrivo reports more on these issues.
Tags: women; military; Veterans Affairs Department; Center for Women Veterans; Women Veterans Health Programs Act; children; Special Monthly Compensation K Award; health care
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1997 IRE TV Award Winners and Finalist.
The 1997 IRE TV Award Winners and Finalist tape is a compilation of 5 stories. 1.) "Blood Money," ABC News. Chilling video of the executions of Chinese prisoners and the selling of their organs to fund a profit-making organized criminal activity. See #14327. 2.) "Probable Cause," Dateline, NBC News. Systematic illegal traffic stops, brutal behavior and unfair drug seizures in Louisiana with a system where judges who decide cases benefit from ill-gotten gains and innocent citizens actually pay to go to court and get their appeals heard. See #14444. 3.) "License For Sale." KCBS, Los Angeles. An elaborate network for selling legitimate California driver licenses used for everything from getting government services to boarding commercial airlines. See # 14316. 4.) "Poor Justice? The Susan Cummings Story," KOMO, Seattle. The conviction and imprisonment of a 16-year-old girl for a murder she may not have committed. See #14305. 5.) "Military Medical Malpractice," WRAL, Raleigh N.C. Medical malpractice remains a well-kept military secret, with no one protecting millions of servicemen and women or their families from shocking standards and practices by inept doctors. See # 14287.
Tags: TAPE; crime; court; police; health care; veteran; hospital; foi; car; ire; no transcripts.