Prescription drugs linked to seventy percent of Milwaukee overdoses

In an analysis of prescription drug deaths in the Milwaukee area, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Tom Kertscher found of the 1,200 overdose deaths in an eight-year period, some 70% involved prescription drugs. Kertscher created the database himself by reviewing the medical examiner reports for each of the counties in question. Additionally, Kertscher reviewed hundreds of pages of documents tied to a high-profile death of a 15-year-old girl to find that she died despite numerous warning signs to authorities, including 15 calls to police about drug activity and suspected dealing by the man who has pleaded guilty to her death.

An ongoing series in The New Mexico Independent explores allegations that state agencies interfered with fraud and elder abuse investigations.  The Medicaid Fraud Division stated that Human Services Department and the Health Department had "withheld, 'filtered' and 'sanitized' information and documents requested by investigators, hindering numerous investigations."  Medicaid Fraud The series led to an attempt by the state legislature to override the governor's veto last year of a government oversight/data sharing bill and an inquiry by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Through interviews with families and advocates and a review of thousands of pages of public records, the San Antonio Express-News reports that some of the city's most frail and vulnerable residents are suffering at the hands of their caregivers in Texas nursing homes. Yet state officials allow troubled nursing homes to continue operating with little or no penalty.

Despite a 2007 law requiring the Marine Corps to notify former residents of Camp Lejeune, N.C. that they may have been exposed to contaminated water between 1957 and 1987, many have never been notified while others are just now finding out, according to a report by Barbara Barrett of McClatchy Newspapers.  "The Marines have registered thousands of people across the country who say they've been plagued by illnesses related to the toxic water, but the Department of the Navy, which includes the Marine Corps, still refuses to pay for a $1.6 million study into the deaths of former residents of Camp Lejeune."

Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein of ProPublica reported on big gaps in a federal database that is supposed to alert hospitals to disciplinary actions against health care providers across the country.  Over two decades ago, Congress "ordered up a national database allowing hospitals to check for disciplinary actions taken anywhere in the country against nurses, pharmacists, psychologists and other licensed health professionals."  That database becomes available on March 1, but this investigation shows that it is missing thousands of serious disciplinary actions.  The story ran in The Los Angeles Times.

In a pair of reports, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters Mark Johnson and Meg Kissinger examined the overblown medical claims and misleading marketing strategies of China-based Beike Biotechnology, one of many overseas operations marketing experimental stem cell treatments to desperate American families. The two interviewed dozens of the top doctors and scientists in their respective fields and found that the company relies on faulty science and flawed theories, has misled patients about success rates and exaggerated its own medical credentials. On the marketing side, after interviews with the families of dozens of those who received treatments, the two found the company trolls for patients on the Internet and relies on a commission-based system for marketing agents who the company admits it has little control over.

A report by Walt Bogdanich of The New  York Times looks at the risks associated with radiation treatments.  Advancements in how radiation is administered have made it a more effective treatment.  "The Times found that while this new technology allows doctors to more accurately attack tumors and reduce certain mistakes, its complexity has created new avenues for error — through software flaws, faulty programming, poor safety procedures or inadequate staffing and training. When those errors occur, they can be crippling."

As many as 80% of children in some states who received a first dose of H1N1 vaccine haven't received a booster dose that's necessary to fully protect them from swine flu, according to a USA Today review of immunization registry data from 10 states. State health officials are worried growing public complacency could put these children at risk if a third wave of disease hits this winter. Because there are there are no national data on the second doses. USA Today sought data from the 14 states that the CDC says require all H1N1 doses be recorded in immunization registries; four didn’t provide data.

A five day series by Martha Mendoza and Margie Mason of The Associated Press explores the global issue of drug resistance, looking at where and how it has emerged and what can be done. The series examines the overuse and misuse of drugs, leading to drug-resistant strains of diseases, highlighted by the first case in the U.S. of a contagious, aggressive, extremely drug-resistant form of tuberculosis. (The articles can be found here: day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5 along with a multimedia package.

Nurses with troubled records can cross state lines and work without restriction, an investigation by the nonprofit news organization ProPublica and The Los Angeles Times found. Using public databases and state disciplinary reports, reporters found hundreds of cases in which registered nurses held clear licenses in some states after they'd been sanctioned in others, often for serious misdeeds.