Accidental deaths remain a problem for the medical industry

Hearst Newspapers reveals widespread failure ten years after a federal report implored the medical industry to cut in half the annual death toll from medical errors and hospital-caused infections, estimated at 200,000. Among the failures: the federal government doesn’t even tally the nation’s leading category of accidental deaths. Some states tried but most failed. Hospital discharge data, court records, medical disciplinary documents and hundreds of interviews reveal chaos and continued tragedy. Lead reporters Cathleen Crowley and Eric Nalder, editors Phil Bronstein, David McCumber and Bob Port were joined by 30 others from Hearst Newspapers, Hearst Television and Columbia University for this investigation.

An investigation by Sheri Fink of ProPublica reveals "what really happened to some of the patients who died at New Orleans’ Memorial Medical Center in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina." Among her findings, Fink reports that more patients than had been previously reported were given lethal injections, and some of those patients were near death when they were euthanized. She also looks at who was involved in the decisions made at the hospital, and why those choices were made.

As part of its ongoing series on water pollution in America, The New York Times looks at the impact of atrazine, a popular weed killer, on our water supply . Recent research indicates that exposure to low concentrations of atrazine may be linked to low birth weights, birth defects and menstrual problems. The Times investigation found "that in some towns, atrazine concentrations in drinking water have spiked, sometimes for longer than a month. But the reports produced by local water systems for residents often fail to reflect those higher concentrations."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters John Fauber and Meg Kissinger reviewed unsealed court records and found that at a time when fears were growing about the link between hormone therapy and breast cancer a drug company paid the University of Wisconsin Medical School to sponsor ghostwritten medical education articles that downplayed the risk. The article is part of the paper’s Side Effects series which looks at conflicts between drug companies, universities and doctors.

In their continuing investigation into failed oversight of California's nursing board, ProPublica and the Los Angeles Times found problems within the state's drug diversion program. Diversion is intended to help nurses overcome substance abuse problems without losing their nursing license. The investigation found "participants who practiced while intoxicated, stole drugs from the bedridden and falsified records to cover their tracks. Since its inception in 1985, more than half the nurses who have entered the program haven't completed it."

In a continuing investigation into failed oversight of California's health professionals, ProPublica and The Los Angeles Times found the California Board of Registered Nursing, responsible for the oversight of 350,000 nurses, "often takes years to act on complaints of egregious misconduct, leaving nurses accused of wrongdoing free to practice without restrictions." An analysis of the board's own statistics showed that the investigation and discipline of problem nurses takes an average of three years. The article profiles several patients who suffered under the care of negligent nurses who continued working despite complaints having been filed with the Board of Registered Nursing.

A recent evaluation found the state of Georgia is poorly prepared to face public health emergencies. "Federal agencies, nonprofit groups and the state’s own documents depict a public health system that lacks sufficient money and, at times, basic competencies, an examination by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found."

Nancy Ann DeParle, who heads the White House Office on Health Reform, made more than $6.6 million since 2001 serving as a director of corporations that faced scores of federal investigations, whistleblower lawsuits and other regulatory actions, according to government records reviewed by the Investigative Reporting Workshop. The story by IRE award winner Fred Schulte was co-published with msnbc.com.

"The air across Iowa is so polluted that the state is perilously close to violating new federal limits aimed at protecting human health. Yet Iowans have no way of knowing what chemicals they are breathing because of a limited - and often inaccurate - system of monitoring pollution statewide, a Des Moines Register investigation found." An interactive map included with the package shows the top emitters of pollutants across the state.

An investigation co-published by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica reveals that the Food and Drug Administration failed to prevent the distribution of tainted syringes linked to several deaths and serious illnesses. "Three months before the pre-filled syringes were shipped in October 2007, an FDA inspector visited the plant in North Carolina where they were made. She investigated reports of red, brown and black particles in syringes and reported that managers had a plan to deal with rust. The inspector did not note that the plant had switched to an unreliable sterilization method. A week later, when the FDA learned a distributor was recalling 1.3 million of the syringes, the agency should have launched a thorough inspection, according to its operations manual. That didn't happen, an FDA spokeswoman now says, because the agency is so understaffed it no longer follows the policy unless the recalled product posed a reasonable probability of serious injuries or deaths."