Barbara Feder Ostrov

<p>Well, here we go! In a historic 219-212 vote late Sunday night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $914 billion health reform package extending health coverage to as many as 32 million Americans</p><p>The Washington Post's Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/21/AR20100… up</a> the legislation's enormous significance in the ultimate <a href="http://mediacareers.about.com/od/glossary/g/NutGraf.htm">nut graf</a>:</p>

<p>You have it all planned out ahead of what may be this weekend's <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/health/policy/20whip.html?ref=politic… vote on health reform</a>, right?</p><p>You carefully lined up your uninsured folks, community health advocates, Congressional delegates, doctors, local tea party members and hospital executives: all are on speed dial and waiting for your call over the weekend. Right?</p><p>Well, kudos to those of you who had time to prepare. If you didn't, here are some last-minute resources and ideas that may help you out this weekend:</p>

<p>Sorry, <a href="../../../../../../../../users/jranck">Jody Ranck</a>. I’m giving up on <a href="http://www.netvibes.com/">NetVibes</a&gt; for right now and will stick to my Google and Yahoo readers.</p>

<p>As the <a href="http://www.2010.census.gov/">2010 Census</a> gets underway, journalists need a more sophisticated understanding of people over 65 to report on them accurately, says <a href="../../../../../../../../users/stevenpwallace">Steven Wallace</a>, a University of California-Los Angeles public health researcher.</p><p>"There is no 'The Elderly,'" he told California Endowment Health Journalism Fellows at a Los Angeles seminar on Sunday. "The elderly are a complex mixture of individuals. It's important to realize there are different groups and profile the diversity within them."</p>

<p>Shorter is better. Seven seconds on the Internet is an eternity. Human voices can add an emotional component to a story in a way that text never does.</p> <p>From top-10 lists to video clips to narrated slideshows, journalists are adding multimedia components to their print and broadcast stories to add depth to their storytelling, get more “bank for the buck” out in the field and create new audiences and distribution channels for their content.</p>

<p><img src="/files/u47/LAC_USC_Emergency_Room.jpg" width="389" height="346" /></p><p>At 7 p.m. on a Friday night, the waiting room of LAC<a href="http://www.lacusc.org/aboutus/eng/emergency.aspx">+USC Medical Center's emergency department</a> is crowded and will get worse as the hours tick by. This public safety net hospital sees, on average, 450 emergency patients each day, some for ear infections, others with gunshot wounds.</p>

<p><img src="/files/u47/Watts.jpg" alt="Watts" width="450" height="301" /></p><p>In "LaVonna's World," people in South Los Angeles are able to buy healthy, fresh food at reasonable prices in grocery stores near their homes. They're able to see a specialist when they need to and get the health insurance they need. They don't suffer disproportionately from diseases like diabetes and asthma.</p>

<p>Whatever happened to retail health clinics? A few years back, we were hearing optimistic forecasts of a clinic in every Wal-Mart, offering reasonable prices for routine health care and hours convenient for working families.</p> <p>While the number of such clinics has grown dramatically, from 200 to more than 1,000 between 2006 and 2008, their expansion seems to be leveling off, according to a <a href="http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/03/01/bisa0301.htm">recent American Medical News story</a>:</p>

<p>The new <a href="http://www.healthycity.org/">Healthy City Web site</a>, launched this week, is designed for community activists, but it’s an intriguing data source for California reporters nonetheless, particularly if you’re interested in covering the connections between your health and where you live. Social services beat reporters (are there any of those left?) will find it useful, too.</p>