I am the managing editor of Noozhawk.com, a local news website covering Santa Barbara County in California. I have been working at Noozhawk for 12 years and now guide newsroom coverage of everyday stories and special projects, including grant-funded investigations and solutions journalism. Previously, as a general assignment reporter for Noozhawk.com, I wrote extensively about education, city and county government, and health subjects like medical marijuana and substance abuse. I’ve been working on the Central Coast since 2009, when I graduated from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo’s journalism program. In 2012, reporter Lara Cooper and I took the lead on Prescription for Abuse: a special project in partnership with USC’s Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, which awarded Noozhawk publisher Bill MacFadyen with a California Fellowship. The series explored the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs in Santa Barbara County and the problem’s impacts on health care, education, law enforcement, addiction, treatment and prevention.

Articles

Lessons Learned on Local Impacts of Health Reform

Two reporters who just spent six months covering the local impacts of the Affordable Care Act in Santa Barbara County reflect on their experience and lessons learned. They tell a story of health care providers struggling to provide quality care in the midst of much uncertainty.

Charles Condelos, a retired banker, regularly goes to the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics for his primary care and to renew his prescription for back pain medication. He says Dr. Charles Fenzi, who was treating him that day at the Westside Clinic, and Dr. Susan Lawton are some of the best people he’s ever met. (Giana Magnoli / Noozhawk photo)

Patchwork of Clinics Struggles to Keep Santa Barbara County Healthy

Patients without insurance often only go to the doctor when they’re sick, and they readily choose the easiest, nearest option — the local emergency room. A big part of health care reform is to encourage patients to get preventive care with a primary-care physician.