Patient Safety and Ethics

The solution lies not in building more psychiatric facilities, but in providing effective treatment and supports in the least restrictive setting, says Dr. Fred Osher.

For many with pre-existing conditions, the prospect of an ACA repeal evokes fear of a return to high-risk pools. This is one in a series of four perspectives on the impact of Obamacare.

When an anonymous source informed The Detroit News that the Detroit Medical Center was improperly sterilizing surgical equipment, health care reporter Karen Bouffard started digging.

At California’s state psychiatric hospitals, ongoing assaults on staff by patients can make it nearly impossible to provide a therapeutic environment.

Everyone says health care needs more transparency when it comes to outcomes, but how might that work? And what's holding back efforts to improve care by shining more light on health care outcomes?

Doctors see patients with cases of food poisoning all the time. But patients too rarely bother to report the incidents to their local health department. If they did, we'd all be happier diners.

Are California hospitals doing a better job of preventing serious mistakes in the wake of a state program that issues high-profile penalties for such errors? One reporter finds reasons for doubt in the data.

In 2012, a surgical team mistakenly removed Paul Kibbett’s healthy left kidney rather than the cancerous tumor on the right side. Since then, the hospital has worked to build a culture where reporting mistakes is celebrated.

Journalists can and should hold local hospitals accountable for matching a stated commitment to transparency with concrete actions. It's a difficult job, but here are some ways reporters can get started.

This report was produced as a project for the 2015 California Data Fellowship, a program of the Center for Health Journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
Other stories in the series include:
Sharpening the focus on medical errors
Do penalties reduce medical errors?