William Heisel
Contributing Editor
Contributing Editor
I have reported on health for most of my career. My work as an investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register exposed problems with the fertility industry, the trade in human body parts and the use of illegal drugs in sports. I helped create a first-of-its-kind report card judging hospitals on a wide array of measures for a story that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. I was one of the lead reporters on a series of stories about lead in candy, a series that also was a finalist for the Pulitzer.For the Center for Health Journalism (previously known as Reporting on Health), I have written about investigative health reporting and occasionally broke news on my column, Antidote. I also was the project editor on the Just One Breath collaborative reporting series. These days, for the University of Washington, I now work as the Executive Director for Insitutue for Health Metrics and Evaluation's Client Services, a social enterprise. You can follow me on Twitter @wheisel.
<p><img src="/files/u47/Medical_Transcription.jpg" width="230" height="225" style="float: left; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" />Medical boards all across the country let doctors get away with fakery on their resumes.</p> <p>But not South Dakota.</p>
<p>Doctors looking for a business model to help them stay profitable in tough economic times should consider the sure-fire plan cooked up by <a href="http://www.relianthospice.com/">Reliant Hospice</a> in Columbia, South Carolina.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.consumersunion.org/">Consumers Union</a> invited me to speak at its Safe Patient Summit in Austin last week. The group of patient advocates, health care providers and reporters engaged in a fascinating discussion about how health care might become a more transparent industry and a less frightening and frustrating experience for those who are the victims of medical error or negligence.
<p>When a patient is under anesthesia, they are truly at a doctor’s mercy.</p> <p>This makes the case of Dr. Russel J. Aubin, an osteopath and anesthesiologist, especially troubling.</p> <p>Antidote has written in the past about doctors who overprescribed medications, made the wrong diagnoses or started illicit affairs with their patients. At least these patients had control over their bodies and minds.</p>
<p>Sometimes justice does win.</p> <p>Antidote <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/doctors-behaving-badly-cornered-doctor-turns-nurses-help-friendly-sheriff">wrote last year</a> about how Dr. Rolando Arafiles in Kermit, Texas, had used his clout to persuade Winkler County Sheriff <a href="http://www.co.winkler.tx.us/wcso.htm">Robert Roberts</a> to go after two nurses who had accused him of stealing hospital supplies and using his medical office to run an herbal remedy business.</p>
<p><strong><em>Editor’s Note:</em></strong><em> Today, Center for Health Journalism Digital Contributing Editor and <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/antidote" target="_blank">Antidote</a></em><em> </em><em>author William Heisel will be speaking at the </em><em>Consumers Union Safe Patient Summit in Austin, Texas. Heisel will speak about "Diagnosing Doctors: Using Public Information for Accountability." He will be joined by Bob Oshel, a former senior program analyst and research director, Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration.
<p><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3428/3934149502_2a3f2456a7_m.jpg" width="150" style="float: left; margin: 5px;" />Medicine is one of the few professions where a person can commit a crime by failing to do something.</p><p>Dr. Charles F. Connors was convicted in 2001 of four counts of "Fai
<p>Let’s say you were caught doing drugs at work. Do you think your boss would give you a second chance? Would your employer even allow your boss the authority to give you a second chance?</p>
<p>With new health care report cards popping up all the time, patients need a way to decide which ones will help them make better decisions.</p> <p>Enter the <a href="http://www.informedpatientinstitute.org/index.html">Informed Patient Institute</a>.</p> <p>For the past two years, the Informed Patient Institute (IPI) has been providing a detailed analysis of online health report cards – covering nursing homes and physicians for now and other health areas in the future – to show consumers where they can find the best information.</p>
<p>Dr. Ahmad Hosseinipour in Ohio seemed to have a different excuse every time he found himself in a corner.</p>