Barbara Feder Ostrov's Health Journalism Blog

Hospital Seismic Safety: I Need An Extension, Please!

Hospital seismic safety, redux:

I know you're all busy reporting on swine flu and health reform, but California reporters should take a a new look at hospital seismic safety. This is a never-ending, sometimes boring, but really important health policy issue in California.

Controversy over Doctor-Owned Hospitals: Alive and Well in Health Reform Debate

I've been meaning to write about a great Aug. 9 Denver Post article I read while on a trip to that city.

Reporter Karen Augé examined the controversial health policy issues surrounding doctor-owned hospitals in the wake of a death of a young woman at Colorado Orthopaedic and Surgical Hospital.

Here's how she opens the story:

California's Community Clinics: Struggling Under The Radar

How are California's community health clinics faring amid the state's most brutal health budget cuts in decades? That's one topic that's seen little coverage recently as journalists focus on national health reform.

Hungry: A Food Writer Wrestles With Her Daughter's Anorexia

Sheila Himmel, an award-winning food writer and restaurant reviewer for the San Jose Mercury News, loved to eat. Then her daughter became anorexic, forever changing Himmel's relationship with food and her identity as a journalist. In Hungry: A Mother and Daughter Fight Anorexia, Himmel and her daughter Lisa examine how their family coped with Lisa's serious eating disorder.

Swine Flu: How the Experts Are Preparing Their Families

The always provocative New Scientist magazine has a fascinating, if unscientific, story asking epidemiologists and other public health officials what they're personally doing to prepare themselves and their families for swine flu. (Hat tip to the always-useful Knight Science Journalism Tracker, which is a must-read for health and science journalists.)

Town Hall, Schmown Hall: Health Budget Cuts Still Brutal in California

Given the seemingly never-ending national news blitz about health reform town halls, it's easy to forget that California's dramatic health care budget cuts still are moving forward.

Covering Cancer Disparities: Tips for Reporters from a Leading Researcher

ReportingonHealth's TalkBack blog recently highlighted media coverage of a new study showing a striking difference in survival rates between blacks and whites with a certain type of throat cancer.

Mining the CDC's New Environmental Health Tracking Database for Stories

I recently wrote about the new National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network launched by the Centers for Disease Control. A fascinating resource for reporters, but
molasses-slow at its debut.

I'm happy to report that after playing with the network again, the online database has recovered from its torpor, which might be explained by an estimated 10,000 hits upon its launch.

Deep Impact, Part 3: More California Budget Cuts

Here's a quick roundup of recent articles localizing the potential impact of federal health reform and California's health budget cuts (see Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's additional $656 million in line-item vetoes here and the full California budget document here).

Deep Impact, Part 2: More Ideas for Covering California's Budget Mess

Here's more coverage of the California budget cuts and their impact on health care, along with some new ideas for stories.

The general media consensus is that the state's Republicans won big in forcing major cuts in health and welfare programs, while Democrats are spinning their victory in saving the CalWORKS welfare program and the popular Healthy Families children's health insurance program from being
eliminated outright.