Copyright ©2001 Massachusetts News, Inc. Photocopying and data processing storage of all or any part of this issue may not be made without prior written consent. 

Deaths In Hospitals Ignored by Massachusetts Media

More Concerned with ‘Hospital Health’ than ‘Patient Health’

By John Breneman
February 2001

In the medical mecca of America, the media is biased in favor of hospitals, even during what appears to be the worst crisis concerning medical mistakes in Boston’s history.

Both the Globe and Herald are willing public relations agents for the hospitals, which means suppressing bad news and writing the worst news in the best light. Indeed, for years it has seemed as if Boston health care reporters were working for the hospitals.

As an example, figures from national studies suggest a serious problem about mistakes nationwide. This translates in the Bay State to deaths ranging from 5 to 50 people a week. In other words, medical errors appear to have become a worse public health crisis than AIDS.

But when notified by readers, the reporters and editors still refuse to write a story. They fail to cover the issue even though Attorney General Thomas Reilly, who oversees hospitals, is conspicuous in his silence on the issue. They also fail to note that the Department of Public Health refuses accountability when confronted with the dramatic difference between the errors that our hospitals report, which range from 500 to 600 a year, when national estimates suggest these figures should be 40 times higher.

How Do We Explain It?
How to explain this gaping hole in Boston journalism? The most obvious answer is Boston’s reputation as the health care leader of the country. If they report the news of medical errors in Bay State hospitals, this would damage Boston’s reputation as king of the medical hill.

 Boston is one of the few two-newspaper cities left in the country, but there seems to be little competition for real news on health care quality. The papers’ own research has shown that health news is the top concern of readers. But in the midst of the worst error crisis in Boston’s hospital history, both papers have barely dealt with the subject, except in doctored stories which sermonize about hospitals doing the best they can in the bad situation caused by a stingy federal government. To Boston newspapers, the big story in health care is hospital finance, not public health.

Another explanation why Boston papers are reluctant to do hard stories about Boston hospitals is that the Boston media is deeply tied, through a web of relationships, to the health care institutions. In addition, like many Bostonians, the media believes in the Boston health care establishment with a faith that is akin to religious. For the media, these institutions are as close to divinity and salvation as they get. These account for the bias with which the media covers health care in Boston.

Regardless, the health care wars are leaving in their wake a significant death toll that is being hushed up. Behind carefully guarded hospital facades, the mistakes in hospitals nationwide claim each year as many American victims as the entire Vietnam War, according to one respected study. Something is dreadfully wrong and the Boston media alternates between ignoring it and downplaying it.

One DPH official praised a Globe reporter for his coverage of health care in Boston. It was the same reporter who has portrayed the medical mistake crisis in the way DPH prefers — just a minor problem that public officials are working hard to eradicate. The more likely scenario seems to be that it is a big problem that has been hidden for years, but it can’t be hidden any more because it has grown too big to conceal. Medical malpractice lawyers who regularly advertise in newspapers are one measure of how big the problem has become.

Donald Kelley, Boston, is one of a number of people who claim that both the Herald and the Globe are refusing to print letters critical of Massachusetts health care leadership. “I love it when they lose my letter and then print 30 letters on how the Republicans stole the election,” Kelley said.

Another letter writer, a medical researcher who requested anonymity, said Boston reporters on health care are reminiscent of the novelist that Truman Capote mocked: “This isn’t writing, it’s typing.” When it comes to health care reporting, the Boston media are more stenographers for Boston health care mavens than reporters.

Worried About Hospitals, Not Patients
A survey of articles about health care last year shows the majority of stories are about health care financing. Most of the stories that were deemed newsworthy revolved around hospitals bleeding red ink, health insurance, a national health care plan, HMO performance and the ultimate villain, a scrooge-like federal government that refuses to adequately fund hospitals. In other words, the media seemed to think health care financing was more important than the quality of the world’s most expensive health care system. As one hospital industry observer noted: “If only they were as concerned about medical error deaths as they were about gunshot deaths.”

  Figures from a national study by a prominent hospital researcher, extrapolated down for the Bay State, suggest that as many as 49 people a week may die of medical mistakes in hospitals here. But because Massachusetts has no medical error death registry and the DPH refuses accountability on the problem, the exact figure of medical errors remains a mystery. As one doctor familiar with the medical error issue has pointed out, hospitals are where almost all Massachusetts deaths occur. How many of the 26,000-plus people who die in Bay State hospitals annually die of medical mistakes is not known.

One example of how the media covers medical errors is a Globe editorial on December 14 titled, “Reducing medical errors.” Unfortunately it began with the flawed assumption that Massachusetts hospitals have been “a leader in addressing the problem,” because they discovered and reported more errors in 1998 and 1999 than in previous years. Apparently the Globe is unaware of the enormous discrepancy between the national estimates, which number in the tens of thousands per year when extrapolated for this state, and the 500 to 600 mistakes per year that are reported by Bay State hospitals. The state Department of Public Health and the Boston media accept the figures from local hospitals.

Either the Globe is ignorant of the magnitude of the problem, or they are willing conspirators in the cover-up of the true number of medical mistakes. The Globe editorial says it is important to get “as many errors reported as possible.” The editorial calls for an end to “mistakes that are hushed up,” cluelessly preaching that other states should have “mandatory error reporting systems” like Massachusetts. Apparently the Globe is unaware that Massachusetts’ mandatory error-reporting system isn’t working. Far from being a “leader,” the hypocrisy and stonewalling of Massachusetts’ health care leaders seems to be the biggest part of the problem. The Globe has been a friend and ally of Boston’s health care establishment for nearly a century, usually functioning as an unofficial public relations agent.

The problem is that the Boston media has ignored the medical mistakes problem until it can’t do so anymore. Even the legislature is beginning to look at it. The question now is: what is the cause of the mistakes? Why does a medical mistake epidemic appear to be the ninth leading cause of death nationwide – in the era of miraculous medicine that is hinting at being able to give eternal life

Reporters at the Boston Globe, Boston Herald and Boston Business Journal are ignoring tips by readers. “I’ve spoken to editors and reporters at the Globe, Herald, the BBJ, among others, and they couldn’t be more bored about the situation,” said Philadelphia writer Michael Hainley, who is researching a book on health care.  “I doubt there’s anything you could say to reporters or editors that would wake them up. The bottom line is the media and the hospitals want a national health care plan. But the truth is, a national health care plan would make things worse.”

Newspapers Play Down the Bad News
On December 12, 2000, both Boston newspapers handled health care news in the same way. There were hospital fluff pieces on the front page and news of medical errors buried inside the papers.

The newspapers and the hospitals might call it coincidence, but to those familiar with the Globe and Herald’s coverage of health care, it was a telling symbol.

The Globe’s front page headline was, “Weary resident doctors fight own holiday blues.” It was about a feature story that created sympathy for hospital doctors. But inside the paper, another headline said, “Follow-ups of medical errors can be spotty, authorities say.” But the real news about the medical error epidemic – that no one is required to tell the patients or their families about any mistakes that are discovered – was buried inside the article.

Ironically, the Herald did the same thing the same day. “Hospitals brace for flu emergency,” which created sympathy for hospitals, is at the top of the front page while on page 15 there appears, “Kin blames Winchester Hospital for mother’s death.” This reports the deadly hospital callousness and incompetence that killed a mother. By the way, the flu emergency predicted by medical leaders didn’t happen.

The Globe’s front-page look at medical errors in Massachusetts on December 11 was a classic example of spin-doctoring. “Hospitals struggling to root out care errors” portrayed hospitals as battered saints fighting the odds against “human error” and machine incompetence. The Globe reporter and his editors were apparently unable to discern the basic math problem in the article. New reports from the state showed medical errors at only 590 per year. In the next paragraph, the Globe reported “medical errors are estimated to cause 1 million serious injuries nationwide each year and 100,000 deaths.” If the reporter did the math, he would have discovered that the state figures were way off. Tom Miller, a former wire service reporter, says he called a Globe editor and pointed out the math problem. The Globe ignored it.

But ignoring problems isn’t confined to the Boston media. The DPH, which monitors medical errors, isn’t obligated by law to notify either the patients who had been injured or the families of victims killed by medical mistakes that they were a victim of a medical mistake.