Slap: Victory in University of Kentucky Hospital Records Case
Sometimes the good work you do as a journalist has an impact after you’re no longer around to enjoy the praise.
Consider what is happening at the University of Kentucky.
About nine months ago, Brenna Angel at WUKY in Lexington broke a story about the university suspending all pediatric surgeries and mysteriously sidelining the chief of pediatric cardiology, Dr. Mark Plunkett. Angel asked for public records about the mortality rates in the pediatric cardiac surgery program and other details. The school sued to block her from getting access.
I wrote a few posts about the case (links at the end), as did other outlets.
Then CNN joined the scrum.
On Aug. 4, Elizabeth Cohen wrote and broadcast a piece about the deaths in the cardiothoracic surgery unit. She interviewed Tabitha Rainey, one of the patients Angel had featured in her initial story. Cohen did something rare, too. She gave Angel a lot of credit. Here’s what she wrote:
In December, a local reporter asked for more details. Brenna Angel, who worked for the university-owned radio station, asked the university for the mortality rate for all pediatric cardiothoracic surgeries performed over the past three years. She also asked for the number of surgeries performed by Plunkett, the date of his last surgery, and payments received for his surgeries.
The university answered some of her questions: Plunkett operated on 110 children in 2010, 81 children in 2011 and 62 in 2012, often performing multiple surgeries on one child. In 2010, UK HealthCare received $288,522 in payments for his surgeries; in 2011, it was $255,380.
But the university refused to release the date of Plunkett's last surgery or the mortality rate, citing the federal patient privacy law known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The university's lawyer said even though Angel was only asking for numbers, those numbers could eventually be linked to patients' names.
"Because Dr. Plunkett performs relatively few surgeries and because all of his surgeries are highly complex surgeries, it is relatively easy to deduce the identity of his patients," wrote William Thro, the university's general counsel.
Angel filed an appeal with Attorney General Jack Conway, citing the state's Open Records Act, which requires that public agencies, such as public universities, open most of their records to the public.
The attorney general asked the university to let him look at the data privately. The university said no, again citing patient privacy laws. The attorney general disagreed with the university and found it in violation of the open records law.
In April, the university appealed the attorney general's decision to state circuit court.
Reporters at local newspapers throughout the country should send Cohen a box of chocolates. Or at least send her some love on Twitter.
How many of you have worked for weeks, months or even years reporting on a subject only to have a big outlet like CNN come along, dial up all the same sources, use many of the same findings, and then act as if the story was 100% original? If I started another blog dedicated just to this phenomenon, I could post every day of the week.
But here’s the significant upside of having Big Media take over your story. After the CNN piece, Tabitha Rainey started an online petition demanding that the University of Kentucky release its mortality rates. Out of a goal of 1,000 signatures, it collected 623 in short order.
On Monday, the hospital backed down and released the mortality data. Plunkett resigned from the University of Kentucky effective on Wednesday. He had been intending to work for the University of Florida, but the CNN story has prompted the school to review his application for employment.
The released mortality rates show that the university’s are higher than the national average and going higher. Look at the year-by-year breakdown provided by the Lexington Herald-Leader:
2008 – 4.5%
2009 – 6.2%
2010 – 5.2%
2011 – 5.7%
2012 – 7.1%
The National Quality Forum reports that mortality rates are generally trending downward – not up:
Due to advances in diagnosis and surgical treatment of these children, the mortality rate related to surgery has decreased dramatically from 30 percent in the 1960s and 1970s to around 4 percent today.
The University of Kentucky doesn’t do as many heart surgeries as big hospitals in larger metro areas, which is why it is telling its patients that it has a mortality rate comparable to similarly-sized hospitals. Tabitha Rainey doesn’t buy it. She told CNN:
"These smaller institutions want to go open these programs, but they don't have all the correct measures to take care of these kids, and then they don't want to explain, and they end up losing their kids rather than sending them to a bigger facility that's more rehearsed in this."
Have your own thoughts on the data or the public records fight? Write me at askantidote@gmail.com or via Twitter @wheisel.
Other posts on this story:
Slap: University of Kentucky Sues Its Own Public Radio Reporter
Slap: University of Kentucky Has Threatened A Reporter Before
Slap: University Says It Sued Reporter to Protect Patients
Slap: Kentucky Court Case Could Slam Door on Patient Safety Information
Slap: University Fighting Access to Patient Safety Records on All Fronts
Image from Jenni C. via Flickr