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V-"Skimpy, Unprofessional Patient File Reveals Inadequate Treatment" - Frank Sutherland - Nashville Tennessean
The story of my personality as viewed by "professionals" at Central State Psychiatric Hospital is contained in a thin brown cardboard folder - number 47 441 - in the hospital's files. Because I posed as a patient named "Ernest Franklin" with suicidal tendencies during my month's stay at the hospital, this file does not paint a true picture of my personality.But more importantly, because this file is an unprofessional patchwork of sketchy, skimpy jargon, I wonder and worry about the files of other patients there. After my release from Central State, I submitted the contents of this file, compiled by unlicensed doctors and undertrained aides, to three licensed psychisitrists (sic) practicing in Nashville. Because the professionals sometimes deal either with Central State, its patients, former patients, or with doctors who work there, they insisted on anonymity.
The Nashville Tennessean Thursday, January 24, 1974
Panel Formed to Look Into Patient Care - Frank Sutherland - Nashville Tennessean
The state commissioner of mental health announced yesterday he has appointed a special committee of professionals and lay citizens to investigate the Farmer complex at Central State Psychiatric Hospital. The Farmer complex includes the building where Tennessean reporter Frank Sutherland stayed for 31 days posing as a patient.
The Nashville Tennessean 1974-01-22
III-"Aides, Many Untrained, Run Central State" - Frank Sutherland - Nashville Tennessean
Aides, who are required to have only an eighth grade education - but who are given the high-flown title "psychiatric technician" - are the people who really run Central State Psychiatric Hospital. There are nurses - both registered and practical - at the hospital, there are social workers with degrees.There are 14 doctors paid by the state - although eight of them have not passed Tennessee licensing examinations. But the aides, in large measure, control the lives and destinies of the 1,400 patients at Central State. This was obvious during the 31 days I posed as a patient at the hospital to report on conditions and treatment there. WhenI confronted Central State Supt. William H. Tragle with my true identity last week, I told him what I had found. I told him about the un-sanitary conditions, the depressing environment, and that I knew the hospital was unaccredited and many of its doctors unlicensed. I also told him about my conclusion that the aides, in effect, run the hospital. "I agree that the aides really run the hospital," Tragle said, but he added that he believes the patients control the aides. He said aides, rather than "rock the boat," sometimes give in to the patients or make decisions that are not always in the best interests of patients. But I do not necessarily agree that patients have that much influence over the aides, however, I did see different ways the aides control what happens at that hospital.
The Nashville Tennessean 1974-01-22
I-"Personal Experience: Central State Conditions Found Poor" - Frank Sutherland - Nashville Tennessean
Central State Psychiatric Hospital is a warehouse for the storage of people - an unaccredited and unclean hospital with more than half its doctors unlicensed to practice in Tennessee. I know. I just spent 31 days there. From Dec. 14 until last Sunday, I posed as a patient at Central State to observe conditions and treatment firsthand. No member of the staff was aware of the role I was playing. During my month's stay, these conditions were glaring and obvious: The hospital is unaccredited. There are a number of reasons, including substandard facilities, lack of equipment and supplies, failure to meet fire and health standards and unlicensed physicians in key clinical and administrative positions Eight of the 14 full-time physicians at Central State do not have licenses to practice in Tennessee. Most of them are foreign born doctors who are unable to pass the state examinations. Unsanitary conditions prevailed not only in my building but in other buildings I visited on the hospital grounds. Toilets went for weeks without cleaning. We patients who were there were rarely encouraged to practice personal hygeine. Walls and halls reeked with dried urine and vomit. Patients may get no comprehensive medical examinations upon admittance. Officials there say they do not have the staff and time for such a complete examination immediately. I recieved only a chest X-ray and blood and urine tests. Patients may recieve no psychiatric examination upon admittane. A staff member told me that if I wanted to see a psychiatrist I "should go on the outside and pay $59 an hour." I never had a psychiatric examination the entire month I was at central state. On three occasions during my month's stay I met for about 10 minutes with a "staffing team," headed by an unliscenced psychiatrist, nurses, aides, social workers and sometimes an occupational or recreational therapist and a chaplin.
The Nashville Tennessean 1974-01-20
IV-Von Solbrig Task Force: "Surgery done on assembly line" - von Solbrig Physician - Chicago Tribune
"The odds are astronomical, medical experts say, that several children in the same family would need their tonsils removed at once. But for $120 an operation, Dr. Edward J Mirmelli defies the odds, The Tribune Task Force found. Reporters discovered he regularly operates on three, four, and give children from the same welfare families in von Solbrig, 6500 Pulaski Rd., helping boost his welfare income to $60,000 last year, and $124,000 in 1973, according to federal government figures. . ."
The Chicago Tribune 1975-09-08
III-Von Solbrig Task Force: "4 doctors on list dead" - Pamela Zekman - Chicago Tribune
"Altho fifty doctors are listed on the staff directory at the von Solbrig Memorial Hospital, only 18 of 47 located by The Tribune said they practice here. At least four doctors on the list are dead. One has been dead for four years. . ."
The Chicago Tribune 1975-09-07
II-Von Solbrig Task Force: "'Janitor' Helps With Patients" - William Gaines - Chicago Tribune
". . .I was a Task Force reporter, hired as a janitor at the von Solbrig Memorial Hospital, 6500 S. Polaski Rd. I had been employed to scrub and mop and throw out garbage, not to assist nurses and doctors in the sterile surgical area. . ."
The Chicago Tribune 1975-09-07
I-Von Solbrig Task Force: "Filth and neglect bared at von Solbrig Hospital" - Unsigned - Chicago Tribune
"It is a critical period for a 6-year-old girl lying in an anesthetized sleep on the operating table in von Solbrig Memorial Hospital. Only minutes ago she had undergone two operations, a tonsillectomy and surgical repair of a hernia. But the only other person in the operating room is a $2-an-hour janitor, in his unsanitary working clothes, who has just put down his mop in the corridor outside and rushed in to watch over the young patient at the request of a nurse. . ."
The Chicago Tribune 1975-09-07
"Report of Record Changing at Abortion Clinic Probed" - Pamela Zekman and Karen Koshner - Chicago Sun-Times
State authorities are investigating reports that employees at a South Side abortion clinic have been ordered to alter patient records that document dangerous medical practices, it was learned Wednesday. According to sources, employees claim they were ordered to falsify records of abortion patients dating back at least six months for whom the clinic allegedly had failed to record accurate laboratory results and appropriate medications.
Chicago Sun Times 1978-11-30
V-"The Abortion Profiteers" - Pamela Zekman and Pamela Warrick - Chicago Sun-Times
We were hired off the street as aides, medical assistants and counselors. Without checking our references or credentials, four of Chicago's abortion clinics gave us jobs we were unqualified to hold and tasks we were untrained to perform. The clinics asked us to do everything but perform abortions. They wanted us to remove IVs, administer injections, give psychological counseling and assist in surgery.
Chicago Sun Times 1978-11-16
IV-"The Abortion Profiteers" - Pamela Zekman and Pamela Warrick - Chicago Sun-Times
Dr. Ming Kow Hah, who has already lost his medical license in one state and faces revocation in Illinois, may give the fastest abortions in Chicago. According to a five-month investigation by the Sun-Times and the Better Government Assn., Hah may also give the most painful abortions in the city.
Chicago Sun Times 1978-11-15
III-"The Abortion Profiteers" - Pamela Zekman and Pamela Warrick - Chicago Sun-Times
On Michigan Av., women entrust their bodies to doctors who may be mere mechanics on the abortion assembly line. They may be moonlighting residents, general practitioners with little or no training in women's medicine, or even unlicensed physicians. While slick clinic brochures promise only board-certified obstetrician-gynecologists, few have earned that accreditation.
Chicago Sun Times 1978-11-14
"Abortion Peril Greater Before Legalization" - Pamela Zekman and Pamela Warrick - Chicago Sun Times
Although the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision had not stopped women from dying from abortions, legalization has been credited with reducing the number of abortion related deaths by 40 per cent.
Chicago Sun Times 1978-11-12
I-"The Abortion Profiteers" - Pamela Zekman and Pamela Warrick - Chicago Sun-Times
Five months ago, the Sun-Times and the Better Government Assn. began the first in-depth investigation of Chicago's thriving abortion business since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion on Jan. 22, 1973. We found: - Dozens of abortion procedures performed on women who were not pregnant and others illegally performed on women more than 12 weeks pregnant.
Chicago Sun Times 1978-11-12