The series of articles titled, “Do
No Harm,” published by the Las Vegas Sun,
discusses the recorded incidents of preventable harm in hospitals throughout Nevada
in 2009 to 2010. The article also uses four interactive graphs to communicate
the data to the reader, such as a graph that allows users to see the type of complaints,
as well as the number of complaints recorded by each hospital.
The Las Vegas Sun used data obtained via public records requests, as
well as interviews with those who have experienced harm during a procedure at
one of Nevada’s hospitals. All the data received is placed in the attached “source
documents” link which holds 107 different documents cited throughout the piece.
The article also has a compiled database of complaints received regarding Nevada
hospitals that is available for the public to access.
The story contained many
interactive elements, including the previously described complaint graph. Also
featured is an interactive graph which displays the percentage increase or
decrease of surgical injuries of each hospital over the last ten years. Another
interactive element was a collage of faces of those who have suffered during
hospital care. The user can click on a face in the collage to see a written
description of the incident that occurred, as well as a video of the person talking
about their experience. I thought this was a smart way to bring an emotional
element to the story in an easy to understand and navigate matter. Another
interactive graph allows the user to see the different kinds of incidents and
number of occurrences in each Nevada hospital. The filters at the top of the
page allow the user to refine their search to specific hospitals or incidents.
This allows easy access to specific data, such as finding out that the UMC
hospital had eight cases of accidentally leaving surgical tools inside of
patients during 2008-2009. The last interactive graph refused to load for me so
I am unable to comment on it.
I personally felt that these
interactive elements added greatly to the piece. They allowed me to access the
information in a matter that was easy to navigate and more compelling than
simply reading the text off of a page. However, I feel these interactive
elements would have been stronger if they were worked into the articles
themselves. Having the articles and the interactive elements under separate tabs
made the article feel a bit disjointed. No one wants to be constantly swapping
tabs while trying to get immersed in an article.
If this story was to be
localized, I feel a Vancouver journalist would be able to get most of the
information needed through FOI requests to the hospitals in question and
interviews with those who have suffered while in a hospitals care. The data
from the FOI request would most likely not contain names or addresses of the
individuals due to privacy purposes.
