Philadelphia Inquirer Series

Michael Vitez 

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Vitez is a staff writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer. In this series, he reports from inside Abington Memorial Hospital. 

Here is what Michael says about his current project:

"My goal is to spend a year at Abington, writing stories that show how one hospital deals with the biggest issues in health care today and also the changes that are coming fast and furious – regardless of what Congress and the President do – to hospitals and health care.

"This first story looks at how the palliative care movement is medicine's response to the dismal way people have died. I try to show, up close, how the team works, the agony that families feel, the immense costs involved."

Michael's second story focuses on Abington's handwashing campaign and its efforts to bring down infection rates. According to Michael, "Future stories will look at how a hospital handles patients who have nowhere to go, the madness of one Medicare rule, the impact of the uninsured, and more. I hope in the end readers will get a bedside view of how things work, how things are changing, and I hope a great appreciation for our common humanity."

Michael's articles are listed on the left.