L.A. Times ‘Deadly Delays’ Investigation Wins News Leaders Association Award
Los Angeles Times reporters Jack Dolan and Brittny Mejia have been honored with the Frank A. Blethen Award for local accountability reporting from the News Leaders Assn. for their investigation “Deadly Delays.”
The special award, presented as part of the 2021 NLA Awards for distinguished journalism, recognizes outstanding work done by a news organization that holds local authorities accountable. The Times’ Andrea Castillo was also recognized as a finalist for the Deborah Howell Award for Writing Excellence, for her reporting with photojournalist Marcus Yam on the exodus from Venezuela, and Times Columnist Gustavo Arellano was a finalist for the Burl Osborne Editorial and Opinion Award for columns that captured the disproportionate toll the pandemic has taken on Latinos in Southern California.
Dolan and Mejia’s winning investigation uncovered the delays thousands of people in the L.A. County public hospital system face when referred to specialists for medical care. The report found that patients wait on average 89 days to see specialists, and some get sicker and die while waiting. In the article, the reporters tell heartbreaking stories of family members who lost loved ones because of delays in medical care.
To report the story, Dolan and Mejia built a database of records of referrals, then tracked down some of the individuals involved to document a system that leaves poor people waiting for the care they need, even with the proper medical referrals. Even patients waiting to see doctors whose prompt care can mean the difference between life and death — neurologists, kidney specialists, surgeons — routinely fell victim to delays that stretched on for months, according to the reporters’ data, which covered 2016 through 2019.
Shortly after the article was published, California regulators launched a review of the long waits faced by patients who need treatment from the L.A. County public health system.
Watch an interview with Dolan and Mejia on “L.A. Times Today” and read more about how they reported the story. See the complete list of NLA Awards winners and finalists.
