AFRAID SOMEONE WILL DIE FROM FAULTY ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS SOFTWARE, A MAN RISKS EVERYTHING TO EXPOSE THE POTENTIALLY FATAL FLAW, AND A SUCCESSFUL RESTAURATEUR TRIES TO STOP SCHOOL CHILDREN FROM EATING ROTTING FOOD ON “WHISTLEBLOWER,” FRIDAY, AUGUST 17
“The Case Against eClinicalWorks; the Case Against Chartwells” – Millions of Americans expect their doctors to have the right information about their care at their fingertips, thanks to electronic medical records. But could faulty digital medical records cost lives?
Host Alex Ferrer investigates the case of medical charting software gone wrong and another about spoiled food being fed to Washington, D.C. school kids, in WHISTLEBLOWER, Friday, August 17 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
While working for the New York City Health Department, Brendan Delaney spotted serious flaws in the software system used for electronic medical charts of inmates at the famed prison Rikers Island. Critical health information was getting mixed up between patients, he says, leaving them open to incorrect diagnosis, medications getting mixed up and wrong tests requested. He believed the flaw was so severe someone would die.
“I know of one patient who was found unconscious in his cell because he was overmedicated,” says Delaney.
“The problem was systemic,” Delaney says.
When Delaney told his managers, they ignored his concerns, he says. He went higher up the ladder with no change.
“I just couldn’t let it go,” he says. “It was wrong, morally wrong.”
Delaney turned into a whistleblower and brought his story to an attorney, which was just the start of an emotional, heart-wrenching journey that ultimately cost him his livelihood in the medical records industry and strained his home life.
In the midst of his battle, he learned his wife, Bernadette, was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.
At the same time, Randy Stern, a Vermont innkeeper, was trying to make sense of his wife’s death. Stern’s 47-year-old wife, Annette Monachelli, had gone to her doctor complaining of crushing headaches. Two months later, she was dead from a brain aneurysm. Stern believes his wife died because she hadn’t gotten a critical brain scan in time, which was ordered by her doctor. He sued the medical practice. Could the medical records software have been why Stern’s wife never got the test?
WHISTLEBLOWER is a series that takes a thrilling look into the real-life David vs. Goliath stories of heroic people who put everything on the line in order to expose illegal and often dangerous wrongdoing when major corporations rip off U.S. taxpayers. Each edition introduces cases in which ordinary people step up to do the extraordinary by risking their careers, their families and even their lives to ensure others are not harmed or killed by unchecked, unethical corporate greed.
Jeff Mills is one of those people.
Imagine the only meal a schoolchild ate came from a school’s kitchen dishing out spoiled and rotten food. It happens, Mills found out.
Mills, a food entrepreneur was living the good life running his three-star restaurant, the Biltmore Room in New York City, and even appearing in the TV show “Sex and the City.” In 2010 Mills took a hefty paycut to take a job as director of food services for Washington, D.C.’s public schools, where he would oversee feeding some 50,000 students. His goal was to recreate the quality school lunches he had as a child for students in the nation’s capital.
He took over a system where the food was supplied by Chartwells, a multibillion dollar company that managed the menus and made all the purchase agreements for the food. He was shocked by what he saw.
“I wouldn’t want anyone eating the food that was being served in these schools,” Mills says.
Mills found the food was poorly prepared, not healthy and, in some cases, unsanitary.
“My team and I would go into cafeterias, and we would find that there would be either produce or frozen products lined outside of the refrigeration that was basically thawing outside, because the refrigerators were so packed with produce already,” Mills says. “There was some mismanagement of ordering. And it led to food basically rotting in the hallways.”
He took his concerns to Chartwells with no real change. Then the contract was up for renewal by the District, and Mills called for an audit. He maintained the school district was being overcharged millions. The school district removed Mills and his team from oversight of the auditors. Mills was told to back off. Three years after he was hired, he was fired. He then sought an attorney for wrongful termination – and as a whistleblower. His attorney also represents Delaney.
Would Mills and Delaney see their efforts pay off and corporate greed stopped?
Emmy Award winner Susan Zirinsky (48 HOURS, 48 HOURS: NCIS) serves as senior executive producer. Alex Ferrer and Ted Eccles serve as executive producers. WHISTLEBLOWER is produced by CBS News for CBS Television Studios.
Instagram: @TrueCrimeCBS
A POLICE OFFICER GOES TO WORK FOR THE BODY ARMOR COMPANY WHOSE PRODUCT SAVED HIS LIFE, ONLY TO DISCOVER THAT THEIR NEW VESTS COULD PUT OTHER LIVES AT RISK, ON “WHISTLEBLOWER,” FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, AT A SPECIAL TIME
“The Case Against Second Chance Body Armor” – What would you do if you had dedicated your career to protecting those who protect us, only to discover that the company that once saved your life may be putting others at risk? That was the dilemma faced by Aaron Westrick.
Host Alex Ferrer investigates the case against Second Chance body armor on WHISTLEBLOWER, Friday, August 17, at a special time (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
In 1982 Westrick, then a Deputy Sheriff in St. Claire County, Mich., was shot answering a robbery. He survived thanks to a bulletproof vest manufactured by Second Chance, which was one of the largest manufacturers of body armor in the United States.
Second Chance founder Richard Davis – a showman who would demonstrate the effectiveness of his company’s armor by shooting himself – approached Westrick to accept a job as director of research.
Although the decision to leave the police was difficult, Westrick saw it as a higher calling.
“I thought to myself, ‘This is the only company I’d ever want to work for,’” he says. “I thought I could protect the protectors.”
Second Chance vests were made primarily from Kevlar, a proficient but bulky material. In the late 1990s, they began using Zylon, a lightweight synthetic material that was thinner, more flexible and supposedly better than Kevlar at stopping bullets. It was also substantially more expensive, and Zylon vests eventually accounted for more than 70% of Second Chance’s sales, which almost doubled in a matter of years.
But in July 2001, Toyobo, Zylon’s Japanese manufacturer, sent Second Chance a study that indicated that Zylon’s effectiveness could be negatively affected by heat and humidity. Alarmed, Westrick convinced Second Chance to conduct its own ballistic tests on Zylon vests, and the results were disturbing.
“Results were coming back that there was an issue with Zylon degrading too quickly,” Westrick says. “Bullets were getting through at velocities that they should not be getting through.”
Westrick was concerned that officers’ lives were being put at risk, but as those results began coming in, he was suddenly reassigned to another department. He began keeping a logbook to document what was happening, keeping records of memos.
Later, he discovered that Second Chance and Toyobo had entered into a confidentiality agreement, promising each other to keep the damaging information about Zylon a secret.
“The greed factor was immense,” says Stephen Kohn, Westrick’s attorney. “The Zylon crisis would significantly harm the bottom line of the company. They were making millions from it.”
In July 2002, Westrick found some hope when Davis shared with him a memo he was preparing to present to the company board. The memo outlined the issues with Zylon and the potential for police officers to die as a result. Westrick secretly made a copy, and shortly thereafter a company executive rounded up all copies – physical and electronic – and had them destroyed.
Westrick’s worst fears came true in 2003 when 27-year-old Oceanside, Calif. officer Tony Zeppetella was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop, his Second Chance armor having failed to stop the bullets that killed him. Ten days later, an officer in Pennsylvania was shot through his Zylon vest, causing permanent nerve damage. During this same period, President George W. Bush was wearing his own Second Chance Zylon vest.
As the first lawsuits began to come in and Second Chance scrambled to save itself, Westrick officially became a whistleblower, working with the Department of Justice. He wore a wire and recorded a conversation where Davis fully admitted that the company knew Zylon was defective for years. Eventually, the company fired Westrick, who faced years of potential litigation and an uncertain financial future for his family.
“I was working 12-hour shifts, and I was very concerned for the kids coming home after school to an empty house,” says Kimberly Westrick, Aaron’s wife.
“There were a lot of tears,” says Westrick’s daughter. “I think us kids, we were just trying to understand. I don’t think we understood the severity or the intensity of the situation.”
What would happen to Westrick and his family, and would Second Chance be held accountable for burying the evidence on its vests?
WHISTLEBLOWER is a series that takes a thrilling look into the real-life David vs. Goliath stories of heroic people who put everything on the line in order to expose illegal and often dangerous wrongdoing when major corporations rip off U.S. taxpayers. Each edition introduces cases in which ordinary people step up to do the extraordinary by risking their careers, their families and even their lives to ensure others are not harmed or killed by unchecked, unethical corporate greed.
Instagram: @TrueCrimeCBS
