that had worked well while putting together our original series.
We knew the state of Indiana collected the same nursing home census information as the federal government, so we hoped it would be a simple matter of obtaining that database. It wasn't. State officials denied the existence of any such electronic records, claiming only hard copy forms tucked into thousands of files warehoused in their offices.
Even though we were running into roadblocks set up by officialdom, we had other successes that inspired us to keep going. Using Paradox and SPSS software to analyze several different databases we had already obtained, we determined other patterns in the data that let us know we were on the right track. For example, we documented the impact poverty has on quality of care by examining state inspection records, U.S. census data and Medicaid reimbursement rates from the government. Analysis showed that most poorly performing facilities were in low-