About Charles Ornstein

Charles Ornstein is a metro investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times. In 2004, he co-authored an investigative series on Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, a troubled hospital in South Los Angeles. In awarding the newspaper the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, the Pulitzer board praised the team "for its courageous, exhaustively researched series exposing deadly medical problems and racial injustice at a major public hospital." In 2006, Ornstein chronicled lapses in the nation's organ transplant system, which triggered a congressional investigation and changes in federal regulations. The coverage also garnered several journalism awards. Prior to joining the Times in July 2001, Ornstein covered health and domestic policy in the Washington bureau of The Dallas Morning News. He previously covered health business in Dallas for the Morning News. Born in Detroit, he attended the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in history and psychology. In 1999-2000, he was a Media Fellow with the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, examining the future of the employer-sponsored health insurance system. Ornstein lives in Burbank with his wife, infant son and two beagles. He is vice president of the Association of Health Care Journalists.