Because Virginia operates a decentralized social services system, employees at the local level are rarely held accountable for the life-changing decisions they make for Virginia’s families.
Roanoke Times reporter Alison Graham provides some insight into the DSS Under Strain series, and shares what's in store for the second part of the series.
Two years since the creation of Ballad, the state has yet to release quality, access and financial reports with the public.
Charlee Marie Faith Ford came into the world struggling to live. After an emergency C-section at 37 weeks, her lungs failed for nine minutes before doctors revived her.
This story was reported with the support of the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism, a program of the University of Southern California Center for Health Journalism.
In 2013, Lee County was one of 80 communities across the country to have lost their hospital in the previous three years. But the people in Lee County did what few have attempted: They vowed to reopen their hospital.
This story was reported with the support of the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism, a program of the University of Southern California Center for Health Journalism.
For the past six months Luanne Rife has been spending time in Virginia’s coalfields learning about why people living along Virginia’s western border are among the least healthy in the nation.
In Appalachia, a legacy hospital system is failing to keep people well and remain solvent. Can a new modernized health system take its place?
As prison populations continue to increase and budgets get tighter, reforming the system will become ever more important.
