With the cooperation of the University of Virginia Medical Center, USA Today reporters and photographers spent 24 hours in the emergency room. They interviewed doctors and nurses, patients and their families, the insured and the uninsured. The package of stories illustrates the complexity of the health care system, the pressure from chronic diseases, the shortfall in preventive care, the high costs and the competing demands – all told through the perspective of emergency medicine.
Read "24 Hours in the ER"
See the contest questionnaire about how this story was written.