Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Katie Thomas spent months looking into a psychiatric hospital chain that held some people against their will for financial reasons, not medical ones.Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.Last week, a New York Times investigation revealed a pattern of unsettling practices by one of America’s largest chains of psychiatric hospitals.The chain, Acadia Healthcare, had drawn patients to its facilities and held them against their will, even when it was not medically necessary, The Times investigation found. Unless lawyers intervened, Acadia often held these patients — some for nearly a week — until their insurance ran out, maximizing payouts for the hospital.After receiving a tip last year, Katie Thomas and Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Times reporters who have collaborated on several investigations, began looking into Acadia. This year they reached out to dozens of patients and their families, as well as current and former Acadia executives. For months, they pored over court files, police reports, complaints to state authorities and health inspections to learn what was taking place.When asked for comment, an Acadia spokesman said the patient examples cited by The Times were not representative of many patients with positive experiences, adding that “quality care and medical necessity drives every patient-related decision at Acadia.”In an interview, the journalists discussed how they approach reporting as a team, the challenges of a monthslong investigation and what the article means for the health care system in general. These are edited excerpts.How did you find out about this situation, and what made you decide to pursue an investigation?KATIE THOMAS While we were reporting last year on unnecessary medical procedures, someone told us: You should take a look at this company, Acadia Healthcare. They have had a lot of issues with quality.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

BBCCovid patients have been admitted to hospital more than a million times in the UK since the virus first emerged in 2020, while countless others have had care for other conditions disrupted as the NHS struggled to cope.

An anti-corruption charity says it has identified significant concerns in contracts worth over £15.3bn awarded by the Conservative government during the Covid pandemic, equivalent to one in every £3 spent.

EPAGreat Ormond Street Hospital says it is carrying out an urgent review of the cases of more than 700 patients after concerns were raised about one of its former surgeons.

Getty ImagesThe government’s plan to tackle the hospital backlog in England will fail without a fundamental reform in how services work, health leaders say.

Officials said 65 people in nine states have been infected in the outbreak, which has been traced to an egg farm. No deaths have been reported.A salmonella outbreak that has sickened dozens of people in nine states prompted a recall of certain brands of eggs on Friday after officials said they traced the source of the infections to a farm in Wisconsin.State health officials said that 42 of the 65 people infected were in Wisconsin. Many people reported eating eggs at restaurants in the state before they got sick.Officials were able to trace the source of the eggs to Milo’s Poultry Farms of Bonduel, Wis., where they identified the outbreak strain in a packing facility and a hens egg-laying house, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.All carton sizes and egg types produced at the farm, which either bear the label “Milo’s Poultry Farms” or “Tony’s Fresh Market,” were recalled by the farm, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.The eggs were distributed to retail stores and food service suppliers in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, the F.D.A. said. The recall includes all expiration dates. The exact number of eggs recalled was not immediately available.No deaths have been reported in the outbreak, but 24 people were hospitalized. The first case was reported in late May, but most infections were reported in July and August, according to the C.D.C.The reported number of people infected is likely an undercount because it usually takes weeks to determine if an infection is part of an outbreak and because some people may recover without testing for the bacteria, the C.D.C. said.Aside from Wisconsin, infections were reported in California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Utah and Virginia. Illinois reported the second-highest number of infections with 11, followed by Minnesota, which reported three.The symptoms of the bacterial infection include diarrhea, fever and abdominal pain and usually begin within three days of ingesting the contaminated food, the F.D.A. said.Symptoms usually clear up within a week, but people with weakened immune systems, including young children and older adults, are more susceptible to severe, and sometimes fatal, infections, the F.D.A. said.The egg recall came after a deadly summer outbreak of listeria that prompted the recall of seven million pounds of Boar’s Head deli meat products.That outbreak has resulted in nine deaths and dozens of hospitalizations and the temporary shutdown of a Boar’s Head plant in Virginia, where inspectors had found black mold, water dripping over meat and dead flies.

The NHS in England has been “broken” by successive Conservative-led governments – and the state it is now in is “unforgiveable”, Sir Keir Starmer has told the BBC.

Four people tested positive for the virus, which causes a highly contagious gastrointestinal illness, officials said. The trail was recommended to remain closed until at least Sept. 19.A popular hiking trail on the island of Kauai in Hawaii was closed this week after more than three dozen people fell ill in what officials said was a “rare occurrence” of the highly contagious norovirus.The Kalalau Trail, a 22-mile round-trip stretch within the Napali Coast State Wilderness Park, was recommended to remain closed until at least Sept. 19 while Department of Health officials assessed the ongoing risk of transmission and as stations along the trail were cleaned and disinfected.The Health Department received reports of illness from at least 37 hikers and campers over the last several weeks, though the actual number is expected to be higher, officials said.“This is a very concerning and rare occurrence, magnified by the extreme remote nature of the Kalalau Valley,” Curt Cottrell, an administrator for state parks, said in a statement.The trail was closed on Wednesday after health officials received numerous reports of gastrointestinal illnesses from hikers, and on Thursday the Health Department said that test results from four patients confirmed that they had contracted norovirus.The state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources said in a statement that dozens of backpackers along the trail had reported gastrointestinal illness, and that one person had been evacuated but no one had been hospitalized.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

In 2016, the global health authorities removed a type of poliovirus from the oral vaccine. The virus caused a growing number of outbreaks and has now arrived in Gaza.The poliovirus that paralyzed a child in Gaza, the first case in the region in 25 years, has traveled a long path.It most likely arose in Nigeria and made its way to Chad, where it was first detected in 2019, according to genetic analysis. It emerged in Sudan in 2020 and then found a foothold in Egypt, in unvaccinated pockets of Luxor and North Sinai — next door to Gaza.This journey was the consequence of a fateful decision by global health organizations to pare down the oral polio vaccine in 2016. The move, now called “the switch,” was intended to help eradicate the disease.Instead, the change has led to outbreaks of polio in dozens of countries and has paralyzed more than 3,300 children. A formal evaluation, commissioned by the global polio eradication program and led by two independent experts, was unflinching in its assessment: “The switch was an unqualified failure.”One consequence now is the furious scramble to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children in a decimated conflict zone, just the sort of environment in which polio thrives. It’s not yet clear whether the virus can be contained in Gaza.Health workers carry polio vaccines during a campaign in central Gaza. So far, the workers have succeeded in immunizing many more children than expected. Eyad Baba/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

William Cope Moyers told the world he had it all figured out after beating his addiction to crack cocaine. But then a dentist gave him an opioid pain killer.In “Broken,” a memoir published in 2006, William Cope Moyers wrote of his near fatal addiction to crack cocaine and his hard-fought recovery. The book proved to be a humble celebration about the potential for rehabilitation, and Mr. Moyers became a national champion for treatment and recovery.But then his addiction returned.In 2012, while widely sharing his story as a source of inspiration, Mr. Moyers was prescribed an opioid painkiller by a dentist after an oral surgery. Quickly, he began craving the pills and soon couldn’t stop taking them.Now in his latest book, “Broken Open: What Painkillers Taught Me About Life and Recovery,” he describes how he could not shake his new addiction, even as he attended 12-step meetings, prayed and used other recovery tactics that had served him so well for decades.In a recent conversation, Mr. Moyers discussed his struggles with addiction and what he has learned from them. He is the vice president of public affairs at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, a nonprofit addiction treatment provider based in Minnesota.The setup for your new book is that you appeared to have things figured out. What’s that story in a nutshell?In the ’80s and early ’90s, I’m hooked on substances — crack cocaine and alcohol. My life spirals downward. I hit my bottom, I climb up. What a story of redemption. I’m a national recovery advocate. I’ve got a wife and three children. I have a nice house in Saint Paul. I’m feeling comfortable in my own skin. And I’m a model of success that others aspire to embrace. What’s wrong with that?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.