Month: August 2011

In the latest chapter in a long-running clash with a local citizens group, Richfield village officials have issued a news release disputing a rumor that an Aurora medical center is coming to the village and along with it sewer and water service to be imposed on residents. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 8/31)

A Wisconsin firm shut down after making and distributing contaminated alcohol wipes and other medical products blamed for infections and deaths has hired a new chief operating officer as officials work to reopen the company. H&P Industries of Hartland, Wis., has hired Eamonn Vize, a former Abbott Laboratories Inc. executive with 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, officials said in a press release Tuesday. (MSNBC, 8/31)

Thousands of state employees and their family members across a large swath of west-central Wisconsin will have to find a new health insurance provider next year. Beginning in January, Group Health Cooperative of Eau Claire no longer will provide health insurance to state employees in several west-central Wisconsin counties — including Eau Claire — said Pete Farrow, the cooperative's CEO and general manager. State workers and their families in those counties who get insurance through Group Health Cooperative of Eau Claire — about 10,000 people, Farrow said — will have to find a new provider. (EAU CLAIRE LEADER TELEGRAM, 8/31)

A Madison-based clinic is trying to track down hundreds of patients after a nurse apparently spent years improperly using diabetic injection devices on them, potentially exposing them to blood-borne diseases such as HIV. Dean Clinic officials on Monday began trying to contact by phone and letter 2,345 patients who saw the nurse between 2006 and when she left her job two weeks ago. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 8/30)

Food and Drug Administration officials are warning health workers and consumers about infection dangers from several new types of medical swabs and solutions recalled by a Wisconsin firm shuttered because of contamination problems. Povidone iodine swab sticks, prep solutions, scrubs and gels manufactured by H&P Industries of Hartland, Wis., could pose a “high risk of infection” in surgery patients and others having medical procedures, particularly people with weakened immune systems, according to an FDA safety alert. (MSNBC, 8/30)

Hospital leaders in Madison earn more than the national average of roughly $630,000, and compensation last year for the top executives at Dean Health Plan and Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin topped $1 million each. Madison's hospitals, health systems and health insurance companies must pay their leaders well to remain competitive, health care consultants say. But critics say health care executives shouldn't make so much. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 8/29)

Crews have finished construction of a new $27.5 million federally financed facility, and equipment will soon be installed followed by spinal cord patients at the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Patients are expected to move in later this year or early next year. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 8/29)

People who are young, healthy and have good jobs that don't provide health benefits will pay more for health insurance under federal health care reform. People who are older, or have health problems, will pay less. So will those who work in low-paying jobs and buy insurance on their own. At the same time, the number of people without health insurance in Wisconsin would drop by 340,000 by 2016. Those are among the key projections in a report released last week by the state Office of Free Market Health Care on how health care reform will affect Wisconsin. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 8/29)

"They picked out the most negative aspects of the report to highlight," Gruber said in an interview. "Overall I think health care reform is a great thing for Wisconsin.” A key finding of the analysis -- that 340,000 uninsured people in Wisconsin will gain coverage by 2016 -- was not even mentioned in the press release issued by the state's Office of Free Market Health Care. (CAPITAL TIMES, 8/29)

Six months after some UW Health doctors wrote questionable sick notes for protesters rallying against Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to limit public sector collective bargaining, UW-Madison hasn't finished disciplining the doctors. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 8/29)