Month: June 2011

An unexpected computer shutdown Wednesday at Aspirus Wausau Hospital forced officials to divert ambulances to other hospitals and reschedule procedures. Kathy Drengler, vice president of clinical services for Aspirus, said the hospital and some Aspirus clinics lost phone service and access to computer networks for more than five hours, but the cause remains unclear. (WAUSAU DAILY HERALD, 6/23)

CRL Senior Living Communities, which operates 14 independent and assisted living residences in Wisconsin, announced that Ari Weinberger, its president and chief executive, and Douglas Cameron, its new chairman, have acquired a majority stake in the company. The company, based in Neenah and Chicago, has residences in Neenah, Oshkosh, Sheboygan, Menomonee Falls, Waukesha, Kenosha, Greenfield, Green Bay and other Wisconsin cities as well as two residences in McHenry, Ill. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 6/22)

A U.S. Senate committee has launched an investigation into reports that doctors with financial ties to the medical device company Medtronic were aware of serious complications with a lucrative spine surgery product yet failed to reveal those problems in medical journal articles. Citing reports in the Journal Sentinel, two leaders of the Senate Finance Committee sent a letter to Medtronic on Tuesday demanding an extensive trail of documents, including financial records and communications between the company and doctors who have received millions in royalties and other payments. Medtronic was warned not to destroy any of the documents, data or other information in the letter signed by committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and senior member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 6/22)

A Dane County judge ruled Monday that the state's Domestic Partner Registry does not violate the state Constitution. In 53-page decision, Circuit Court Judge Daniel Moeser said the registry, which went into effect Aug. 1, 2009, does not violate the Marriage Amendment to the state's Constitution passed in 2006. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 6/21)

Fond du Lac-based J.F. Ahern Co. was recently recognized as one of the “Healthiest Companies in America” by Illinois-based Interactive Health Solutions (IHS), a health management program provider. Ahern was selected as one of 44 recipients of the award from IHS’ more than 1,500 national subscribers and is among just three Wisconsin companies to be honored. (FOND DU LAC REPORTER, 6/21)

Wisconsin has consistently ranked first or second in health care quality since a federal agency began tracking states' performance. This year, the state wasn't in the top five. The quality of care in Wisconsin hasn't suddenly gotten worse - the state ranked seventh in the country. Its overall score was only slightly lower than states among the top five. But the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, or AHRQ, which compiles the annual snapshots, has added and refined the measures used to gauge performance each year. And Wisconsin's drop in the rankings raises the question whether other states are improving at a faster rate. (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 6/20)

The new state budget bill grants broader power to Gov. Scott Walker's administration to remake BadgerCare Plus and other state health programs with little legislative oversight, a situation that worries advocates for the roughly 1 million people covered by those programs. The major question: how the governor's Department of Health Services will use that authority as it cuts a projected $466 million in costs from the programs over the next two years. (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 6/20)

Middleton’s Eric Foxman has always been a health-conscious kind of guy. He’s a personal trainer, after all, and has always tried to maintain healthy habits and make good choices — “mostly,” anyway, he said. But the Healthiest Man in America? “Wow! Who knew?” he said. That’s exactly the title Foxman, 38, earned recently from Men’s Health magazine, which used various statistical and demographic information for its search. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 6/20)