Month: June 2011

A Milwaukee nursing-home resident died after staff left him outside for several hours on a sweltering day, but the exact cause of death won't be available for several weeks, the Milwaukee County medical examiner's office said Wednesday. (AP, 6/9)

An attempt by Gov. Scott Walker to privatize the state’s food and medical assistance programs has been largely scuttled, causing Dane County officials to hail the recent move by the Legislature’s finance committee as a victory for the state’s neediest residents. “The gutting of Walker’s proposal to use private rather than public workers to run public assistance programs, including FoodShare and Medicaid, comes after weeks of back-and-forth negotiating among numerous county officials, the Wisconsin Counties Association, the Wisconsin County Human Service Administration, and key Republican members of the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee. (CAPITAL TIMES, 6/9)

Northwestern Mutual is likely Milwaukee’s largest “Quiet Company,” but Direct Supply Inc. has quietly grown into a multimillion-dollar business on Milwaukee’s northwest side and plans to expand next year. Direct Supply founder and CEO Bob Hillis, in a rare public discussion of his business, gave a thumbnail history of the company and its successes Tuesday at a luncheon during the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs’ Conference at The Pfister hotel in downtown Milwaukee. (MILWAUKEE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 6/8)

A Marshfield man accused last week of attempting to kill health care providers at a Madison abortion clinic had two court proceedings Tuesday but made no progress in either. Ralph Lang, 63, appeared without an attorney for a preliminary hearing before Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan on a single count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Flanagan said Lang had too many assets to qualify for a free public defender and could either represent himself or hire an attorney. (WISCONSIN RAPIDS TRIBUNE, 6/8)

Two competing local companies, both working to produce a scarce radioactive isotope used in heart stress tests and cancer scans, have each brought in money from investors. SHINE Medical Technologies, Middleton, said Tuesday it is getting $11 million from investors led by Knox, a Las Vegas venture capital fund set up by UW-Madison alumnus Frederick Mancheski. NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, Madison, received $6 million from Hendricks Holdings, Beloit, in April (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 6/8)

Last fall, 12 News revealed that cuts to Columbia Hospital's Infection Control Program may have resulted in dirty surgical instruments and an increase in staph infections. Thursday, a surgeon-turned-whistleblower spoke out for the first time. The allegations date back to 2008, when Dr. James Stoll alleged that budget cuts were resulting in an increase of bacterial infections in the old Columbia Hospital. (WISN.com, 6/8)

A pediatric walk-in clinic that made it easy for parents to get children in to see a specialist without an appointment and during evening hours has closed. Dr. Melissa Hessel, chairwoman of Marshfield Clinic's eastern division pediatrics department, said staffing issues have forced clinic officials to shutter the short-lived but popular clinic in Weston. It's final day was May 27. (WAUSAU DAILY HERALD, 6/7)

"Quickly" and "as soon as possible" were the watchwords that Columbia County Board Chairman Robert Westby repeated as he proposed, to the County Board's executive committee, the appointment of a five-member ad hoc group to explore options for county employees' health care coverage. (PORTAGE DAILY REGISTER, 6/7)