Month: July 2011

Reversing its position, the state Department of Health Services has cleared the way for the City of Milwaukee and others to apply for federal grants totaling roughly $30 million over five years for public health initiatives to stop smoking, reduce obesity and promote healthier lifestyles. The department's support is required to apply for the grants. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/14)

Since being hired as president of the non-existent business in late 2008, Kerry Swanson always believed St. Mary's Janesville Hospital looked good on paper. But with less than six months before it officially opens, the $90 million hospital looks even better, Swanson said Tuesday while leading a media tour of the facility at the intersection of Interstate 90/39 and Racine Street on Janesville's southeast side. (JANESVILLE GAZETTE, 7/14)

A blowup between Milwaukee County supervisors Tuesday signaled an ongoing divide over how to reform the troubled Mental Health Complex and how quickly that can be done. A meeting of the County Board's New Behavioral Health Facility Study Committee was abruptly called off after a shouting match between Supervisors Joe Sanfelippo and Lynne De Bruin from just outside the courthouse room where the panel was to meet. The committee clerk announced the meeting had been canceled, without further explanation. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/13)

The La Crosse County Health and Human Services departments could see a $945,000 decrease in their budgets for next year. “We face significant challenges, but they’re not overwhelming challenges” said Jason Witt, director of the Human Services Department. “We’re going into next year carrying significant risk.” (LA CROSSE TRIBUNE, 7/13)

Ryan spoke about his concerns over the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), Medicare and health care for seniors during a recent visit to the Wisconsin State Journal. Here are some excerpts from that conversation with Ryan. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 7/13)

Abortion foes have filed a formal request with the state attorney general, asking that he take immediate steps to enforce a provision tacked onto Gov. Scott Walker’s recently passed budget that takes specific aim at the University of Wisconsin’s ability to train medical residents to perform abortions. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 7/12)

Shortly after birth, Aiden Moody was breathing fast and appeared pale, his mother said. After he left the hospital, the symptoms got worse. He was rushed into open heart surgery weeks later after doctors found a serious heart defect. Now 4, Aiden is developmentally delayed and fed through a tube. His defect could have been discovered right away if the hospital had done a simple test that can catch heart defects sometimes missed during physical exams. The test, called pulse oximetry, would be required for newborns under a proposal in Wisconsin. New Jersey became the first state to require the screening last month. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 7/12)

For nearly four years, a bacterial infection that left a Seattle-area newborn with severe brain damage while his twin brother developed normally has remained a medical mystery, traumatizing his family and stumping local and national disease experts…Now, however, an amended lawsuit charges that the bacteria that left Myles permanently impaired came from a source recently blamed for other infections and death: contaminated alcohol prep pads made by the Triad Group of Hartland, Wis. (MSNBC.COM, 7/12)

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett called Wednesday on Gov. Scott Walker to overrule his health secretary and back the city's application for nearly $4.8 million in federal health care funds. The city's Health Department is seeking $959,521 a year, for five years, for prevention and education programs on quitting smoking, reducing secondhand smoke, encouraging physical activity and nutrition, fighting obesity and reducing deaths from heart attack and stroke throughout Milwaukee County. University Health Services, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is seeking another $23 million for similar programs in the state's other 71 counties. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/11)