Month: March 2012

Next month, Progressive Community Health Centers expects to find out whether it will receive a $5 million federal grant to build a clinic in the heart of one of the poorest neighborhoods in Milwaukee. The clinic, projected to cost $10 million, would be more than five times the size of Progressive's 8,000-square-foot clinic at 3522 W. Lisbon Ave. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 3/19)

Next to a simulated clinic and hospital unit in UW-Madison's new School of Nursing will be a space not found at most nursing schools: an "apartment." The mock living area will be wired for the latest in home health technology, such as shoes with computer chips that transmit data about an elderly patient's mobility and stride. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 3/19)

Physicians would have to consult with women face-to-face - instead of via web cameras - when they administer abortion-inducing drugs, under a bill legislators sent Thursday to Gov. Scott Walker on their last scheduled day. The wide-ranging measure would also require doctors to speak privately with women seeking abortions to determine whether they had been coerced. Physicians could face a felony for ignoring the new rules. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 3/16)

Back in 2008, ThedaCare’s president and chief executive officer decided the lean, data driven model he implemented at the medical group could be applied to the nation’s health delivery system. Four years later the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value has become financially sustainable and employs 14 people in 26 states and six Canadian provinces, said founder John Toussaint, who heads the organization. (APPLETON POST CRESCENT, 3/15)

The enrollment cap on a state long-term care program for the elderly and disabled would be lifted, under a bill the state Assembly approved early Wednesday in an overnight session. The Senate earlier approved the measure, but it will have to return to that house because the Assembly amended it. The Senate is expected to act on it later Wednesday or Thursday and send it to Gov. Scott Walker. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 3/14)

Schools that teach sex education would have to tell students that abstinence is the only reliable way to prevent pregnancy under a bill headed to Gov. Scott Walker. The Assembly approved the measure early Wednesday, after approving a bill putting restrictions on some insurance coverage for abortions. Lawmakers were also to consider new limits that would prevent doctors from providing abortion drugs remotely through the use of web cameras. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 3/14)