For more than a decade Madison has basked in rankings that tout its lifestyle. It might seem inconceivable that the city could be worst for anything.
But — and this won’t be news to those who pop a daily Claritin-D — the amount of pollen in Madison’s air each spring and fall makes it among the nation’s least hospitable places for seasonal allergy sufferers.
Quoted: Mark Moss, associate professor of allergy and immunology in the School of Medicine and Public Health
….When a complication results from a physician’s negligence or not being knowledgeable, it is important to acknowledge this to the patient or family in the form of an apology even though most malpractice insurance companies and their lawyers actually discourage admission of guilt. Under these circumstances I believe an out of court settlement is more likely to occur when financial compensation for lost time, pain and further medical costs are required.
(Pellegrino is an emeritus UW clinical associate professor of orthopedic surgery)
As Congress debates the reform of the American health care system, nurses and the nursing profession must be at the table. Regardless of the health care model that we eventually decide on, nurses can and should be key players in reducing health care costs and increasing efficiency while maintaining the quality of patient care.
The nation is facing a major shortage of primary care and family practice doctors. Health care coverage will potentially be offered to millions more Americans, but the question remains: Who will provide primary care? The answer: nurse practitioners. From private practice to nurse-managed health centers, NPs have proven their capacity to take on this role.
Days after undergoing spinal cord surgery in 2004, Tracy Price learned from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta that instruments used during the procedure may have infected her with a rare, fatal brain disorder.
Now she lives with a fear of contracting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is characterized by rapid dementia.
â??Itâ??s not like it ever goes out of my mind,â? she said. â??Itâ??s always there. You might go into the kitchen and then forget what you went in there for. Thatâ??s normal for most people, but itâ??s a freak-out occasion for me and I wonder, â??Is this it?â??â?
Q: I heard a while ago that the Madison Surgery Center was going to start providing second-trimester abortions within the next few months. Is this still going to happen and, if so, when?
A: The plan to provide second-trimester abortions at the Madison Surgery Center is still under way, said spokeswoman Lisa Brunette, but no firm date has been set for the procedures to start until organizersâ?? security concerns are addressed.
“Weâ??re trying to make the building as secure as we can,” Brunette said of the facility at 1 S. Park St.
While the University of Wisconsin Hospital said there was no negligence on its part regarding the possible transmission of a rare and fatal neurological disease to 53 people, some trial attorneys disagree.
One attorney told WISC-TV that it’s likely that some of the 53 people affected will come forward and file a lawsuit against the hospital.
The hospital notified 53 neurosurgery patients that they are at “extremely low” risk of contracting a deadly brain disorder because of possible exposure to contaminated surgical instruments. The surgical tools were used on a woman who died Tuesday of the brain disorder, a classic case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
University of Wisconsin Hospital officials denied on Friday the hospital was negligent in any way regarding the possible transmission of a rare and fatal neurological disease to 53 people.
Infectious disease and other hospital officials said the staff did everything they could and adhered to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention polices after learning a patient who underwent brain surgery was infected with the rare neurological disease called Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD.
UW Hospital says the surgical tools exposed to a woman who died from the fatal brain disease CJD are still going to be used and present virtually no safety hazard.
“We’re doing exactly what the CDC and World Health Organizations recommended for the past 30 years,” said Dr. Carl Getto, UW Hospital’s senior vice president for medical affairs.
Dr. Getto says the risk any new patient would contract CJD from the surgical instruments is less than 1 in 1,000,000.
UW Hospital doctors on Friday defended their response to a deadly brain disorder case in which a woman died and other patients may have been exposed, saying they are taking immediate and aggressive measures to sterilize potentially contaminated surgical instruments and inform the public of what happened.
Dr. Carl Getto, the hospital’s chief medical officer, said he believed that no one at his facility erred and that the hospital was not negligent. He said the hospital was not required to notify patients or the public but chose to do so in part because notification has become standard practice for hospitals in similar situations.
After seven years of living with chronic wasting disease in the Wisconsin deer herd, the initial fears about eating venison have calmed.
But the news last week of a death at UW Hospital due to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease brought to mind once again the dangers of the neurological illnesses known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, or TSEs.
The UW-Madison patient died of classic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a form of the brain disease not caused by eating meat from an ill animal. Still, for some people, the headlines about Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease may have renewed the fear of getting brain disease from chronic wasting disease infected deer.
n 1997, an episode of the popular Pok�mon cartoon gained worldwide attention when more than 800 Japanese children with photosensitive seizure conditions were admitted to the hospital after viewing the cartoon or the subsequent news coverage of it.
University of Wisconsin Hospital officials denied on Friday the hospital was negligent in any way regarding the possible transmission of a rare neurological disease to 53 people — mainly in the Midwest.
Some UW Hospital patients may have been exposed to a rare but deadly brain disorder.
UW Hospital officials have told 53 patients they have an extremely low risk of contracting a rare deadly brain disorder after being operated on with contaminated surgical instruments.
NBC15 confirms 53 patients have been told that they face an extremely low risk of contracting a rare brain disorder.
That’s because they may have been exposed to tissue from a patient who was treated at the hospital and later died.
UW Hospital has told 53 patients they face an â??extremely lowâ? risk of contracting a rare but deadly brain disorder because they may have been operated on with contaminated surgical instruments.
The instruments had been used on a woman who died Tuesday of the brain disorder, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. She had surgery at the hospital in June.
Hospital officials say they immediately stopped using the surgical instruments once tests confirmed the womanâ??s diagnosis. However, the 53 patients all had neurosurgery during a 40-day window when the instruments were still in use, said Dr. Carl Getto, the hospitalâ??s chief medical officer.
NBC15 confirms 53 patients have been told that they face an extremely low risk of contracting a rare brain disorder.
That’s because they may have been exposed to tissue from a patient who was treated at the hospital and later died. We’re told this situation poses no risk to the general public. The female patient died Tuesday of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease — known as CJD — a fatal neurological disorder.
MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin Hospital officials said Thursday that at least 53 patients were potentially exposed to a rare neurological disease.
A woman in her 50s died of classic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease Tuesday. She underwent surgery at UW Hospital on June 11, WISC-TV reported.
The disease was diagnosed Monday, after a brain biopsy.
MADISON (WKOW) – Some UW Hospital patients may have been exposed to a rare but deadly brain disorder.
UW Hospital officials have told 53 patients they have an extremely low risk of contracting a rare deadly brain disorder after being operated on with contaminated surgical instruments.
The instruments were used on a woman who had surgery on June 11th and died Tuesday from a brain disorder, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
The hospital got the diagnosis of the fatal disease just this past Monday.
The fact that it apparently took UW Hospital and Clinics three years to figure out one of its senior pharmacists was stealing what ended up to total more than 27,000 powerful narcotic pills has a lot of people scratching their heads.
“How could one of the most respected cancer centers in the country not have realized what was going on sooner?” asks Leonard Cizewski, a Madison registered nurse whose late brother received chemotherapy treatment treatments from the pharmacist years ago for complications of AIDS. Cizewski compared him to a drunken driver. “If he makes a mistake,” he says, “somebody could end up dead.”
The city of Madison Fire Department announced Wednesday that Dr. Christian Zuver has been named its new medical director.
Zuver will take over the position from Dr. Joseph Cline, who has served as interim director since the death of the Dr. Darren Bean, who was killed in a UW Med Flight helicopter crash on May 2008.
The announcement comes after a nationwide search for a new director, conducted by UW Hospitals and the Fire Department.
Dear Editor: The Wisconsin State Journal’s article on UW Hospital and OptumHealth, a Minnesota insurance company, perfectly frames the health care debate. Here we have UW Hospital, one of the best transplant hospitals in the country, and patients being denied health care there by OptumHealth.
(HealthDay News) — If college students knew their friends really weren’t drinking as much as it might seem, they might cut back on alcohol, a new study suggests.
Researchers from Oxford Brookes University in England reviewed 22 studies that included nearly 7,275 students, most in the United States. The researchers divided the students into two groups: those who participated in intervention programs designed to help them decrease their alcohol consumption and students who didn’t.
Interventions included education about the risks of drinking heavily, information about how much college students normally drink and education about their own drinking habits, including quantity consumed, caloric intake and money spent on alcohol.
Jason Chiang became sold on the importance of research exchange programs during his undergraduate years at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Although Chiang has traveled overseas several times to study over the past couple years, it was an experience a bit closer to home, an internship at Toronto Western Hospital in the summer of 2005, that first opened his eyes to the value of such an experience.
“I was only a sophomore and I was surrounded by these neurosurgeons who seemed to know everything,” said Chiang, who recently completed his first year as a student at the University of Wisconsin’s medical school.
The University of Wisconsin Hospital’s Med Flight helicopter program reached a milestone Wednesday by completing its 25,000th flight.
Med Flight transported an injured person from the scene of a car-motorcycle crash near Cross Plains Wednesday.
Med Flight’s lifesaving missions date back to April 23, 1985.
MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin Hospital’s Med Flight helicopter program reached a milestone Wednesday by completing its 25,000th flight.
A University of Wisconsin pharmacist fired for drug abuse pilfered more than 27,000 tablets of powerful narcotics from the cancer clinic he worked for, according to a case file released by the state regulatory agency that disciplined him last month.
Nearly 25,000 of the pills Joseph A. Theisen, 56, diverted for his own use over three years were methadone, a synthetic opiate used as a pain medication and as a treatment to get addicts off heroin, according to documents in the file.
Theisen told a supervisor he didn’t recall taking the methadone, but added, “Chances are quite good that I’m responsible for that.”
Noted: UW Hospital ranks among the countryâ??s top 50 hospitals in five of 16 categories assessed in the latest analysis by U.S. News & World Report.
A cancer survivor demonstrated his strength on Monday by biking more than 60 miles to University of Wisconsin Hospital.
Dan Lester was diagnosed with multiple myeloma — a cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow — in 2006.
Lester rode from Waupun to his appointment at the UW Hospital Clinic to show his determination to stay strong.
A major insurance company is still not sending patients to UW Hospital for kidney transplants because it says the hospitalâ??s success rate, which has improved, remains too low.
The nationâ??s organ transplant agencies are reviewing whether insurers should use such data to exclude transplant programs.
An international team of scientists led by a University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist has produced a highly detailed portrait of the new swine flu virus that has killed 211 people in the U.S., suggesting it is more virulent than previously thought and contradicting assertions that the virus appears similar to seasonal flu.
The head of UW Hospitalâ??s cancer pharmacy has surrendered his license and been fired, saying he stole narcotics and practiced as a pharmacist while impaired.
Joseph A. Theisen, 56, of Madison, has completed an outpatient treatment program for his addiction to painkillers, according to the Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing, which issued a news release Monday about his case. He could face criminal charges, according to university police.
A long-awaited study of aging in rhesus monkeys suggests, with some reservations, that people could in principle fend off the usual diseases of old age and considerably extend their life span by following a special diet.
This country is in the midst of historically significant discussions of some of the most complex and important issues of our time — economic stability, environmental protection, our role in the world to name a few. But we could make the argument that health care reform is the most important of them all, if for not other reason than without it we?ll not have the money for anything else. Of course we’ve been here before.
Not many people seem to have noticed yet, but buried among the new measures signed into law last week as part of Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget is a trio of family planning initiatives that are expected to expand access to birth control and contraceptive education in Wisconsin.
Advocates who had fought for previous versions of the controversial measures over the past years, only to see them get beat back repeatedly by the Republican-controlled Legislature, are thrilled at the relative ease with which the measures passed this year — thanks to the new Democratic majority.
SAUK CITY, Wis. — More than 100 employees were evacuated from a building in Sauk City on Wednesday afternoon after a chemical spill.
The incident occurred at an equipment room at Unity Health Insurance, in the 800 block of Carolina Street, at about 1 p.m.
Sauk Prairie Police Chief Gerald Strunz said that they evacuated 140 employees from the building. About 36 workers were taken to area hospitals after complaining about burning throats, coughing and scratchy sinuses. He said they were taken to hospitals as a precaution and there were no serious injuries reported.
Betraying some tension with fellow Democrats in the Legislature, Gov. Jim Doyle said he would call a special session for Wednesday at 1 p.m. to approve changes to the state’s hospital tax before a June 30 budget deadline.
â??My preference would be for the entire budget to be completed on time, but the Legislature is now facing critical financial deadlines and I am calling on them to act,” Doyle said in a statement.
A fundamental question about how sugar units are strung together into long carbohydrate chains has also pinpointed a promising way to target new medicines against tuberculosis.
Working with components of the tuberculosis bacterium, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison identified an unusual process by which the pathogen builds an important structural carbohydrate. In addition to its implications for human health, the mechanism offers insight into a widespread but poorly understood basic biological function â?? controlling the length of carbohydrate polymers.
University of Wisconsin researchers are pinpointing a promising way to target tuberculosis medicines.
A string of sugar units strung together into long carbohydrate chains has pinpointed a promising way to target new medicines against tuberculosis.
An anecdote told at a UW Foundation-sponsored reception last week for the School of Nursing had a lot of heads nodding in agreement.
It was about the patient who said, “A physician saved my life, but nurses gave me my life back.”
Many people who have experienced the trauma of hospitalization would agree, but inexplicably the nursing profession has gotten short shrift, particularly here in Wisconsin. And now, just as the baby boomers begin to age, we’re faced with what could turn out to be a critical shortage of nurses.
At least 11 doctors with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health received more than $50,000 from drug or medical device companies last year, including seven who pulled in six-figure amounts, according to records obtained by the Journal Sentinel.
As part of an effort to enforce more stringent conflict-of-interest rules, UW doctors for the first time have had to specify how much outside income they receive.
The disclosure forms show that orthopedic surgeons, who command some of the highest salaries among university and state employees, also got some of the biggest outside income checks, mostly from companies that make medical devices.
The Army and the Madison Fire Department’s Hazmat team collaborated on Saturday. Fortunately it was for training purposes only.
Operation Red Dragon is the name given for the realistic training undertaken for potentially dangerous scenarios. Saturday’s exercise brought the teams to a mock chemical contamination site.
The UW School of Medicine and Public Health received a â??Bâ? for its conflict-of-interest policies this week on the American Medical Student Associationâ??s annual PharmFree Scorecard.
Last year, the medical school initially got a â??D.â? School officials appealed and the mark was upgraded to a â??B.â?
A UW-Madison psychiatrist says it will probably be another decade before researchers pinpoint which genes– and how many–play a role in depression.
There was widespread excitement that followed a study linking one gene mutation to depression which has since been dampened. A follow-up review in the Journal of American Medical Association shows little or no connection between one gene regulating the neurotransmitter serotonin and the likelihood of depression.
Dr. Ned Kalin chairs the psychiatry department at UW Medical School. He says it means scientists will have to broaden their search for genetic causes of depression, and the quest for clues in DNA could be a decade away. He says what it tells researchers is that thereâ??s not going to be one gene to explain why someone suffers depression or develops schizophrenia. Kalin says it’s probably going to be like many other illnesses, mainly â??A complicated story in which there are numerous genes.” (5th item.)
Assembly Democrats made an unwise choice — both fiscally and practically — when they voted last week to remove funding for a new nursing school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the state budget.
…the UW’s own strategic investment plan recognizes the need for more nurses and more nursing faculty. The failure of the UW to prioritize expansion of nursing training is an example of the institution’s lack of foresight — and lack of connection to the real-world challenges facing Wisconsin — and the Legislature should press the point.
In many ways Emily Anhalt is a typical teenager. She rolls her big brown eyes when her mom asks her to unplug herself from an iPod to answer a visitor’s questions. Her room is strewn with books, clothes, and posters of cute boy bands. “It looks like it exploded,” she cheerfully admits.
….But in one significant respect, Emily is not typical at all. Every night, after she brushes her teeth, puts on her pajamas, and climbs into bed, her parents come into her bedroom and hook her up to a dialysis machine.
In unusual move, UW-Madison officials apparently asked legislators to remove a $47 million School of Nursing building from the state budget, said Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison.
Assembly Democrats voted to cut funding for the project during a closed-door meeting Wednesday night, following a motion sponsored by Black.
â??It was great that it was put in because nursing was a high priority,â? said Julie Underwood, interim provost at UW-Madison. â??We also understand with the stateâ??s fiscal situation, itâ??s hard to get all sorts of things. We understand the balance.â?
UW-Madisonâ??s No. 2 post will be filled by Paul M. DeLuca Jr., vice dean of the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, the university announced today.
Chancellor Biddy Martin chose DeLuca as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs after an internal search, citing the significant growth he has helped achieve in the School of Medicine and Public Health and his â??great sense of humor,â? according to a university news release.
Dr. Linda Farley did not live to see her dream — the establishment of a universal health care plan that would provide quality care to all Americans — come to fruition.
But the Verona physician who sought to heal a broken health care system survived long enough to see the first outlines of what she hoped would be a fundamental reform take shape.
….At the University of Wisconsin Medical School, Linda Farley served as an assistant professor of Family Medicine, and it was in this role that she received a great deal of regional and national recognition, earning the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Task Force Appreciation Award in 1993, the Wisconsin State Medical Society Physician Citizen of the Year in 1995 and the American Academy of Family Physicians Presidents Award in 2001.
As a criminal defense lawyer, Meg Gaines valued evidence. But as a 38-year-old mom with ovarian cancer that had spread to her liver, evidence took a back seat to emotion as she desperately sought a cure.
With a cancer that grim and two young children to raise, “you’ll try anything,” she explained.
Gaines started out as a victim of traditional care. A surgeon removing an ovarian cyst accidentally burst it, spilling its contents into her abdomen. A biopsy revealed it was cancerous.
Columbus, Wis., native Dr. Mary P. Davis, has been hired as the chief medical officer for Dean Health Plan.
….She is a graduate of Temple University School of Medicine, and completed her residency at UW-Madison. She then practiced in her hometown of Columbus, Wis.
Dr. Cynthia Haq directs UW-Madisonâ??s Center for Global Health, formed in 2005. It includes students and faculty from the schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy and veterinary medicine.
Haq also heads up the medical schoolâ??s new program in Milwaukee, called Training in Urban Medicine and Public Health. She lives in Madison and Milwaukee.
The Wisconsin Legislatureâ??s budget-writing committee has approved three measures that will help alleviate Wisconsinâ??s nursing shortage: a nurse workforce survey; a home for the UW School of Nursing to expand capacity; and support for a bachelorâ??s degree nursing program in Rock County.
Meriter Hospital, which considered closing its pediatric unit last year because of a drop in hospitalized children, is expanding its pediatric services instead.
The hospital hopes to regain patients it has lost, mostly to UW Hospitalâ??s American Family Childrenâ??s Hospital.
Highly regarded UW-Madison stem cell researcher Clive Svendsen is heading to Los Angeles to become director of the new Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute.
Svendsen, who is co-director of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center at UW-Madison, will start his new position on Dec. 1.
â??It was nothing lacking from Wisconsin,â? Svendsen said of his decision to leave UW-Madison. â??This was a remarkable opportunity. Really, there wasnâ??t much they could do to keep me â?? it was a very spectacular offer.â?
Highly regarded stem cell researcher Clive Svendsen is leaving the University of Wisconsin-Madison to become the director of the new Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute in Los Angeles.
The announcement was made in a press release put out by Cedars-Sinai.
Svendsen, who is the co-director of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center at UW-Madison, will start his new position on Dec. 1.
Noted: But security for the abortion clinic planned at the Madison Surgery Center isnâ??t being changed because the clinic hasnâ??t opened and organizers already were prepared for the risks, a spokeswoman said.
â??We went into it with the knowledge of including security from the beginning,â? UW Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Brunette said. â??There is a long history of these things happening from time to time. I donâ??t know that there is a new concern.â?
Noted: Earlier this year in Madison, the issue of abortion was thrust into the spotlight when the board for the Madison Surgery Center in February agreed to offer a procedure for second-term abortions. The facility at 1 South Park Street is jointly operated by UW and Meriter hospitals.
UW Health spokesperson Lisa Brunette said the procedures have not started yet and that implementation is moving a measured pace that could take months. Brunette also said the procedure will be offered for women between 19 and 22 weeks of pregnancy.
Jennifer Jenkins took a break between her third and fourth years of medical school to practice what is called “street medicine” with an organization in Pittsburgh. She made “house calls” on the streets, handing out medicine, socks and sandwiches. And she was glad to do it. Jenkins, 35, was once there herself.
“There’s nothing special about me,” says Jenkins, sitting in a cafe on Willy Street just days after graduating from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “You should see the resilience of the homeless people on the street.”
The leader of the University of Utah Hospital and Clinics is in critical condition after suffering major head trauma in a bicycling crash in Tooele County.
Entwistle, a 40-year-old father and a Brigham Young University graduate, was hired away from the University of Wisconsin two years ago to replace the late Richard Fullmer as president and CEO of the U.’s health care system, which employs 5,400 on a $731 million budget.
A Madison company founded by stem cell pioneer Jamie Thomson has obtained an exclusive license with a New York medical school to turn stem cells into heart cells.
Cellular Dynamics International announced the deal with Mount Sinai School of Medicine on Wednesday.
