Category: Health

Officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plan to conduct an on-site review of UW Hospital after a needleless syringe was reused there in July, the hospital said in a statement Friday.

Pilot error and a lack of proper warning equipment is being blamed for the 2008 crash of a University of Wisconsin Med Flight helicopter that killed three people. The National Transportation Safety Board announced its findings in the final report on the crash released Friday.

UW Hospital revealed today that it is once again under investigation for that dirty syringe incident back in August.

In January 2002, a group of Food and Drug Administration advisers met on whether to approve a powerful new biological agent that promised to revolutionize back surgery.The product was like nothing the burgeoning field of spinal fusion surgery had seen before. If used properly, it essentially turned whatever it touched into bone. This was a good thing if it could be confined to the tiny space between vertebrae, but potentially calamitous if it leaked out.One of the FDA advisers at the meeting raised a concern about nine of the doctors whose research on the product had been submitted to the FDA: The doctorsall had a financial stake in the product, and their test results with it were nearly twice as good as the doctors who did not have a financial interest.

UW Health?s new fertility clinic, opening Friday in Middleton, will offer more privacy, a calmer setting and three times as much space as its existing clinic at UW Hospital, officials say.

MADISON (WKOW) — The news just keeps getting worse for Vincent Stepter of Madison. Last week, UW Hospital told him it may have used a contaminated syringe during a routine rotator cuff surgery. This week, UW Medical Foundation banned him from visiting any of its 27 clinics in south-central Wisconsin.

….A UW Hospital spokeswoman told 27 News on Thursday the letter banning Stepter from clinics run by the Medical Foundation has “nothing to do” with the syringe incident and is not in retaliation for speaking to 27 News.

Early Thursday morning, after 16 months putting up an incredible fight, Gabe Perkins died at the University of Iowa Children?s Hospital.

Gabe would have been a 2nd grader at Jane Addams Elementary School in Moline. The entire school and a big part of the Quad City community had rallied around him, holding fundraisers like ??Going Green for Gabe??. Green was his favorite color.

After he had a stem cell transplant at the University of Wisconsin in Madison earlier this year, there was hope. He chatted via Skype with his classmates and teacher from his hospital, in isolation, 170 miles away.

A former employee at the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s fertility clinic may have been sexually harassed by her supervisors and fired in retaliation for complaining, according to a state investigation. In a report dated Aug. 6 and obtained by The Associated Press, the Equal Rights Division found that former program assistant Julia Landrum was subjected to inappropriate sexual banter “on a regular basis and it affected her ability to perform her job.”

I was dismayed to learn of the resignation of Dr. Minesh Mehta from the UW Hospital?s Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center because of a “possible” conflict of interest with Tomotherapy.

UW Hospital is investigating the reuse of a syringe, which a Madison patient said is requiring him to be tested for hepatitis and HIV. Federal health officials say syringes and needles should never be used more than once to reduce contamination from infected blood. UW Hospital says its policy is not to reuse either. The incident involves a “needleless” syringe reused ? against hospital policy ? when it was attached to an intravenous line, UW Hospital spokeswoman Toni Morrissey said Friday.

The University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison is investigating why a syringe was reused, a discovery that means one patient has to be tested for hepatitis and HIV. UW Hospital spokeswoman Toni Morrissey said Friday the incident involves the reuse of a “needleless” syringe attached to an intravenous line. The reuse is against hospital policy.

Vincent Stepter got a very frightening phone call on Thursday morning.

He says an infectious disease specialist from UW Hospital called to say he needs to get tested for HIV and Hepatitis after a syringe was used on at least one other patient. “I?ve been crying all morning, ever since I heard this,” Stepter told 27 News in an exclusive interview on Thursday.

A project this Editorial Board has long championed appears to be closer than ever to reality. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee said this week that it had reached an agreement in principle to move its new School of Public Health into a permanent home at the former Pabst Brewery.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health will survey randomly selected Merill residents about their health choices next week.

Hundreds of compelling stories that can be told by participants in the U.S. Transplant Games, the biennial event highlighting organ transplantation and donation that comes to Madison next weekend. More than 7,500 people are expected to be in town for the games, including 1,500 transplant athletes from 46 teams who will participate in 13 sports, said Krista Flanagan, the Transplant Games event manager in Madison. The state has two organ procurement organizations, the Wisconsin Donor Network and the UW Organ Procurement Organization, and four transplant centers ? Children?s Hospital of Wisconsin, Froedtert Hospital and Aurora St. Luke?s Medical Center, all in Milwaukee, and UW Hospital in Madison.

MADISON — A national magazine has ranked University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics among the nation?s top hospitals for its use of information technology to make patient care better, safer and more efficient.

UW Hospital was named to the top 25 list for the ?most wired? and ?most wireless? hospitals and health systems in the nation, according to the July issue of Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. Those named to the list are leaders in implementing new technologies and, more importantly, bringing the benefits to patients.

It was surprising to hear the negative reaction of some University of Wisconsin-Madison doctors to an ethics policy that makes sense to nearly everyone else.

UW Hospital and Clinics are ranked in the top 50 U.S. hospitals in seven medical specialties. That?s according to the 2010 edition of U.S. News and World Report?s ?America?s Best Hospitals? guide, something UW Hospital and Clinics Chief Operating Officer Ron Sliwinski calls an affirmation of the work people do every day.

University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics is ranked among the nation?s best hospitals in seven different specialities, according to the 2010 “America?s Best Hospitals” report from U.S. News and World Report.The report released on Thursday ranked U.S. hospitals in 16 specialties.UW Hospital has been ranked every year since 1993.

Some doctors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison threatened to quit or take legal action when the foundation they worked for drafted rules to restrict their financial relationships with drug companies, according to records obtained by the Journal Sentinel. It was apparent from the e-mails that the conflict of interest policy divided doctors at the university. While many were staunchly opposed, others supported strengthening the policy – and some said it did not go far enough.

A federal judge sentenced a former UW Hospital pharmacists to one year probation and a $4,000 fine for obtaining controlled substances by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception and subterfuge.

Chris Funk, a co-founder of HEADRUSH, the Madison-based brain tumor research and awareness organization, died July 2 at the age of 36. Funk and his wife, Brandi, raised more than $750,000 for the UW Carbone Cancer Center since they founded the nonprofit organization in 2004. Funk was diagnosed with a brain tumor in December 2001.

Chris John Williams Funk earned the status of Trek legend at the early age of 36, not through his cycling feats, but his selfless soul. Over 8 1/2 years of treatments for brain cancer, he persistently turned his attention outward rather than inward, created a charity foundation and raised $750,000 to help others avoid his fate.

The state of Wisconsin is headed to the doctor?s office. The purpose: Gathering data to understand the factors contributing to health in the state.

The Survey of the Health of Wisconsin, a research project undertaken by the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s School of Medicine and Public Health, is sending researchers throughout the state – including Germantown – to learn about the health of Wisconsinites. Once on location, researchers will knock on doors in neighborhoods and solicit participation in the assessment.

A town of Verona family said it?s counting its blessings after avoiding tragedy when horses went on a rampage, trampling spectators at a Fourth of July parade in Iowa.

A new study of prisoners and game-playing suggests that there?s a link between damage to a specific part of the brain and psychopathic behavior, although it?s not clear how they?re connected.