WisBusiness WED News Summary

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— The state’s largest business incubator isn’t in Milwaukee, or even in Madison for that matter.

Nestled in the far northwest corner of Wisconsin, the Northwest Enterprise Center Network covers more space than any other by offering 10 business incubator spaces in six different communities.

“It’s one of the largest incubator programs in the country and it’s right here in northwest Wisconsin,” says Rick Roeser, the center’s program manager.

The network was launched by the Northwest Regional Planning Commission in 1998 when the first incubator opened. Since then, other locations have been added; they’re located in Spooner, Grantsburg, Iron River, Medford, Phillips and Siren. Each features modern, flexible spaces that businesses can reconfigure to meet their needs.

Read more about the incubator in a new column from MaryBeth Matzek:

http://bizopinion.wisbusiness.com/2015/12/marybeth-matzek-northwest-enterprise.html

— The feds have penalized 15 Wisconsin hospitals for having too many patients getting injured or infected while they are there, with 11 hospitals seeing penalties for the second year in a row.

The penalties stem from an Affordable Care Act measure aimed at reducing “hospital-acquired conditions,” anything from a blood clot to a fall.

UW Hospital, which is among those that were penalized again, has committed itself to decreasing those numbers, spokeswoman Lisa Brunette said. More recent data, she said, have shown promise in several areas, but the “challenge will be to sustain those improvements over time.”

“Every year, as hospitals improve overall, the bar for performance is set higher,” she said. “UW Hospital’s scores did improve but not significantly enough to move the overall score out of the bottom quartile in this snapshot. Although several academic medical centers faced the same problem this year, we are intensifying our work to move those scores forward significantly.”

Others that were penalized again during the program’s second year include three Wheaton Franciscan hospitals, St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay, Ministry Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Marshfield and Holy Family Memorial in Manitowoc.

Nationwide, the number of hospitals penalized increased to 758 from 724, while the number of hospitals penalized in Wisconsin dropped from 18 to 15.

Still, the Wisconsin Hospital Association says there’s room for improvement.

“We know we can do even better, but we are making steady progress on the way to our goal of zero patient harm,” WHA Chief Quality Officer Kelly Court said.

The association, she added, helps its members with the “challenging work” of finding ways to reduce hospital-acquired conditions, although she said they’ve “come a long way in our clinical understanding of how to prevent infections.” WHA will also post the measures used to determine the penalties on its CheckPoint website.

See more on the program:

http://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/HAC-reduction-program.html

See the data:

http://khn.org/news/758-hospitals-penalized-for-patient-safety-in-2016-data-table/

— Two lawmakers have proposed bipartisan legislation that would make it a crime to commit fraud in seeking economic assistance from WEDC.

The agency has been beset by negative headlines over its loan program, including questions over how some were obtained.

The proposal from Rep. Samantha Kerkman, R-Salem, and Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, would create a class E felony for committing fraud against WEDC or using a benefit from the agency in a manner other than its specific use. The crime would carry a penalty of up to 15 years in prison or a $50,000 fine, or both.

Those who commit fraud, along with their affiliates and successors, would be ineligible for economic development benefits from WEDC for seven years.

The legislation is similar to bills Republicans have pushed to impose penalties for those who defraud Wisconsin Works, Medical Assistance, food stamps and others.

See information from the circulation memo:

http://wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=362091

See the bill:

http://wispolitics.com/1006/large/151222WEDC.pdf

— WMC has promoted Scott Manley to senior vice president of government relations.

He has been vice president of government relations since 2013 and joined MWC as an environmental policy director in 2005.

See the release:

http://wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=362055

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