TUE AM News: StageThree stimulating innovation for successful companies: Community training for firefighters results in fewer 911 calls

— A new venture from transportation management company Breakthrough Fuel called StageThree aims to stimulate innovation for companies that have already achieved success.

“For the most part right now, we’re working almost exclusively with Fortune 100-type organizations,” said Craig Dickman, founder of Green Bay-based Breakthrough Fuel. “We help them go through the process of innovation, the process of assessing and understanding business models for those innovations.”

With about 70 employees in downtown Milwaukee, Breakthrough Fuel caters to businesses in 46 countries, optimizing routes and fuel usage to improve shipping. After working with large organizations on disruptive projects for over a decade, company leaders decided to spin out this new venture in early 2018 to get more deeply involved with that consulting work.

“We talk about the process of creating new ideas and getting excited about those ideas,” he said at a discussion event held last week in Appleton by the Wisconsin Technology Council. “We’re also going to get involved in helping them launch the new ventures.”

That includes connecting these clients to external capital and bringing in resources of other kinds.

StageThree helps them assess the business models of potential business ventures, and develop strategies for launching them. That means building a team and developing prototype technologies before testing the idea in the market.

See more: http://wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=390859

— A community training program for firefighters in Milwaukee has resulted in fewer 911 calls in Milwaukee County.

The program, called Mobile Integrated Healthcare, was undertaken by the Milwaukee Fire Department, the UWM College of Nursing and Milwaukee County Emergency Medical Services.

According to a release from UW-Milwaukee, health-related emergency calls are much more common than calls related to actual fires. In an attempt to drive down the number of unnecessary 911 calls, these partners created a system to determine which people are calling 911 regularly because they’re ill-equipped to handle chronic diseases or other conditions.

“A lot of times, when we get there, the person tells us they just don’t feel good. That’s where the conversation starts,” said firefighter Kendria Donaldson. “We have to find out why they are not finding the right care. With those patients, we are forming a long-term relationship. When you spend two hours with a patient you can have an impact.”

Starting in 2015, firefighters who are also paramedics have been trained as “community paramedics,” who work to build relationships with frequent callers, educate them about what constitutes a true emergency, and help point them toward other resources.

Under Mobile Integrated Healthcare, 911 use for all demographics in Milwaukee County dropped from 2014 levels. According to the fire department’s program coordinator Michael Wright, calls were down 56 percent in 2016, and 62 percent in 2017.

UWM has trained 73 community paramedics in fire departments across the state, including 34 in Milwaukee. The fourth class will be offered this fall.

See more: http://wisbusiness.com/index.Iml?Article=390834

— Milwaukee companies interested in working with Foxconn during the construction phase of the project can learn more at an upcoming info session.

The event is being held by at the We Energies offices in Milwaukee on Thursday from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Construction project manager M+W Gilbane will answer questions and provide information related to bid proposals and the construction schedule.

There’s no cost to attend, but advance registration is required.

See event details here: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/foxconn-industrial-construction-phase-1-of-wisconn-valley-science-technology-park-information-tickets-45021319980

— BizTimes Milwaukee reporter Corri Hess says the possible loss of the Bon Ton stores will be a “huge hit” for shopping malls around the state.

“These mid-level (stores) have had trouble because people have gone other places to shop,” she said. Higher-end and lower-end retailers have fared better, she said on “UpFront with Mike Gousha,” produced in partnership with WisPolitics.com.

Bon Ton, with 13 stores and more than 2,200 employees in Wisconsin, goes to auction Monday and faces possible liquidation.

Hess said Bon Ton has been struggling for years in a difficult environment for brick-and-mortar retailers.

She said if Bon Ton is liquidated, it will be very tough for struggling malls like Southridge and Bayshore in suburban Milwaukee, and the Regency Mall in Racine.

“In a lot of small towns, this is the department store to go to, actually across the state, and across the country,” she said.

See more from the program: http://www.wisn.com/upfront

— WisPolitics.com, WisBusiness.com and the Wisconsin Technology Council are hosting Joey Von Nessen, an economist at the University of South Carolina, for an upcoming discussion on the future of the Foxconn project.

He will discuss a similar situation — when BMW built a large plant in South Carolina — and how it affected that state’s economy.

“It’s often important not to ‘reinvent the wheel’ and to learn from the successes and mistakes of others in similar settings. That’s what Von Nessen can do to help Wisconsin as the Foxconn project gets formally under way,” Tech Council President Tom Still said.

Von Nessen aksi does annual economic forecasts for the state, and advises the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

The event, sponsored by UW-Milwaukee and part of the “Navigating the New Economy” series from WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com, will be held at Gateway Technical College’s SC Johnson iMET Center in Sturtevant on May 24. Registration begins at 11:30 a.m., and the presentation and following panel discussion should wrap up by 1:30 p.m.

See more event details and sign up here: http://wisbusiness.com/1008/Economist_to_outline_lessons_from_S.C._s_BMW_experience_May_24_in_Sturtevant.pdf

— Twelve Wisconsin companies will be recognized with corporate safety awards at the upcoming Wisconsin Safety & Health Conference in Wisconsin Dells.

The awards ceremony is being held by the Wisconsin Safety Council and the state Department of Workforce Development April 17-18 at the Kalahari Resort and Convention Center.

Winners hail from Oak Creek, Waupaca, Superior, Oshkosh, Wausau, Two Rivers, Kaukauna, Appleton, New Berlin and Monroe.

See the list of recipients here: http://wisbusiness.com/index.Iml?Article=390848

— Healthfinch announced recently that it raised $6 million in financing, led by Adams Street Partners, to continue building its Charlie Practice Automation Platform.

“This market readiness for practice automation technology, combined with a sea of change from existing Electronic Medical Record vendors opening up their platforms for innovation, means that we are at the beginning of a technology shift that will drive the healthcare industry forward,” Healthfinch CEO Jonathan Baran said in a statement.

The Charlie Practice Automation Platform was created to reduce provider burnout, improve quality metrics and enhance patient satisfaction.

According to a release, Madison-based Healthfinch has supported more than 4,000 providers and 1.5 million patients and has raised more than $17 million.

See more at Madison Startups: http://www.madisonstartups.com/healthfinch-hauls-in-6m/