From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— UW Health today announced it will add dozens of intensive care beds at American Family Children’s Hospital to meet growing demand.
The Madison health system has rolled out plans for expanding its pediatric intensive care unit, or PICU, and adding a cardiac intensive care unit, or CICU. The expansion will leverage unused space on the hospital’s 33,000-square-foot sixth floor, adding 14 rooms for medical surgical PICU patients and 10 rooms for CICU patients.
Under the plans, the 21-bed PICU will be modified to allow for “specialty care growth,” ranging from treating cancer and blood disorders to caring for patients with respiratory diseases during flu season.
Nikki Stafford, the hospital’s president and vice president of pediatric services at UW Health Kids, says the current PICU at the children’s hospital is often at capacity. In 2023, UW Health Kids “had to turn away over 100 kids for admission who were seeking care for the most complex and critical medical conditions” due to a lack of available beds, Stafford said in comments provided by the health system.
Over the last three years, the hospital has seen a 47% increase in cardiac inpatients and a 23% increase in pediatric cardiac surgical cases, according to Stafford. On average, 60% of PICU beds at the hospital are occupied by children getting cardiac treatment, underlining the rising demand for this type of care.
“The space that’s needed, as well as the care management, the level of expertise, is very different between pediatric general intensive care units and cardiac intensive care units,” Stafford said, adding having such a dedicated unit “is a best practice” for providing specialized heart care.
The planning and design phase of the project is expected to take up to six months, with construction slated to wrap up within about a year and a half. The health system aims to start delivering care in the new space in late 2027.
See the release below.
— GOP lawmakers are circulating a proposal that would direct the Department of Health Services to seek a waiver that would allow the state to bar the purchase of candy and soft drinks through the FoodShare program.
If the feds rejected the waiver, DHS would have to resubmit the request annually until it was granted.
Sen. Chris Kapenga, R-Delafield, and Reps. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, Dan Knodl, R-Germantown, and Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah, recently sent a co-sponsorship memo on the bill to other lawmakers.
In it, they reference Wisconsin’s increasing rates of obesity and diabetes, arguing federal programs “that are supposed to help our population get healthier, are partially exacerbating these problems.”
The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, offers food benefits for low-income families. This support flows through the FoodShare program in Wisconsin, administered by DHS, which provided $1.5 billion in benefits in 2023, the memo shows. As of late 2024, more than 700,000 people in the state were enrolled in the program.
The bill’s authors acknowledge SNAP has “proven successful” at addressing food insecurity, but has no nutrition standards to ensure recipients are accessing healthy food. They note purchases of sweetened beverages, desserts and candy through the program exceed sales of fruits and vegetables by $400 million annually.
The memo references a USDA study that found soda is the No. 1 item bought with SNAP benefits and nearly $610 million in spent on “sugar-sweetened beverages” by recipients per year. It also points to other studies that found children and families on SNAP consume 43% more of these beverages than those not on the program.
“We can prioritize health, reduce health care costs, support local agriculture, and ensure that SNAP fulfills its mission of providing low-income families access to healthier options by not allowing the purchasing of candy or soft drinks with FoodShare benefits,” authors wrote.
Along with the memo, the lawmakers say they’re sending letters seeking support for the change from DHS Secretary Kirsten Johnson as well as HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins.
The co-sponsorship deadline is Friday.
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– UW Health: American Family Children’s Hospital to expand pediatric intensive care unit
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