TUE AM News: Hospital vacancy rates still well above pre-pandemic levels despite gains; 7Rivers raises $5M Series A round

February 24, 2026

— Vacancy rates for hospital jobs in Wisconsin have fallen from a recent peak in 2022 but remain well above pre-pandemic levels, a Wisconsin Hospital Association report shows.

The group today is releasing its 2026 Wisconsin Health Care Workforce Report, which shows the state’s hospital vacancy rate was 7.2% on Sept. 30, 2024, the latest date covered in the report. That’s down from 10% on Sept. 30, 2022, but is more than twice as high as in 2019, when the vacancy rate was 3.4%.

Ann Zenk, senior vice president of workforce and clinical practice for WHA, says hospitals are in a “race against time” even as they’re making progress in hiring and retaining workers.

Over the last decade, hospital employment has increased by 23%, the report shows. But overall health care demand is expected to increase 10% by 2040 while the state’s working-age population is shrinking, Zenk said in a statement.

“We’re growing the workforce, but not fast enough to meet the needs of an aging population,” she said.

In addition to putting a strain on the health sector’s workforce, these demographic changes in Wisconsin are causing a shift in reimbursement, which WHA spotlights as a challenge for the industry.

Between fiscal years 2016 and 2024, the share of Medicare in the hospital payer mix increased by 5.3% while commercial insurance fell by 4.9%. The report notes 10,000 baby boomers per day are becoming eligible for Medicare, under which reimbursement falls short of the cost of providing care by 26 cents per dollar.

WHA says a 1% shift from commercial insurance to Medicare could cut hospital revenue in Wisconsin by $286.7 million, based on fiscal year 2024 data.

“Even the most stringent efforts to cut costs or utilization cannot bridge the gap between reimbursement and the cost of providing care, much less provide the investment necessary to grow the infrastructure and workforce to keep pace with increasing health care demand,” authors wrote.

The report includes a number of recommendations aimed at addressing these challenges, such as efforts to “break down barriers” to being part of the health care workforce. Authors point to “legal, regulatory and payer barriers” as a key issue, urging policymakers and others to make reimbursement models and regulations more flexible.

WHA is calling for ensuring the benefit of any new regulations or requirements outweigh the additional work requirement or barriers to access they create before they’re adopted. And the group wants to address insurance company policies and practices that “unnecessarily” delay and deny care at hospitals.

Other recommendations are focused on boosting educational and occupational pathways, to give more students and apprentices opportunities to get connected with employers, as well as encouraging the use of new technologies and models of care.

That includes telehealth monitoring and at-home recovery care, as well as using AI and simulations for education and other programs. WHA is also calling for changes to state law to “relieve bottlenecks” in the continuum of care by supporting patient and family decision-making.

See the release and report.

— Milwaukee tech firm 7Rivers has raised $5 million in a Series A funding round, supporting investments in staffing, marketing and more.

The company yesterday announced the round close, led by Utah-based Inoca Capital Partners, which has also taken a minority position in the company. The release notes 7Rivers helps clients in using the Snowflake AI Data Cloud, a software platform for data analytics and other applications.

The new funding will be used to expand 7Rivers’ Snowflake delivery and product teams while scaling up AI solutions in the platform and elsewhere, according to the release. It will also be used to invest in industry-specific templates and use cases, while expanding sales and marketing efforts.

7Rivers founder Paul Stillmank says the company envisions future enterprise as being driven by human insight and AI innovation working “in harmony” for business success.

“This new capital gives us the ability to scale that mission, investing in the talent, solutions, and accelerators that help our clients transform faster,” he said in a statement.

See the release.

— The board president for Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative is cheering a new U.S. trade agreement with Indonesia, calling it a “great opportunity” for domestic agriculture, especially dairy.

The Trump administration recently released details for the newly finalized trade deal with the southeast Asian nation, saying it will provide “unprecedented market access” for U.S. businesses in ag, manufacturing and digital sectors.

In addition to ending all tariffs for dairy products, the deal “recognizes U.S. regulatory oversight” and imposes no quantitative limits on U.S. exports, the co-op notes. The group also says the deal protects the use of “common food names” for various cheese and meat products.

The use of terms like milk and cheese to describe non-dairy products has come under fire by the dairy industry, which argues the status quo is misleading to consumers.

Heidi Fischer, president of the board for the Green Bay-based co-op, said the agreement “helps strengthen an important export market and expand trade potential for dairy farmers nationwide by eliminating tariffs and other barriers.”

Indonesia was the 11th largest market for U.S. ag exports in 2024, with more than $250 million in dairy exports, according to Edge. The group calls it an “important region” for growing U.S. dairy exports.

See more in the release.

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from a WisBusiness column by Buckley Brinkman, advisor to the Wisconsin Center for Manufacturing and Productivity.

— The more I travel around Wisconsin, the more frustrated I become with how we approach shared opportunities — especially around Artificial Intelligence.

Our independence is one of our strengths; but our provincialism often keeps us from aligning around big opportunities. If we want to lead in AI, we must pivot some of our infrastructure to enable real intrastate collaboration and healthy “coopetition.” We need to approach AI — Wisconsinbly.

Wisconsinites lean toward action. That’s usually a strength. We get things done while others are still studying the issue. That won’t work with AI because it moves fast and touches everything. If everyone charges ahead independently, we risk fragmentation, duplication, and missing opportunities.

Many of our AI leaders share this bias for action. They are building solutions — a good thing — but too few are stepping back to ask how we create collective advantage. Individual progress is happening. Coordinated impact is not. It’s easier to build your own solution than to align around a bigger picture. I understand that instinct. Still, we can do better.

Read the full column here.

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