Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc. (VITL) and OhMD announce a partnership that will bring a secure, HIPAA compliant text messaging service to Vermont health care providers and their patients.  Smartphone use is nearly universal, so secure text messaging in health care makes sense as a fast and easy communication option, and offers patients more opportunities to engage in their own care.

Vermont Business Magazine The federal government has released its first overall hospital quality rating last week, similar to the long-standing 5-Star CMS rating used for nursing homes. In Vermont, no hospital achieved a five star rating, and only Porter Hospital, Central Vermont Hospital and Brattleboro Memorial Hospital achieved four-star ratings. Most of the remaining Vermont hospitals earned either a three star rating, with three receiving a two sar rating (two were not rated).

Vermont Business Magazine Interim CEO Dr Fred Kniffin shared with Porter Medical Center employees on Monday that the PMC Board of Directors has identified the University of Vermont Health Network as its potential partner, should the Middlebury hospital system choose affiliation at the conclusion of Porter’s ongoing strategic planning process. The UVM Health Network was selected from among four institutions that responded to their affiliation request for proposals. He noted that determining the future of Porter Medical Center had entered a new phase, with the continued evaluation of independence versus entering into an affiliation agreement with the University of Vermont Health Network.

by Claudio Fort, CEO of North Country Hospital in Newport At North Country Hospital in Newport, improving the health of our community is our greatest responsibility. Every aspect of running this hospital – from budgeting, to planning for improvements, to deciding what services we can or should offer – is in service of helping the people of our region get and stay healthy.

Each year our team puts together a budget that reflects the health care priorities of our patients. Regulators at the Green Mountain Care Board examine it carefully and ask many questions about what’s necessary, how we’re participating in health care reform efforts, and how all of the pieces fit together into a responsible budget that does not lead to unnecessary insurance rate increases to our patients. This process is unique to the state of Vermont, and each one of Vermont’s hospitals participates in it every year.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont health officials are warning street drug users about an especially deadly strain of heroin that is circulating in several parts of the state, including central Vermont and the Northeast Kingdom. According to reports from emergency responders over the weekend, at least 10 people have overdosed, taking more than one dose of naloxone (Narcan) to be revived. While naloxone can reverse an overdose, it must be given quickly and followed up with a 9-1-1 call for an ambulance. The drug can last longer than naloxone or take more than one dose to help.

Bags of heroin, possibly laced with fentanyl, and stamped 'Game of Thrones' appear to be connected with some of the overdoses. Fentanyl is up to 50 times stronger than heroin, and that much deadlier.

Vermont Business Magazine During the spring of 2016, the Vermont Legislature approved an additional one million dollars in funding for the Child Care Financial Assistance Program in State Fiscal Year 2017. This increase will allow the Department for Children and Families' Child Development Division (CDD) to make changes that will benefit child care providers and families in Vermont. This will include an increase in the amount paid for infant care when the changes take effect August 21.

"We are very grateful to the Vermont Legislature for this increase," said CDD Deputy Commissioner Reeva Murphy. "It will allow us to make several changes that will benefit child care providers, parents and children in Vermont. In particular, this increase will help us begin to address the rates the State pays for infant care, an area that is challenging for both parents and providers."

The following changes will take effect on August 21, 2016:

Vermont Business Magazine A pair of autistic twins whose behavior, school attendance, and hygiene problems nearly exhausted efforts by educators and their own parents; a boy whose constant school absence and untreated ringworm were symptoms of his mother's hoarding and health issues; a quiet, 14-year-old girl who suffered physical and mental abuse from her alcoholic mother – these are just three cases of southern Vermont families in crisis that might have concluded with youngsters removed from their homes and placed into state custody.

Instead, all three cases and hundreds like them in Brattleboro and Springfield have ended far happier, thanks to the efforts of Healthcare & Rehabilitation Services of Southeastern Vermont (HCRS), funding from the Vermont Department of Children & Families (DCF), and a program called Intensive Family Based Services (IFBS).

by John McClaughry Most of us believe that “freedom” is a good thing - that we deserve to pursue our ends without unjust interference from others, so long as we don’t use our freedom to diminish that of others. We believe the state we live in ought to conscientiously protect the freedom of its citizens, limiting their individual freedom only when it is clear that its exercise would result in greater harm to society as a whole.

But governments today regularly, sometimes aggressively, interfere with our freedoms. Two scholars at the libertarian Cato Institute have put together a Freedom Index of the fifty states using some 150 variables. It identifies those states most, and least, protective of three dimensions of freedom: fiscal, regulatory, and personal.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont is launching a new graduate certificate program in fall 2016 that features a concise, six-course immersion in the quantitative sciences of public health used for analyzing diseases and health-related conditions. Epidemiology has many applications and plays a critical role in research, health care planning and investigating disease outbreaks. Epidemiology is increasingly used globally in public health research and practice, including cases like the Zika virus, to assess public health impact and develop guidelines and policies.

“Now more than ever, epidemiology — the foundation science of public health — is a crucial and timely area of study,” says Dr. Jan K. Carney, associate dean for public health at the UVM College of Medicine. Carney is one of several College of Medicine faculty for the program.

According to the World Health Organization, nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight and yet 50% of American women and 25% of men are currently on a diet. These two statistics seem to be at odds and beg the question: What’s not working?

Community Health Education at Rutland Regional Medical Center is offering its second wellness and weight loss workshop to assist participants to lose weight while adopting habits and tactics that introduce sustainable behavior changes for maximum, long-term results.

“The ultimate goal, beyond the weight loss itself, is to introduce a mindset as well as a set of behaviors that are anchored in making healthy choices”, said Elizabeth Dulli, Rutland Regional Community Health Education Coordinator. “We want participants to focus on wellness, rather than on the concept of ‘dieting’”.

Vermont Business Magazine In response to a report showing lower-than-expected state revenues in the first month of the new fiscal year, Phil Scott for Vermont Campaign spokeswoman Brittney Wilson issued the following statement: “Yet again, our state’s general fund revenue is failing to meet expectations. This pattern illustrates why we cannot afford to continue a budget practice that relies on unpredictable revenue expectations and leaves Vermonters to make up the difference.

Vermont Business Magazine Green Mountain Power has reached an agreement with Enel Green Power NA to acquire 14 of its small hydroelectric power stations located mainly in northern New England, with an approximate total capacity of 17 MW. GMP has also entered into a power purchase agreement with Enel for the rights to the output of two other Enel hydroelectric power stations in accordance with a 25-year PPA. This $20.3 million acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approval by the Vermont Public Service Board and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is expected to close in 2017. GMP and Enel reached agreement in July

Map of GMP's hydro stations. Above, the Taftsville site on the Ottauquechee River in the town of Woodstock. GMP images.