Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center (MAHHC) has announced that Hannah Bianchi has been named as the new Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Hospital. Bianchi had served as MAHHC’s Director of Provider Practices since 2017. The announcement follows the retirement of Paul Calandrella, who had been the Hospital’s COO since 2012. As COO, Bianchi is responsible for overseeing daily Hospital operations and HR decisions, and for managing the administration of various departments and the entire Hospital.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Health Network announced today additional measures to reduce delays in patient access to outpatient and inpatient care, and help ensure access to emergency care in the face of record patient volumes and other challenges. The Network’s Access Action Plan includes new investments in staffing, technology and infrastructure, and enhanced partnerships with health care institutions outside of the Network and with state and local governments. The Action Plan addresses three main goals: hire successfully amid national staffing shortages, reduce wait times for specialty care, and improve hospital inpatient and emergency capacity.

Vermont Business Magazine On September 27, 2021, Norwich University was awarded a two-year $18.5 million grant from the National Security Agency as the lead institution to continue to develop the Department of Defense (DoD) Cyber Institutes at the six Senior Military Colleges (SMCs). This grant builds upon the grant awarded in September 2020, designating Norwich University as the lead in establishing the DOD Cyber Institutes to create a pipeline of qualified cyber professionals in current and projected critical work roles. In Fall 2020, the six DoD Cyber Institutes were established at Norwich University, The Citadel, University of North Georgia, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M and Virginia Military Institute.

Vermont Business Magazine By the side of a freshly painted Vermont historic barn on Pudding Hill Road in Lyndonville, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM) and the Vermont Department of Labor (VDOL) celebrated the Vermont Barn Painting Project and the many partners who have collaborated to assist Vermont barn owners in preserving these historic structures on Vermont’s working lands.

Vermont Business Magazine Foliage season is in full swing and the summer heat is fast becoming a memory, but health officials want Vermonters to still be on the lookout for cyanobacteria blooms and avoid any they see. Cyanobacteria are tiny microorganisms that are a natural part of fresh water ecosystems. Under certain conditions – including warm, sunny weather – cyanobacteria can multiply quickly, creating blooms on the water’s surface that can wash up along shorelines.

Vermont Business Magazine As of October 1, health care providers now have the ability to track a patient’s social determinants of health through new medical codes championed by Family Nurse Practitioner Sarah DeSilvey and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont (Blue Cross). When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved a suite of new medical codes this spring, it was the culmination of years of work and collaboration between Blue Cross and DeSilvey.

by Devon Green​, VAHHS Vice President of Government Relations With boosters now widely available in Vermont, we hope eligible Vermonters take advantage of this great opportunity to further protect themselves, their families and their communities. Signing up is easy and the Vermont Department of Health has done an incredible job to ensure access to Pfizer boosters for all Vermonters.

Vermont Business Magazine As part of their ongoing fight for safe staffing at the University of Vermont Medical Center, The Vermont Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals held a live streamed Roundtable discussion on Sunday, October 10. Nurses and techs shared their perspectives and discussed potential solutions with Vermont policymakers. More specifically, they discussed the current staffing conditions at UVMMC, how we got to this point, the broader impacts that short staffing is having on the community, and both short- and longer-term solutions to this crisis.

​Vermont Business Magazine Southwestern Vermont Health Care’s (SVHC) Medical Matters Weekly with Dr. Trey Dobson—a weekly interactive, multiplatform medical-themed talk show—will feature Southwestern Vermont Medical Center’s Director of Population Health Rory Price, MPH, on its October 13 program. The show will air at 12 p.m. She will share results from the Community Health Needs Assessment conducted earlier this year.

Vermont Business Magazine During a visit to the Vermont Indigenous Heritage Center on Monday, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) announced a $250,000 grant to make improvements to the center’s home at the Ethan Allen Homestead. On hand for the announcement were Dr. Fred Wiseman, whose personal collection of artifacts forms the main portion of the collection; Phelan Fretz, executive director of the Leahy ECHO Center; and Nick Warner of the Winooski Valley Park District (WVPD).

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health on Monday reported 222 COVID-19 cases (up four from Sunday) and no additional deaths for 335 statewide. This is the fifth consecutive day with cases over 200. There were 41 people hospitalized (up seven) with 12 in the ICU (up three). Cases in the southern four counties which have been high in recent days fell back today. But cases were relatively high in Caledonia, Orleans and Washington counties.

by Jean Waltz, District Central School Board Commissioner, Burlington In 1997, in Brigham v. State, the Vermont Supreme Court concluded that the Vermont constitution requires the provision of substantially equal educational opportunity to all students. The court declared the state’s education funding system unconstitutional because it resulted in wide disparities in per-pupil expenditures.

Within months of this decision, the legislature created a new educational funding system that acknowledged circumstances that impede educational outcomes. Educational costs to address and counter effect these factors were, in good faith, projected. Monetary projections were “weighed” and assigned a percentage of funds reflective of an addition to the base “per pupil” cost—a funding effort that’s now referred to as “pupil weights.”

Despite this effort, legislators noted student performance disparities and, in 2018, commissioned a study.