Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) Foundation recently approached several local businesses for help with an important project. Healthcare workers, working long hours caring for COVID-19 patients and others, needed a reminder to take a few moments to care for their own health and wellbeing. Businesses answered with donations of items that helped our staff remember to take care of themselves.

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 Mark Levine, MD, as a guest on its April 14 show. Dr Levine is Vermont’s Commissioner of Health. They will discuss Dr Levine’s personal perspective of his work over the last year. The show is produced with cooperation from Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV) and airs live at 2 pm on Wednesdays.

by Heidi Scheuermann (R-Stowe) Following the passage of Act 46 in 2015, an extremely bad piece of legislation calling for mergers (some forced) of school districts in a misguided attempt to bring cost containment and greater educational opportunities to Vermont students, the Stowe and Elmore/Morristown School Boards, with the support of the communities, worked collaboratively and unanimously agreed to fight against a forced merger. After exhaustive research since 2013 on the impact of a forced merger in our communities, both boards understood that a forced merger would have a negative impact on the education provided to their communities.

Vermont Business Magazine The Robert Larner, MD College of Medicine at The University of Vermont (UVM), in collaboration with the UVM Health Network (UVMHN) and the UVM Medical Center, has announced that Randall F Holcombe, MD, MBA, has been appointed director of the UVM Cancer Center (UVMCC) and chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology in the Department of Medicine. Holcombe is expected to hold the newly established J Walter Juckett Chair in Cancer Research. He joins UVM and UVMHN from the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated University of Hawaii Cancer Center, where he has served as director since 2016. Holcombe will officially begin his tenure at UVM on August 1, 2021.

by Devon Green, VAHHS Vice President of Government Relations Much like the weather, April in the legislature often brings its share of chaos and frenzy as we head into the home stretch. While it’s usually exciting, the unpredictability of the legislature hits a bit differently this year. Under COVID, every time our hospitals get their feet under them, another operational challenge presented itself—procuring PPE, creating negative pressure spaces, suspending services, testing and screening, resuming services, and administering community vaccinations. As the prevalence of variants rise, we continue to see outbreaks that fill ICUs and other hospital beds. Hospital budgets statewide have only a $3 million operating margin on a $2 billion dollar system.

Vermont Business Magazine The Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports presents the Vermont Business Wellness Leader award annually to a Vermont business leader who goes beyond his/her occupational duties to foster wellbeing in the community. This person leads by example with motivational role modeling and generous service to the community. This person exhibits strong leadership in sustaining a culture of wellbeing. This person’s zeal for worksite wellness raises the bar for other employers.

by Jeff Tieman, VAHHS President and CEO In month 14 of COVID-19, almost 400,000 doses of life-saving vaccine have been administered in Vermont. Nearly 30 percent of Vermonters have completed vaccination. Some counties are at or near 50 percent in overall progress. It is worth pausing on these statistics. Flash back to one year ago this week: Growing case counts and hospitalizations, health care providers scrambling for PPE, staff levels depleted as schools shuttered, surge capacity sites activated, incident command in full effect across government and public health.

Vermont Business Magazine Applications are now being accepted for the 16h Annual Eileen Austin Neal Nursing Scholarship of $1,000. This scholarship is open to any student who has been accepted into a nursing program of study. Applicants will be judged on interest in and commitment to the field of nursing. Determination will be based on merit and need. Eileen Austin Neal was a registered nurse at Springfield Hospital for 64 years, retiring in 2005.

Vermont Business Magazine More than 14,000 Vermonters age 30 and older made appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine through the state registration system Monday, the first day that age group became eligible. The VDH is also reporting another 91 cases of COVID-19 or 476 since last Friday (with two more deaths for a statewide total of 231).

Vermont Business Magazine In 2019, the Vermont General Assembly passed Act 21, which, among other actions to protect Vermonters from the impacts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), directed the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to complete a comprehensive analysis to assess the feasibility of regulating PFAS as a class in public water systems. Regulating PFAS as a class would help protect Vermonters and provide greater regulatory certainty for municipalities and businesses. Following a multi-Agency review, DEC has concluded it is not feasible to regulate PFAS as a class at this time.

Vermont Business Magazine Hundreds of Vermont families have received a surprise gift of warmth thanks to the Split the Ticket Fund, a Vermont 501c3 non-profit organization. This innovative program matches cash donations with donations of heating oil, kerosene and propane from Vermont’s fuel providers. The delivery ticket is split with the fuel company. Every $1 donated buys $2 worth of heating fuel.

Vermont Business Magazine Mayor Miro Weinberger, the Burlington Electric Department, and other city team and community leaders today jointly announced that Burlington is off to a great start toward meeting its ambitious Net Zero Energy city by 2030 goal and that continuing to stay on track will require strong action during the rest of 2021 and beyond. The update to the 2019 Net Zero Energy Roadmap, the first since the 2018 baseline numbers were presented by Synapse Energy Economics and Resource Systems Group, concludes that the city is on the right path to reach its 2030 goal with reduced fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions in both 2019 and 2020.