Current News

by Rob Roper We have some pretty serious issues facing our state: a shrinking workforce, a public school system that is hemorrhaging students while it vacuums money, and a structural sate budget deficit, just to name just a few. These problems are not new, and the policies our state government has enacted to address them have not worked. Vermonters are now among the most highly taxed people in the country, but what do we have to show for it?

Today we spend roughly $1.6 billion to educate 77,000 K-12 students. That’s well over $20,000 per child, more than almost every other state in the union and nearly twice the national average. This is more than twice the total we paid before Act 60 became law in 1997, despite serving thirty thousand fewer kids in 2017.

Vermont Business Magazine The Brattleboro Retreat is pleased to announce that its Psychology Internship Program has been awarded a full seven year accreditation from the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Commission on Accreditation (CoA).

APA-CoA is recognized by both the secretary of the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation as the national accrediting authority for professional education and training in psychology.

“This is nothing short of national recognition for the high quality treatment and training that takes place at the Brattleboro Retreat,” said Kurt White, the Retreat’s Director of Ambulatory Services. “Very few APA accredited training programs are available in Vermont, and this will certainly help us attract the most qualified interns from across the U.S. to come here to train and work with us.”

Vermont Business Magazine Thanks to the generosity and support of the community, Rutland Regional Medical Center recently exceeded its $350,000 goal in support of the Early Detection Saves Lives campaign to bring new 3D breast imaging technology to our local region. The Rutland Health Foundation, the fundraising department of Rutland Regional Medical Center, reported $362,523 gifts and pledges raised as of 12/31/17.

“Community support continues to make a difference for our patients”, said Tom Huebner, Rutland Regional President and CEO. “We are truly grateful for the generosity and support received from our local community, our dedicated donors, as well as volunteers and staff who helped us reach this important goal to bring new 3D breast imaging technology to our local region”.

Vermont Business Magazine Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC) has opened SVMC Dentistry. The medical director for the practice is Michael Brady, DDS. He is joined by Richard Barbierri, DDS, and Russell O’Connell, DMD. “Proper dental care is essential to overall health, and there is a tremendous need for dental services in Bennington and the surrounding region,” said Trey Dobson, chief medical officer at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center and medical director of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Putnam Physicians.

The practice will be open 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday – Friday starting today and is located in the newly renovated suite 104 of the Medical Office Building at 140 Hospital Drive in Bennington. Both patients with and without dental coverage will be accepted.

Vermont Business Magazine Recently, Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center (MAHHC) hosted a special event to commemorate 20 years of its Windsor-based program Volunteers in Action (ViA), which supports local seniors with an array of volunteer services. Since 2001, ViA has served seven towns including Windsor, West Windsor, Reading, Hartland, and Weathersfield, Vermont, as well as Cornish and Plainfield, New Hampshire.

Continuing an annual tradition, dozens of volunteers, former volunteers, and community members gathered over lunch to commemorate the organization founded by the late Doug Hall and others in 1997. The event also paid tribute to all of the people who have contributed their time and energy to ViA—including 198 current volunteers who logged 33,066 hours this year. The meal for the event included a range of vegetarian and non-vegetarian options, and was served by non-ViA volunteers, with cider donated by Riverview Farms.

Vermont Business Magazine Patients with common musculoskeletal conditions who use opioids may be more satisfied but have poorer health when compared to patients who do not use opioids. That is one of the conclusions of a new study by researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and the University of Michigan. The team’s primary interest was to determine if patient’s perception of their care was associated with the number of opioid prescriptions they received from their health care providers.

Vermont Business Magazine Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine has again ranked The University of Vermont among the top best-value public colleges in the country. To compile its best-value list, Kiplinger’s first ranked schools based on measures of academic quality. It then factored in cost and financial aid measures. Quality criteria account for 55 percent of total points and cost criteria account for 45 percent.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont was the Number 10 Growth State for 2017, according to U-Haul data analyzing the past year's US migration trends. Year-over-year arrivals of one-way U-Haul truck rentals rose 6 percent while departures jumped 10 percent from Vermont's 2016 numbers. Despite the spike in departures, arriving trucks still accounted for 52.2 percent of all one-way U-Haul traffic in Vermont to keep it among the leading net-gain states. Vermont earned the Number 9 growth ranking for 2016 after climbing from Number 16 for 2015. Connecticut (8) was the only other Northeast state in the top 25, according to U-Haul.

Vermont Business Magazine In the northwest corner of Vermont, a unique public health movement is integrating wellness and prevention into the healthcare delivery system in an effort to keep Vermonters healthier. Instead of waiting for patients to come to doctor’s offices and hospitals when they are ill or injured, RiseVT is spearheading a comprehensive, community-based approach to promoting good health and preventing health problems before they happen.

Vermont Business Magazine The Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB) has approved the implementation of a new electronic health record system (EHR) across four hospital affiliates of the University of Vermont Health Network, which it says is a significant step that will enhance the delivery of high quality care with instant access to a patient’s most updated medical information. The new system will replace a patchwork of programs that do not communicate across hospital boundaries, often a barrier to providing the highest quality and coordinated care when patients receive treatment in multiple care settings. The project will use products from Epic Systems Corporation and cost $151.7 million over a six-year implementation period. UVM Health Network officials estimate replacing and maintaining the outdated systems currently in use would be significantly more expensive than installing the Epic system.

Vermont Business Magazine Mayor Miro Weinberger Sunday attended the Democratic Nominating Caucus at Burlington High School and delivered his 2018 re-election campaign kick-off speech. In his remarks, the mayor set forth three main themes and related goals of the city’s work ahead. The full text of the speech is below.

Vermont Business Magazine Carina Driscoll, Independent Candidate for Mayor of Burlington, issued the following statement following Mayor Weinberger's speech on Sunday: "What couldn’t be further from the truth is the Mayor’s statement that 'we aren’t selling Burlington.' The Mayor requested proposals, as recently as last month, essentially putting Memorial Auditorium on the market; inked a deal to sell a city lot to a developer for a hotel; made plans for a private marina on our public waterfront; and ensured Burlington Telecom will no longer have any meaningful local control. The Mayor’s highest bidder approach offloads our city’s assets and will not serve Burlington well in the long run. It can’t continue. It’s time for our city to have a Mayor who will return power to the people of Burlington, not concentrate it in City Hall."