Vermont Business Magazine The Renal Dialysis team at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), part of Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC), was the recipient of the DAISY Team Award for Extraordinary Nurses in September. This was the first time SVMC has honored a team with a DAISY award.

Vermont Business Magazine Mayor Weinberger on Monday announced next steps toward ending the unsafe living conditions at the Sears Lane encampment, and expanding short- and mid-term housing services in Burlington during this period of acute housing shortage. Dangerous incidents at the site have included police and federal law enforcement partners executing a warrant following a month-long narcotics investigation and a camper pointing an assault-style airsoft gun (a replica pellet gun) at Burlington Fire personnel who were responding to a medical call.  The Fire Department has also determined that some of the structures that have been erected illegally on the site pose a significant fire risk to occupants and other campers on the site. 

by Julie Lowell, Public Assets Institute The pandemic has demanded quick responses from government over the past 18 months, from protecting public health to making sure Vermonters had food, shelter, and financial security during an unprecedented economic rollercoaster. On the whole, our government has gotten a lot of things right: access to testing and treatment for COVID-19, a massive vaccine rollout in a matter of weeks, and financial support to Vermonters who needed it. Most of the funding came from the feds, but the Vermont Legislature and the governor deserve a lot of credit for their part in the pandemic response.

by John McClaughry I consider myself a long time champion of local democracy. I co-wrote with Frank Bryan a book subtitled “recreating democracy on a local scale” (The Vermont Papers, 1989). But over the years I have occasionally had the thought that there can also be a problem with local democracy, when powerful outside forces are brought to bear on local decision making.

​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 Brown University’s Associate Vice President for Campus Life and Executive Director of Health and Wellness Vanessa Britto, MD, on its October 20 program. The show will air at 12 p.m. She will share the university’s pioneering role as one of the first institutions to mandate COVID vaccines for students and staff.