Each month, WHPRMS brings you Wisconsin health and medical news headlines, plus in-depth industry leader interviews and video clips. If you have links, news or information to share, contact Trish Reed. Here are four articles worth reading:

(April 2015)

DHS says low-income children more likely to have fair/poor health

According the Department of Health Services, less than 3% of children in Wisconsin had fair or poor health. The new factsheet also says kids who live in low-income families were five times more likely to have poorer health than those whose families made more.

The factsheet, which contained data from the 2009-11 Wisconsin Family Health Survey, said 34% of the state’s children live in low-income families, meaning their families make less than twice the federal poverty level. To read more, CLICK HERE.

Approximately 10% of advance practice nursing positions are vacant

According to a recent report by the Wisconsin Hospital Association, hospitals have the highest vacancy rates for advanced practice nurses, with nearly one in 10 positions empty.

According to the report, hospitals employ a growing number of nurses in advanced practice roles, such as in emergency rooms and specialty nursing units. But health care workers tend to be older, and their eventual retirement will create personnel shortages, it noted. The vacancy rates for pharmacists, physical therapists and other positions that have been reported as difficult to fill in the past have fallen below 5 percent, which may be due in part to expanding educational programs, the report noted. To read more, CLICK HERE.

New public reporting site

In March, the Wisconsin Health Information Organization launched a website rating primary care providers and measuring how clinics stack up against certain benchmarks.

According to Wisconsin Health News, MyHealthWI.org scores providers in internal medicine, family medicine and pediatrics. More specialties are expected in later versions. Information is drawn from WHIO’s Datamart, which includes commercial, Medicaid and Medicare Advantage claims. It plans to add Medicare fee-for-service data later in 2015.

Gov. Scott Walker provided WHIO $5 million in his 2013-’15 budget to create a consumer website and promote health literacy. The release of the site was pushed back after doctors wanted to make changes to the information, and WHIO waited for the latest version of its Datamart. To read more, CLICK HERE.

Nine Wisconsin-based health care organizations named “great places to work”

Becker’s Hospital Review released its list of the top 150 great places to work in healthcare last week. Those making the list were chosen for their benefits offerings, wellness programs, commitment to diversity and other factors. To see who made the list, CLICK HERE.

 This post was written and researched by Trish (Skram) Reed. If you have other news, resources or links to share, please comment below or email Trish (Skram) Reed, blogger and research content specialist for WHPRMS, at trishskram@gmail.com.