DAILY BRIEFING

Milwaukee hospital staffing putting patients at risk

JR Radcliffe
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

I'm JR Radcliffe and this is the Daily Briefing newsletter by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Sign up here to get it sent to your inbox each morning.

Brace yourself for a snowy weekend. We're likely to get some more snow on Friday (though less than half an inch) with some breezy conditions and a high near 33. Expect highs only in the mid-20s over the weekend, with a possible 1-2 inches of snow Saturday afternoon before a sunnier (but colder) Sunday, with a high of 22.

Staffing shortcomings putting patients in jeopardy, leading to more doctors leaving at Ascension hospital

Ascension Columbia St. Mary's Hospital on North Lake Drive in Milwaukee.

A Journal Sentinel investigation by Jessica Van Egeren and Sarah Volpenhein dug into the problems at Ascension Columbia St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee, where short-staffing has led to concerns about patient safety and driven more workers to leave.

The Journal Sentinel spoke to more than a dozen current and former physicians, nurses and patients at Columbia St. Mary's and reviewed state and federal inspection records. The findings: Columbia St. Mary’s is reeling from staffing challenges that have caught the attention of regulators, and those shortages have resulted in disruptions to patient care, long wait times in the emergency department, delayed surgeries and staff concerns about patient safety.

The story provides broader context and examples that show how the lack of staffing has compromised patient care — some patients went days or weeks without a bath and another developed bed sores because nobody had repositioned the patient. Another patient couldn't get anyone's attention for about 10 minutes after experiencing chest pain and difficulty breathing, even after yelling for help and pulling an emergency cord.

"They never had enough nurses or enough aides in any department that I ever worked in," said one traveling nurse who formerly worked in the building. "It's severe understaffing where you have probably twice the amount of patients you should."

Ascension is one of the biggest medical providers in Wisconsin, and the story also looks at the broader context of staffing issues facing hospitals across the country.

Another Milwaukee Public Museum story to follow

President and CEO Ellen Censky is shown among some of the drawers holding some of the 800,000 items in the geology collection Wednesday, May 11, 2022 at the Milwaukee Public Museum, 800 W. Wells St. in Milwaukee, Wis. Most of the geology collection are fossils from the region. The Milwaukee Public Museum and Betty Brinn Children's Museum will be relocating to  east of North Sixth Street, between West McKinley Avenue and West Vliet Street, in a 230,000-square-foot building in 2026.

The Milwaukee Public Museum has been a hot topic in recent weeks, even though the relocation to a new building won't happen until 2026.

An intriguing question awaits: Will the museum's collection of 1,600 Native American remains be returned to their respective tribes?

The museum holds one of the 20 largest collections of unrepatriated Native American remains in the United States, and all of the remains are sitting in storage (and have been for some time). So why not just … give them back? The museum has, in some cases, but it doesn't receive grant funding for repatriation efforts and has one full-time and one part-time staffer working on the issue, so it isn't a quick and simple situation. There's also a question of properly identifying which remains belong where and the lengthy mandates a museum and tribal representatives must adhere to in fulfilling the requests.

But critics suggest it's a lack of will to remedy the wrongs of gathering these remains in the first place. The story by Vanessa Swales and Frank Vaisvilas goes into the role the museum played in archeological excavations and the process of repatriation.

Milwaukee basketball is having a moment

UW-Milwaukee guard Kentrell Pullian (12) hits a three-point basket during the second half of their game Thursday, January 19, 2023 at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena in Milwaukee, Wis. UW-Milwaukee beat Robert Morris 77-69.

The Milwaukee Bucks, despite some injury issues, remain one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. The Marquette Golden Eagles men's basketball team was picked to finish near the bottom of the Big East this year, but ope, they're contending for a league title and prominent seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

Add UW-Milwaukee to the party. Under first-year coach Bart Lundy, the program has gone from a mid-tier team in the Horizon League to an overnight success contending for its own crown. The Panthers haven't been to the NCAA men's tournament since 2014, but this year could change that. Like Marquette, the Panthers were picked to finish near the bottom of their conference.

“I’m big on game-changing,” said BJ Freeman, a standout who represents one of the many newcomers on the roster. “Our JUCO didn’t win in 40 years and we won a (conference) championship and made the Elite Eight there. When I took my visit here they were telling me (about the struggles).

“I feel the love here in Milwaukee.”

Don't miss these

Milwaukee musician and filmmaker Wes Tank began posting videos rapping Dr. Seuss books over beats from Dr. Dre songs. The first video cracked the top 20 on YouTube's trending charts. Together, the videos have been seen millions of times.

JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.

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