La Crosse Medical Health Science Consortium

Fostering collaboration for healthier communities

The Consortium was founded in 1993 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and a collaboration of the five founding partner institutions. While it was created in response to projected health care workforce shortages, it also facilitates improvements in regional health and healthcare and supports applied research in health and medically related disciplines.

The first project of the Consortium was to establish the Health Science Center, a facility for education and research that would house programs of the partnering institutions. The building was opened in the summer of 2000 and today is home to programs, classes, and research efforts of Gundersen Health System, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and Western Technical College.

In 2005, the Consortium began engaging not only within their partnership but in the community, recognizing the value of the education/healthcare collaboration to the community at large. Several teams were established to explore project work in the areas of improving population health, addressing healthcare workforce shortages, increasing graduates in healthcare programs, and finding collaborations among researchers. Today, we are involved in a number of community-based projects that reach beyond the core partnership into our surrounding region.

In 2009, the La Crosse County Health Department and the School District of La Crosse joined the Consortium as partners.

 

Mission:  "Fostering collaboration for healthier communities"

What are we doing to accomplish our mission of "fostering collaboration for healthier communities"?

 

The Consortium acts in many roles, depending on the needs of the community.  We can serve as a leader of a collaborative effort, a convener of partners, a participant in coalitions and teams, or an assistant to organizations seeking shared funding or planning.

 

 

We work both internally, to help our partners and their collaborators find common solutions to issues that affect everyone, and externally, assisting community partners and collaboratives with managing complex projects and encouraging dialogue within the community through events and presentations.

 

Here are some of our key efforts:

 

Nurse Networking Summit

Nurse Networking is a group of nurses throughout the community who are actively engaged in a variety of nursing services (including retired volunteer work). Their purpose is to create opportunities for our profession to come together in a softer way-not for the primary goal of continuing education, but for the primary goal of helping us remember why we chose nursing as a profession and why we still feel this is a worthy job. By creating the opportunity to meet others who are very different than us and yet united in several key ways, we can find support and personal growth for ourselves and for our mission.  Summit is usually held in early spring.
 

2023 Presenter:  Lacey Heward

Lacey Heward is an explorer of the human experience. Growing up with a spinal cord injury forced Heward to adapt early and get comfortable with the uncomfortable. With resilience and persistence, Heward had early success representing the United States as a two-time Paralympic medalist and World Champion in downhill Alpine skiing. Heward has undergone two live donor kidney transplants, each one from loving and healthy sisters. In midlife, Heward began experiencing severe anxiety, panic attacks, and depression caused by medication and childhood and medical trauma. Heward sought professional support and found recovery through EMDR trauma and talk therapy. Today, Heward works as a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist and is training at the University of Wisconsin - Madison as a Certified trauma informed Life Coach to encourage people to reach for their greatest joy and life fulfillment. Heward shares that, at our core, everyone has the desire to be heard and seen for a reason. Each of our unique and important voices of experience lends to understanding humanity as a whole. In her spare time, Heward writes original songs, plays guitar, rides her adaptive mountain bike, crochets hats, and plays with her thirteen sled dogs with her husband, Benjamin Thompson, CTRS at Mayo Clinic. 

Website     Facebook     You Tube

Resource List

Cultural Competence Learning Modules and Other Resources

An online curriculum and other resources to assist healthcare workers and others improve their competencies interacting with patients and their families from different cultures. Adaptable to any online Learning Management System.  Click here to view>>

Healthcare Career Programs

A comprehensive guide to the region's academic programs offered for those seeking to enter or advance in a healthcare career. Click here to view>>

Online Clinical Placement of Nursing Students

Working from a base software called Student Link, developed by HealthForce Minnesota, this online tool assists academic institutions and healthcare providers to match up the needs and availability of clinical sites for area nursing students and other allied health professions.  Each semester, local academic institutions request the clinical sites needed for their respective programs.

Publications

Burden of Risky Alcohol Use in La Crosse County (2017)

The final report describing alcohol trends in La Crosse County from the Changing the Culture of Risky Drinking Behavior Coalition.

Click here to view>>

 

Burden of Health Disparities in Chronic Illnesses (2014)>

A report describing disparities in chronic disease outcomes related to differences in race, age, income, and other socioeconomic factors.

Click here to view>>

 

Burden of Mental Illness Report (2011)

A report detailing the impact of mental illness on the greater La Crosse region.

Click here to view>>

 

Burden of Obesity and Physical Inactivity Report (2009)

A report describing the economic impact on the community of obesity and a lack of physical activity in the population.

Click here to view>>

 

• President

  Kevin Dean
  Western Technical College
  Dean of Health and Public Safety

• Vice President/Secretary

  Scott Rathgaber
  Gundersen Health System
  Chief Executive Officer

• Treasurer

  Robert Hetzel
  University of Wisconsin - La Crosse
  Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance

 

• Ju Kim
  University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
  Dean, College of Science and Health
• Erik St. Louis
  Mayo Clinic Health System - Franciscan Healthcare
  Research Chair - Southwest WI Region
• Aaron Engel
  School District of La Crosse
  Superintendent
• Megan Smith
  Viterbo University
  Associate Professor, Chair BSN-T Program, School of Nursing
• Roger Stanford
  Western Technical College
  President
• Kraig Schuster
  Gundersen Health System
  Vice President, Team 4 and Critical Access Hospitals
• Audra Martine
  La Crosse County Health Department
  Director/Health Officer
• Carolyn Flock
  Mayo Clinic Health System - Franciscan Healthcare
  Program Manager, Research Operations
•  

La Crosse Medical Health Science Consortium

1300 Badger St., Office 3065

La Crosse, WI 54601, U.S.A.

ph: 608.785.5150

fx: 608.785.5154

info@lacrosseconsortium.org