La Crosse Medical Health Science Consortium

La Crosse Medical Health Science Consortium, Inc. was formed for the purpose of fostering collaboration among education and healthcare organizations for healthier communities. The Consortium represents an alliance between a public university (university of wisconsin-la Crosse), an independent university (viterbo university), a technical college (western technical college), two Medical centers (mayo clinic Health system and gundersen Health system), the La Crosse county Health department, and the school district of La Crosse. Accomplishments include establishment and management of the Health Science center, a 186,000 sq ft facility that houses teaching, research and office accomodations for faculty and staff of three of the participating partners. The Health Science center also houses the student Health center for both uwl and western technical college students, the gundersen Health system microbiology research program, the La Crosse institute for movement Science, specialty teaching labs for allied Health programs, and the La Crosse school district's Health Science academy. The Consortium coordinates a multi-agency effort to improve the county Health ranking of La Crosse county by collaborating with Health and human service organizations in chronic disease management, mental Health promotion, infectious disease prevention, and injury and violence prevention. It is also the fiscal agent and coordinator for several efforts to address behavioral Health improvement of La Crosse county. The Consortium works with healthcare and education institutions to improve cultural competence among staff. The Consortium works with nursing staff and nurse educators from the region to coordinate clinical placements of nursing students and to pilot new education models for clinical sites. This team also works to recruit and retain nurse educators in the region.