Stabenow, Levin Secure Millions for Michigan Labor, Health Care, and Education Projects

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Carl Levin (D-MI) have secured millions for Michigan hospitals, schools, and other organizations in the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Fiscal Year 2008 Appropriations Bill Conference Report, which was approved by the Senate today. The report will now go to the House for approval, then to the President for his signature or veto.

"This funding is an investment in our state's continued and future success," Stabenow said. "We are training first responders to serve our rural communities, ensuring continued access to high-quality health care, supporting innovation and technological development in our schools, all while creating new jobs. I encourage the President to sign this legislation that is so critical for education and the safety and health of Michigan families."

“This bill provides critical funding to supply Michigan’s health care professionals with cutting-edge training and simulation programs, to use technology more effectively in the classroom, and to bring displaced workers back into the workforce,” said Levin. “By investing in crucial traumatic brain injury research programs, this legislation will also help fulfill the responsibility we all share to do everything we can to help our returning servicemen and women.”

The following projects will receive funding:

$255,000 for Henry Ford Health System (Detroit): This funding will be used to help support the Henry Ford Health System’s Center for Simulation Education and Research (SIM), which has played a lead role in job training in the Detroit area. The SIM Center will train students entering the workforce as well as practicing clinicians through advanced techniques including technical simulations of procedures, simulated patient interactions and team evaluations of complex care issues in classroom and research settings. The Center will house the most advanced robotic surgery system including 3-D imaging technology that can be used in the operating room and is visually connected to the SIM Center.

$210,000 for Northeast Guidance Center, Family Life Center (Detroit): The Family Life Center provides resources for unemployed and single-parent families, including a multi-generational literacy program, skills training, childcare, health assessments, and family therapy. This funding will be used to increase reading, life skills, and workforce preparedness for parents, school success for youth, and to improve the overall health, education, and safety of Detroit families.

$340,000 for Eastern Michigan University (Ypsilanti): This funding will be used for Eastern Michigan University’s program to support the educational retraining needs of displaced workers/adult learners in the state. These new skills will help these displaced workers rejoin Michigan’s workforce.

$170,000 for the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program (Detroit): This funding will help the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program modify curriculums to incorporate recent technology advancements such as: nanotechnology, fuel cell, alternative energy, biomechanics, and smart materials. This program will help Michigan be a leader in the developing fields of life sciences, chemical engineering, nanotechnology, homeland security and alternative energy.

$595,000 for Kids Kicking Cancer, Heroes’ Circle Program (Detroit): This program uses martial arts to empower children facing serious physical and psychological challenges. Kids Kicking Cancer operates programs for children with cancer, sickle cell disease, obesity, asthma and anger management issues in Detroit hospitals and schools. This funding will be used to open additional programs at hospitals and schools in Michigan, and substantially increase the number of children served.

$425,000 for Mott Community College (Flint): This funding will be used to support Mott’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM), located at Mott College’s Regional Technology Center. CAM works with regional companies and uses virtual and physical tools to support Michigan’s manufacturing community by creating a pilot and demonstration site containing robotic workcells, laser machining, and water jet cutting platforms to develop solutions to manufacturing projects and problems.

$255,000 for Alpena Community College (Alpena): This funding will help Alpena Community College improve its rural first-responders program, which provides emergency management and first-responder training to assist communities throughout northern Michigan. The program will also enhance the capability of regional emergency personnel to integrate with other departments and agencies to provide a sustained response to a state or national incident.

$300,000 for St. Francis Hospital (Escanaba): This project will renovate St. Francis Hospital Emergency Department and consolidate the Urgent Care Clinic into an expanded setting, fostering safe, efficient, patient-centered hospital services. Project details include a single point of entry for urgent and emergency care; updating and expanding the emergency patient treatment area; and providing isolation rooms and decontamination facilities for use in the case of a toxic chemical exposure or terrorist incident.

$425,000 for the Michigan Health and Hospital Association: This funding will be used to help support the Keystone: Surgery program, which is a statewide project to improve quality of care and patient safety in hospital surgery settings. National measures for some surgical safety activities have been developed, but little work has been done to help hospitals improve care based on those measures. As part of the nationally-recognized Keystone Center for Patient Safety and Quality, this new program would pair national experts with hospital teams throughout Michigan to focus on the elimination of surgical-site infections, the improvement of safety and teamwork climate in surgical settings, and the prevention of other serious and costly medical errors.

$600,000 for Focus:HOPE: This funding will help Focus:HOPE’s Center for Advanced Technologies with the creation of a state-of-the-art experiential learning laboratory within a real-world manufacturing and research and development setting, and will provide significant opportunity for primarily underrepresented individuals to obtain critical hands-on exposure to advanced technologies and innovation. It will further encourage Focus: HOPE’s academic partners, including University of Michigan, Wayne State University, University of Detroit Mercy, Lawrence Technological University, and Lehigh University among others, to engage with undergraduate students in an experiential learning lab on the Focus: HOPE campus.

Other:

$8.4 Million in Funding for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Model Systems of Care program: This funding will ensure that none of the 16 research centers, including the Detroit research center, will be closed. Each research center produces quick, high-quality, and cost-efficient studies of traumatic brain injuries. These TBI centers collaborate with research done by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to help our brave veterans returning from service. The TBI Model Systems of Care program remains the nation’s number one program to determine the types of interventions that best facilitate long-term recovery following a brain injury.