The Wausonian receives records request in Bridge Community Clinic investigation - a year and a half later

Plus more clarity (kind of) on the Monk Botanical Gardens situation

This ought to give readers an idea of what The Wausonian is dealing with here.

The good news is that The Wausonian received the results of a records request related to complaints filed with the federal government.

The bad news - that request was made in January… of 2023. And nearly everything pertinent is redacted.

I received the email on Monday, May 6, with a response and an explanation of the response. What did I ask for? It’s been so long that I had to look it up. But it turned out I had asked for three years worth of complaints about the Bridge Community Clinic to the Health Resources and Service Administration.

Why? A good number of you might not have been around for that story, so here is a reminder:

The gist is that Bridge Community Clinic, one of the only places in the area where low-income people can receive dental care, seemed to have a perpetual shortage of dentists and medical care providers. Past and present employees told me it was because not much emphasis was placed on hiring and that the place had become toxic, which started at the top. Because of that, they claimed, no one wanted to work there. This meant the one place in the Wausau area designed specifically to help low-income residents get dental care wasn’t able to help them much.

Director Jen Smith disputed that claim and detailed their attempts to hire dentists. But workplace ranking sites such as Glassdoor detailed a number of complaints from former employees in recent years. There weren’t nearly as many such complaints from years past.

Other allegations around COVID relief funds also surfaced, and but I never felt I had enough to go on. I’d hoped the records request would give me more solid info.

But more might be coming to life soon as a new source has emerged.