Gov. Scott Walker holds Olivia Block, 2 1/2 weeks, for a demonstration of oxygen saturation monitoring by Stuart Berger, medical director of the Herma Heart Center of Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Credit: Gary Porter

SHARE Special Report Deadly Delays: The nation's newborn screening programs depend on speed and science to save babies from rare diseases. But thousands of hospitals fall short, deadly delays are ignored and failures are hidden from public view — while babies and their families suffer. Go to section

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Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill Monday that would allow Wisconsin to join at least 31 other states in requiring all newborn babies to be tested for the No. 1 killer of infants with birth defects.

The measure, which had languished for nearly two years in the Legislature but passed with wide support, was signed during a ceremony at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

"This simple little test is about $4 and can save a life," Walker said.

Many hospitals in the state are already testing babies voluntarily for critical congenital heart disease, but a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation in December revealed that more than a dozen were not performing the test. A 2010 study found that nine newborns in Wisconsin died at home or in the emergency room over a five-year period because their critical congenital heart disease went undetected.

Last fall, a baby born at a small hospital that was not routinely performing the test almost died, according to J. Carter Ralphe, chief of pediatric cardiology at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.

In December, when Walker was first asked by a reporter about delays in getting the legislation passed, he said he was unaware of the issue. He said his office looked into the issue after that, but it was the Journal Sentinel series that really focused the Legislature's attention on the issue and helped the legislation get passed.

"I would think in the next few weeks we can move on this quickly," Walker said.

By itself, the new law won't mandate the quick $4 test for critical congenital heart disease, a condition that affects about 1 in 4,800 babies born in the United States. Rather, it would allow the state Department of Health Services to begin writing rules requiring that hospitals carry out the test as part of the newborn screening program.

The current law lets the department approve tests that involve blood or urine but not other tests. The test for critical congenital heart disease uses powerful light emitted through the skin to measure the oxygen levels in the blood. Low oxygen levels often signal heart defects.

Strictly speaking, "it is not a state dictated mandate," said Stuart Berger, a pediatric cardiologist at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, which had pushed for such legislation. "Yet we are extremely pleased that it points to the importance of the test that we are working so hard to institute at the 100% level across the state."

Berger credited the Journal Sentinel with the bringing the issue the public's attention.

Nicole Hudzinski of the American Heart Association, which had pushed for such a measure, said she was hopeful that statewide screening for heart disease could be mandated for all babies born in Wisconsin in the coming months.

"But there are certain things that are out of our control on that," she said.

The legislation simply gives the Department of Health Services the right to seek input for setting up statewide screening for new disorders that don't require a blood draw or urine test.

Sen. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa), who chairs the Senate committee where the bill languished, said she could not provide a timetable on how long it will take but said, "I don't think it will take very long."

Sen. Jerry Petrowksi (R-Marathon), the bill's lead sponsor in the Senate, said he would like to see the bill completed in the next month.

"This is going to happen and it is going to happen soon," he said.

Pulse oximetry uses infrared light to check for oxygen saturation levels in the blood, which can be a sign of a heart defect.

With the new legislation, anyone can nominate a condition for screening that, in turn, can be reviewed by a newborn screening committee that advises the department, said Stephanie Smiley, speaking for the department.

If the committee recommends adding a test, the secretary of the department can start rules promulgation to add it the list of conditions that are tested for at birth, she said.

It is unclear how long that will take.

Hudzinski of the Heart Association said it was eager to start working with the department to add the test.

"As research and technology advance, so should our newborn screening program," she said. "Pulse oximetry doesn't involve the baby's blood or urine, but it's just as important and just as lifesaving as blood- and urine-based screenings."

Wisconsin already requires a blood test that involves screening for 44 potentially deadly conditions, many of which emerge in the first few days of life. A Journal Sentinel investigation found many hospitals here and nationwide were not sending the blood samples to state labs in a timely manner.

Introduced in early 2012 and again the following year, bills to require the critical congenital heart disease test languished in Senate and Assembly committees, opposed by the Wisconsin Hospital Association and the committee chairs.