Improving Outcomes for Pediatric Brain Injury

May 16th, 2012 by Will Humble No comments »

A quick and effective response is critical when you have a brain injury.  That’s why our Excellence in Pre-hospital Injury Care Project is so critical.  It’s a unique NIH funded collaboration between the ADHS and the U of A College of Medicine’s Emergency Medicine Research Center.  More than 150 EMS agencies in AZ are now participating- which aims to improve survival from moderate and severe traumatic brain injury by changing how the pre-hospital world responds to brain trauma. 

This project will save countless lives by improving the survival rates of children with traumatic brain injury by implementing pre-hospital guidelines…  but it could also help children recover more fully from brain trauma. Our study will help EMS providers throughout the state apply guidelines and measure their success.  In a nutshell- AZ pre-hospital agencies will be implementing guidelines that have been studied across the country and measuring outcomes so we can improve our system and set a new standard for the country.  For more info go to www.epic.arizona.edu

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Up to Us!

May 15th, 2012 by Will Humble No comments »

Arizona is way over the limit – almost 2/3rds of us are overweight or obese.  A report released last week shows that the cost to all of us is $190 billion every year.  There’s a great opportunity happening right now with a national push to fight the obesity problem. 

The CDC, along with HBO, The Institutes of Medicine and several private partners created a series of documentaries, called Weight of the Nation, to highlight the situation and spark action from all of us.  You can see parts 3 and 4 tonight at 8 p.m. on HBO or you can watch them all online.

I’ve told you about one of our staff, Matt Gainey, who made tremendous strides to change his health.  Matt is just one of many success stories in Arizona.  We’ve created a website that collects stories like Matt’s as well as success stories from communities across the state.  Let us know what you’ve done to make a difference in your community – together we can put the brakes on the growth of obesity and work for people to have health at every size.

“Update: We were incorrect in the earlier posting about free access to HBO. In fact, if you are not an HBO subscriber, you can watch the documentary online for free here: http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/”

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ADHS is Seeking an Insightful, Creative Leader for Behavioral Health

May 15th, 2012 by Will Humble No comments »

Do you think you can help us in “Promoting Health and Wellness for all Arizonans”.  That’s the motto here at ADHS and we are looking for a new leader to join our Behavioral Health team.

We’re looking for an Assistant Director who is insightful and can see the forest and trees at the same time.  This person oversees general business operations, contract compliance and work on policy development.  We’re looking for a caring, forward thinker to join our team that cares for all the folks in the public behavioral health system.

Visit the state jobs website and put in health services.  We’ll start reviewing applicants after May 25th.

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Weight of the Nation – Free HBO

May 14th, 2012 by Will Humble No comments »

Update: We were incorrect in the earlier posting about free access to HBO. In fact, if you are not an HBO subscriber, you can watch the documentary online for free here: http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/

We don’t shy away from tough battles in public health.  Through the last century, we’ve tackled all types of diseases, worked with public infrastructure to provide healthy water, fought to reduce teen pregnancies, but there’s one battle we haven’t won.  Some folks may remember it as the Battle of the Bulge – it hasn’t gone away and it is a “growing” concern.

Nationwide and in Arizona, more than two out of three adults are overweight or obese. Matter of fact, we’re 15th in the country for childhood obesity. 

The fight has new life today with new partners jumping in to help.  You can watch the Weight of the Nation special for free on HBO tonight and tomorrow at 8 pm.  The series of documentaries look at the consequences, choices, challenges and children in crisis.  The Institutes of Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Kaiser Permanente joined HBO in making the series.

We’ve created a special website to show what is available to help you if you’re looking to make a change – either for yourself or in your community.  One of the things we want to do is share stories that work.  Pin your story to our Pinterest page or fill out a survey.

This is an ongoing effort in Arizona . If you don’t get the chance to watch HBO tonight, you can watch it online or come to ADHS this summer.  We’re going to host a viewing with opportunities to talk about how to change the direction of the obesity problem.  I’ll keep you posted.

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Dispensary Application Window Opens

May 14th, 2012 by Will Humble 1 comment »

Today marks the start of the 2-week window for applying for a medical marijuana dispensary Registration Certificate in Arizona.  Prospective applicants can check out our Registration Certificate Application Checklist, Instructions, and the official Application on our Medical Marijuana Dispensary webpage.  In the first two hours, seven people had dropped off applications.

We’ll start reviewing applications as they come in- and we’ll stop taking applications at the close of business on May 25.  We’ll have 30 working days to review the applications- and folks will have 20 working days to submit any documents or information that were missing during our review of the application.  We expect to award all of the Medical Marijuana Dispensary Registration Certificates on August 7.  If there’s only 1 qualified applicant in a Community Health Analysis Area- that applicant will be awarded a Registration Certificate.  We’ll be holding a random drawing on August 7 to award Registration Certificates in the CHAAs with more than 1 qualified applicant.

We’ll refresh our dispensary application page every weekday around the close of business to show how many applications we’ve received by Community Health Analysis Area.

 

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Chronicle Public Health on May 15 (Tuesday)

May 11th, 2012 by Will Humble No comments »

Join thousands of public health professionals around the globe next Tuesday by using your iPhone or BlackBerry or whatever and chronicling public health.  May 15 is “A Day” and it’s a global event designed to create and share inspiring perspectives on daily life through photography.  Public health folks and organizations can submit photos that capture a day in the life of public health in their communities.  You can upload your photos between May 15 and the 22nd by visiting the “A Day” FAQs page (which will go live on the 15th)

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AZ Legal Options Guide

May 11th, 2012 by Will Humble No comments »

One of my jobs is to serve on the AZ Developmental Disabilities Planning Council (DDPC).  We have lots of goals- and one of them is to help folks with disabilities, their families and caregivers to learn about options that are available when an adult with a disability needs legal help to manage one or more facets of his or her life.  One of the ways we do that is by funding projects to develop and update info on Arizona’s laws in this area… and we just published our newest AZ Legal Options Guide- written by the Arizona Center for Disability Law and the Native American Disability Law Center.  In it, you’ll be able to answer questions like: 

“I like living on my own, but I have some trouble with remembering to set aside money for all my bills. I have my own job and earn my own money, but I could use some help. How can I give someone the ability to help me with my finances without giving away my independence?” 

“I think my daughter can live on her own, but I worry that she will spend her Social Security check and won’t have money for her bills. How can I help her manage her money without taking away her independence?” 

“My son just turned 18 and his school is telling me that I am no longer invited to his Individualized Education Plan meeting, but my son still wants me to participate in the IEP process. What can I do? ” 

“I am trying to find out about vocational rehabilitation benefits but I am having a hard time figuring out what I need to do. Can I have someone help me in this process?” 

The new AZ Legal Options Guide was written to help folks find ways to help people with a disability get assistance while preserving individual rights.  Add this to your toolkit.

 

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Interim AD for Licensing

May 10th, 2012 by Will Humble No comments »

 Colby Bower will serve as our Interim Assistant Director for Licensing while we recruit and hire a permanent Assistant Director.  Colby has been serving as our Legislative Affairs chief for the last couple of years.

Colby fills several of the criteria that we needed for the interim post: 1) He’s a good risk manager and has a good understanding of the importance of Stakeholder relations; 2) He understands the matrix of our statutes and rules- and knows that we need to exercise our authority through the prism of public health; 3) He’s good with people; and 4) Now that the legislative session is over- he’ll have the time needed to invest in the program.  Our Operations folks are busy doing all of the IT, finance and legal things to get Colby the authority and tools he’ll need in his post.

We’ve already announced our recruitment for a permanent Assistant Director.  I blogged about the recruitment yesterday, including a hot link to the job announcement on ADOA’s website.  Our goal is to complete the recruitment process and hire a permanent AD this summer.

 

Join me in welcoming and thanking Colby for his willing to fill this important post while we go through the full recruiting process!

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Public Health Budget

May 9th, 2012 by Will Humble No comments »
 The Governor signed the budget this week – here’s a look at how some of it affects public health:

Behavioral Health Services for folks that don’t Qualify for Medicaid

The budget that was just signed includes about $39M in new funding for services for folks with a serious mental illness that don’t qualify for Medicaid.  With it, we’ll be able to provide some services like supported employment and housing, peer and family support, living skills training, and health promotion to help folks along their Recovery journey.  We’ll also be expanding the list of medications for the folks with a serious mental illness so it matches the list for folks that qualify for Medicaid.  Our behavioral health team has already begun working closely with the RBHAs, providers, and members/families to plan for the most effective use of this funding.

Newborn Screening

Our newborn screening program has been running in the red for the last couple of years- despite the fact that we’ve squeezed just about every efficiency out of the program and are collecting more than 95% of our service fees.  The current screening fee is $30 for the 1st (hospital) screen and $40 for the 2nd (which happens in the pediatric office a couple of weeks after birth).  These fees haven’t been raised in several years- meanwhile the instruments and reagents we use have become increasingly expensive.  We’ve been supplementing the program with Title V funds that really should be used for other more effective purposes. The budget that was just signed allows us to set new fees for the 2nd screen in Rule…  and we’ll be starting that process shortly.

County Contribution toward Hospital Patients and Residents

The “Budget Reconciliation Bill” or BRBs included specific instructions regarding how much counties are obligated to pay (50%) for the patients and residents at the Hospital and ACPTC (the sexually violent person’s unit).

ASH Administration building

Hospital Operating Fund

Despite all our efforts to reduce overtime, cut shift overlap, streamline services and other efficiency measures- our hospital operating fund was headed for big trouble next fiscal year- partly because the Hospital Fund (which had provided funds to operate the Hospital) went dry. The state budget that was just signed rescued us from needing to cut our staffing ratio’s to below Licensing standards (which would have put us in jeopardy of losing Medicare and Medicaid funds).  Whew.

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Dispensary Medical Direction is a Go

May 8th, 2012 by Will Humble 8 comments »

One of the outstanding legal uncertainties regarding our implementation of AZ Medical Marijuana Act has been the Compassion First v. Brewer  lawsuit that challenged our authority to require future dispensaries to have a Medical Director.  We’ve always thought dispensary medical  direction was a key component to making sure that future dispensaries act in the best interest of patients and prevent recreational diversion.   After a judge’s ruling today, it looks like we’ll be OK.

Today a Maricopa Superior Court judge denied the Plaintiffs’ “Motion for Leave” to Amend their previous Complaint (which the court invalidated some of our dispensary selection criteria).  The Compassion First were attempting to re-open the case to challenge our requirement that dispensaries have a medical director. 

In his opinion (that largely tracks our argument), the judge denied their Motion, finding that the Plaintiffs failed to provide an adequate basis for declining to bring the medical director challenge in their initial complaint and that we (and the public) would be unduly prejudiced if the Court were to grant their Motion.  Of course, the Compassion First plaintiffs could always appeal- but (for now) the upshot is that we can require future dispensaries to have medical direction.

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