Posts Tagged ‘Behavioral Health Licensing’

Behavioral Health Care Licensing Web Refresh

February 29th, 2012

Our Office of Behavioral Health Licensing website has a brand-new look.  Check out their new landing page.  Everyone can now enjoy an updated and easy to use web format. The new site includes easy access to AZ Care Check (where the user can get up to date survey and enforcement results for a 3 year history)…  and you’re one click away from being able to access the on-line complaint system where the user can file a complaint to any of the Departments licensing Programs 24/7. 

Our Licensees can get the latest information of rules, statues and other important information for them. Prospective licensees can find important information on how to apply for a license, needed forms and other pertinent information. The public also has available, in an easy to follow format, information they may want to know about our team and the facilities we license. Their newsletters are now available on line as is information concerning emergency preparedness.

 

No comments »

Posted in Behavioral Health

Tags:

Dogs and Residents

January 10th, 2012

The father of a person living in one of our licensed behavioral health residential facilities phoned in an after-hours complaint to our behavioral health licensing team on the Friday before Christmas Eve. Little did our team leader Bill McCarroll know when he answered the phone that he would hear graphic details of a brutal pit-bull attack- and he moved swiftly into action.

The father relayed a horrible account to Bill. His son was repeatedly bitten by one of two pit-bulls being kept in the facility. The parent recounted that the attack was so vicious that his son required a trip to the local hospital as well as countless stitches. To make matters worse, the father explained that the attack happened on Tuesday and the dog was still at the facility 3 days later!  Bill responded empathetically and immediately went into action Friday night- arriving on site within the hour.

Bill sought help from local law enforcement (as Maricopa County Animal Control was closed). The police assisted Bill to get a hold of animal control, and (as a result of Bill’s persistence), the dog that had attacked the client was removed. Bill remained on site and continued to observe the situation realizing quickly that the remaining dog was also at a high propensity for harming clients. Bill then called the owner of the facility, who was vacationing in Sedona to have the other dog removed from the facility that night.  Because of Bill’s dedication and quick action the vulnerable adults were kept safe over the Christmas holiday. The following week our team met with the facility owner, who implemented new pet policies to protect the health and safety of clients and staff.

1 comment »

Posted in Licensing

Tags:

Integration Licensing Forums

November 30th, 2011

Earlier this year the Governor signed HB 2634 which directs us to develop new rules for licensing places that can provide both behavioral and physical health services. We’re excited about this rulemaking because it supports our efforts to establish coordination and collaboration between all behavioral health and physical health providers. We’ve developed a preliminary plan to facilitate the integration of behavioral and physical health services in health care institutions.  As part of the plan… we’re holding public forums to share information about the plan starting today.

Anybody interested is invited, just simply sign-up for a forum soon, as seating capacity is limited!  We encourage input and participation in this important rulemaking process. We’ve also established a User Voice blog so that everyone has an opportunity to contribute their thoughts and opinions.

The first forum was this morning in Phoenix and it was packed.  Those who came had great questions and got a lot out of it.  There are three more forums that you can take part in -  December 9 (Tucson), December 14 (Mesa), and December 14 (Apache Junction).  More details are available on the behavioral health licensing rule website.

No comments »

Posted in General

Tags:

Going the Extra Mile

September 6th, 2011

Our behavioral health licensing team gets complaints from many sources- but seldom do we read about potentially dangerous conditions in the newspaper.  But that’s just what happened earlier this month.  Our licensing team awoke to read an article in a local newspaper in which the operator stated that they had laid off their clinical director, nurse, therapist and four caregivers; all key positions which ensure health and safety.  As a result, our team lead (Jewela Rice) opened a complaint and Coy Turner was sent out to investigate. Coy found an overall lack of compliance with the rules that compromised the safety and well- being of the four vulnerable adults residing there. 

He immediately notified his team lead (Jay McGahee) who put together a provider agreement that would address the immediate jeopardy that existed on site.  In the hours following, when the operator couldn’t fulfill the essential pieces of the safety plan, Coy and his Office Chief (Barb Lang) worked all weekend to ensure that the clients were OK and that trained staff were present. 

On Monday our team met with the operator to solidify a long-term plan to keep the clients supervised and safe as well as get the facility into compliance.  At the conclusion of the meeting, agreements were put in writing- but critical information was still needed to demonstrate compliance. Barb contacted all of the placing agencies expressing concern about items that were not met.  The placing agencies decided to relocate the folks to avoid any potential risk and/or harm to them. Ultimately, all 4 gentlemen were safely relocated to alternative licensed facilities. As we approach the long holiday weekend, we’re all proud that the families of these clients can feel confident that they are well cared for in a clean, well-staffed and trained environment.  Well done. 

By the way- curious about how well your loved one’s facility did on their last inspections?  Just check out AZ Care Check for the answers!

No comments »

Posted in General

Tags:

Adjusting Licensing to Accommodate Integration

April 13th, 2011

I’ve written often over the last few weeks about our priority over the next couple of years to better integrate primary healthcare and psychiatric care in AZ, and that last week HHS approved the Health Homes Planning Grant which will focus on improving coordination of care and increasing access to primary care and prevention services, resulting in meaningful improvements in quality of life and health status.

Making integration happen effectively will take coordination among numerous parts of the Department (much like the work that was required for medical marijuana).  We’ll need to coordinate updated IT and business needs as well as public health prevention and licensing, and of course behavioral health.  Licensing will be an especially important partner because our medical and behavioral health licensing teams inspect AZ treatment facilities.

One of the challenges that we’ve been facing as we begin our integration efforts is that the licensing rules for medical and behavioral health facilities sometimes make integration more difficult than it needs to be, and one of our goals over the coming months is to overhaul our administrative code (rules) for behavioral health facilities.    In the mean time, our offices of Medical and Behavioral Health Licensing has been working very closely with a number of our service providers in the central, eastern and southern areas of the state to ease the licensing process as Arizona embraces integrative health care. Presently, there are a series of projects under construction that we anticipate will be looking to license this summer.

As part of our overall planning for the implementation of integrative health care, we’ve been connecting with prospective licensees to provide technical assistance, concentrating on architectural requirements and rule and service delivery. By taking a proactive stance with licensees, we can cut down on additional visits to the site to navigate compliance at a later date. That way, providers can start meeting the needs of their community in underserved areas.

2 comments »

Posted in Licensing

Tags: