Posts Tagged ‘State Lab’

Arizona State Public Health Laboratory celebrates Laboratory Professionals Week!

April 17th, 2013

Guest post from Kathryn Wangsness, Chief for the Office of Laboratory Services

The Arizona State Public Health Lab is celebrating the dedication of its laboratory personnel next week as part of Laboratory Professionals Week.  Laboratory Professionals Week was originally established to honor the more than 300,000 scientists, technicians and pathologists who perform testing vital to the health and safety of their communities. 

As part of its celebration, the Arizona Public Health Laboratory will be conducting a presentation of the history of the Lab as well as tours on Wednesday, April 24th.  Tours are available at 11:30 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm.  Please make reservations for participating in a tour by email at sally.andrade@azdhs.gov or by calling (602) 364-0595 as tour group sizes are limited.  Anyone interested in learning more about the history of the Arizona State Public Health Laboratory are invited to visit the Laboratory’s centennial webpage: http://www.azdhs.gov/lab/centennial.htm or http://www.azdhs.gov/lab/index.htm.

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Tonight’s Midwifery Scope of Practice Meeting

April 3rd, 2013

Our Midwifery Scope of Practice Advisory Committee Meeting is meeting from 4 to 6 pm this evening in the Lab conference room (250 N 17 Avenue, Phoenix).  The Agenda includes a discussion of the draft U of A Literature Review including a Presentation of the results along with the  Draft Rules for Public Comment.  The meeting will be broadcast live on Livestream and we’ll have an opportunity for folks to follow the conversation on Twitter with #azmidwives.

 

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Program Spotlight: Lab Licensure

January 24th, 2013

Those of you that actually read these posts know that we run Arizona’s benchmark public health laboratory.  But many of you might not know that we also license and inspect clinical and environmental labs in AZ and even some in other parts of the country through our Clinical and Environmental Laboratory Licensing and Compliance programs. 

Our Clinical Lab Certification is handled under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)- which is part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  Essentially, any testing performed on humans for the purposes of clinical treatment, medical diagnosis, health assessment or disease prevention outside of research laboratories, forensic laboratories and laboratories that test for employment purposes in AZ is regulated by our team.  So when you hear about a lab test being completed on someone that lab is regulated by CLIA. The ultimate goal is to provide a high quality reliably test result which the Physician can use in diagnosis and treatment of a patient. 

The Environmental Lab Licensure section ensures that scientific validity and defensibility are accomplished through the use of proper scientific testing methods.  One of the interesting categories of labs licensed (there are four categories, in all) is drinking water.  Each and every company that sells bottled drinking water in Arizona is subject to having their certifying lab evaluated and licensed by our team.  This requires that our inspection personnel travel to each of the labs both in and out of State to conduct mandated inspections.  Here’s the list of all four categories of labs that we regulate.

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Political Convention Food Tested by Our Lab

September 11th, 2012

Our State Lab performed chemical and biological surveillance testing on food samples from the Republican National Convention.  We were selected to participate in the testing because of our reputation and previous experience working with the Food Safety Inspection Service for the detection of biological and chemical agents in food.  The samples arrived at the State Laboratory the week of August 20 and were tested the same week.  Our lab performs this work as part of the national Food Emergency Response Network using funds from cooperative agreements obtained USDA and FDA.  Everything was OK.

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Influenza Widespread in AZ

March 21st, 2012

During the 2009- 2010 influenza pandemic, we saw how influenza can be unpredictable in terms of who it affects most, when it occurs, and what strains will circulate. This season is no exception. While the circulating strains are exactly what we had predicted, the peak of the flu season is hitting later than usual… and the influenza virus is finally making rounds.

Last week, the number of flu cases jumped by more than 40 percent and came in from almost the whole state.  Flu numbers are posted every Wednesday in the Surveillance Report. Our state lab has done a lot of PCR and culture testing to find out more details about the circulating viruses, and the good news is that, so far, the three strains in the vaccine are a good match with the circulating strains in Arizona and nationally (H3N2 Influenza A, the 2009 H1N1 pandemic strain and an Influenza B). There are still plenty of places you can find an influenza vaccine- and of course it’ll be more important over the next few weeks to cover your cough properly, wash your hands and stay home if you or your kids get sick.

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Influenza Wave Coming Ashore

March 9th, 2012

It took longer than usual- but Influenza is finally circulating in AZ- and we’ve moved to the “Regional” flu category now (Regional is sort of the middle of the scale).  The circulating strains in AZ (confirmed by our lab) are covered by this year’s vaccine- mostly our old friend the 2009 H1N1 virus and the familiar H3N2 virus.  The “Epi Curve” suggests that there’s more to come- with a peak in March.  Check out the most recent surveillance report for more info.  Meanwhile, the number of cases of Respiratory Syncytial Virus are still increasing- but that one looks like it’s closer to the annual peak.  Here’s this week’s RSV Report.

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Another Tool for our Laboratory Toolbox

August 9th, 2011

New testing equipment at the state lab is going to help us with flu tracking this fall and dramatically speed up testing for Tuberculosis.  The instrument called the Gene Xpert looks for DNA mutations – we can tell if a TB case is resistant to certain antibiotics.  For instance, on specific mutation is a marker for rifampin resistance.  It used to take weeks of culture growth to find that marker, now we can do it in a matter of hours.  Working with County health partners, we hope to enhance surveillance to help get rid of TB .

The Gene Xpert, purchased with federal grant money, will also help us detect and differentiate Influenza A & B using nucleic acid (genetic material) amplification techniques so we know which strains of flu are circulating in the state as well as help us detect cases in institutional settings.  Other uses for the Gene Xpert  include surveillance for various hospital-acquired infections including Clostridium difficile, methicillin-resistant Staph aureus (MRSA), RSV and Metapneumoviruses.

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State Lab Energy Efficiency

July 6th, 2011

A couple of years ago (when the financial crisis was just starting), we brainstormed about how we could bring down the utility bills in our State Laboratory.  The Lab has always been electricity intensive, partly because of the workplace safety requirements etc. (e.g. the “hoods”) require more air exchange than a normal building.  That means constantly bringing in 115 degree air and cooling it down to 78.

Since our initial assessment 3 years ago we’ve implemented several energy saving interventions.  Some of the changes were operational (reprogramming exhaust fans) and adjusting the building settings when unoccupied to save energy. Last year these changes saved about $230,000, including a 17% reduction in electricity usage, 71% less in natural gas and a 30% drop in water.  APS rewarded us with a check for $73,300 from their energy incentive program.

Our building management folks in the Lab figured out that the biggest energy efficiency enhancement of all would be if we could install an evaporative cooler in front of the air intake for the A/C unit, but that would have cost about $180K.  So we used the $73K from APS and some other (non-state) Lab funds and ordered a swamp cooler for the Lab a few months ago.  Last week our dream became a reality, and a crane hauled the large swamp cooler up to the roof of the Lab.  The new cooler will have a sensor that knows when it’s more energy efficient to run the 20 HP cooler motor or the normal A/C system, depending on the dew point (the swamp will generally kick in when the dew point is in the mid 50′s and below).  The project also includes temperature recovery coils which basically use the energy in the cool air leaving the building to reduce the temperature of the incoming air (reducing the electricity needed to cool the air).

The engineers estimate that the new swamp cooler and temperature recovery coils will save an additional $72,000 in annual utility costs (bringing our annual efficiency improvement to over $300,000 per year).  Next, we’ll apply for another rebate from APS from the cooler and coil savings.  If we get another rebate, we’d like to invest in the next efficiency item on the list- solar panels on the roof of the Lab.  Good creative thinking and execution!

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ADHS Status

July 21st, 2010

We’ve got a lot to be proud of over the last year and an half.  It’s been hard, I know because of all of the budget reductions and the lower staffing level.  On the other hand, we’ve got an incredible mission and we’re doing a good job.  I often tell people that we work in the most interesting agency in state government.  Why?  Because we touch the lives of Arizonans in dozens of different ways everyday.  We:

 

  • Make sure that Arizonans are healthy and protected from infectious diseases like the flu and foodborne illnesses- and prevent diseases in the first place through our Vaccine for Children Program  

 

  • Provide families with young kids access to nutritious blend of foods www.azwic.gov.

 

  • Make sure that the kids at Child Care facilities are safe and sound and that they get some exercise thanks to our Empower Pack program.

 

 

  • Help save lives by doing things like developing Cardiac Arrest Centers and Primary Stroke
    Centers across the state that are dramatically improving outcomes for folks that have a cardiac arrest or a stroke and are leading the national shift to continuous chest compression CPR from the old compression/breathing method .

 

  • Are building a new Trauma System from the ground up- which saves lives every day.

 

  • Are leading the state’s anti tobacco efforts like the prevention activities in our youth tobacco campaign (called Venomocity)  and helping thousands of Arizonan’s Kick the Habit through our www.ashline.com services.

 

  • Are improving the performance of the state’s mental health system by giving choice and voice to folks with mental health and substance abuse needs- improving their ability to better participate in their path to Recovery from  Mental illnesses.  Over this past year, we have developed the new Nine Adult Guiding Principles to compliment our Children’s 12 Principles. We developed an RFP, went out for bid, and issued awards for all Geographic Service Areas outside of Maricopa County. We also planned for and implemented the most severe budget reductions in the behavioral health system in Arizona’s history.

 

  • Make a difference in hundreds of peoples lives at the Arizona State Hospital-  by helping them in their road to recovery by treating them with dignity, care and respect.

 

  • Run one of the state’s most well respected public health laboratories- providing the backbone for Arizona’s public health system.  For example, we find hundreds of kids with metabolic disorders and hearing and helped their doctors conduct interventions to help them avoid serious complications from their condition through our newborn screening program. 

 

  • Administer the Office of Children with Special Healthcare Needs (OCSHCN) program, which includes the Children’s Rehabilitative Services (CRS) program.  CRS provides family-centered medical treatment, rehabilitation, and related support services for children under age 21 with qualifying chronic and disabling conditions such as congenital heart disease,  neuromuscular conditions, spina bifida, cleft lip, cerebral palsy, and many others.

 

  • Test 1000s of biological samples for all kinds of viruses and bacteria including H1N1, tuberculosis, West Nile virus, rabies, and literally dozens of other diseases so that counties and doctors can help slow the spread of disease and help people get better in our Public Health Microbiology program.

 

 

  • Ensure that hundreds of clinical and environmental laboratories across the state are doing things right and providing good results through our Laboratory Licensure & Certification program.

 

 

And that’s just a fraction of the incredibly interesting and important things that we do.  Do you have any doubt now that this is the most fascinating place to work in state government?

 

We’re successful at all of these things because of your commitment to the folks of Arizona and to each other.  It takes a wide range of help from everyone including our IT, Human Resources, Rules, Procurement, Auditing, Financial Services and other Operations Teams to make these things happen.

 

Thank you all for rowing in the same direction.  I really appreciate your can-do attitude.  Thanks…  and make sure that you take the time to thank the folks around you from operations that make this place tick.

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