I’m glad to announce that Rodgers Wilson, MD is our permanent Behavioral Health Medical Director. Dr. Wilson oversees the clinical/prevention and quality management/medical management areas of our behavioral health system. He has spearheaded Quarterly Health Initiatives that address common physical health needs among individuals with behavioral health illnesses and is currently developing collaborative training programs [...]
An Arizona team from ADHS and ADES put together a great application for the new USDA pilot program called the Healthy Incentives Pilot, which provides incentives to encourage low-income folks to eat more fruits and vegetables. Massachusetts came in first and got the grant, but our applications came in second. The pilot program would have [...]
The scorching summer of 2005 motivated us to get our act together and do a better job preventing heat related illnesses in Arizona. That summer, we completed a needs assessment and developed a Heat Emergency Response Plan and Heat Brochure that identifies interventions using triggers from the National Weather Service. These days, we identify risk [...]
Close your eyes and imagine you're one of our surveyors, you're doing an inspection of a nursing home or assisted living center and you find residents smoking marijuana. Could that really happen? Maybe. One of the provisions of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act talks about the ways nursing homes and assisted living centers (that we license) can manage [...]
Decades ago, how long you lived depended mostly on fate. Infectious diseases, poor sanitation and unsafe conditions called the shots. However, because of advances in public health, much of the fate part is gone and the risk factors for premature death are dominated by behavioral and lifestyle choices. Of course, income and access to resources [...]
Each year in the U.S., 2,500 babies are born with neural tube defects (NTDs). These include such conditions as spina bifida and anencephaly, which can lead to paralysis or even early childhood death. Many of these birth defects can be avoided by simply remembering to take a multivitamin every day. A daily dose of 400 [...]
In 1999 a bill was passed to regulate abortion clinics. Before the law could take effect, a lawsuit was filed that “stayed” the regulation of abortion clinics until a settlement agreement could be finalized with the Department and the plaintiffs. Last year the settlement agreement was finalized and the Department was able to write rules [...]
Cooked all the way through, I hope. I’m certain that you heard about the national egg recall this month. I’ll try to put it in perspective. Epidemiologists across the country and at the CDC found a nationwide outbreak of Salmonella that has made a few hundred people sick. The investigation found that people that ate [...]
Please make sure that you tell the ITS Help Desk (602-364-4444 opt 5, email HelpDesk) or HIPAA office (602-542-1020), email HIPAA) right away if you ever lose a computer, PC, laptop, BlackBerry, hard drive, CD, flash drive, copier, printer, server, or anything that could be used to store, transmit, or process data. Our official Policy ADM022 Reporting an [...]
For many years, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has required inpatient hospitals that serve people under 21 to be accredited by The Joint Commission (formerly called the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations or JCAHO). Because the Commission standards are pretty rigorous, we’ve had limited network capacity for the inpatient treatment [...]
