The Ebola virus, influenza, enterovirus, tuberculosis, and other emerging infectious diseases posed key public health challenges in Arizona during 2014, sparking important interventions. In October the Governor issued an Executive Order establishing the Council on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response to develop and implement a coordinated plan to ensure Arizona’s public health infrastructure is prepared [...]
The misuse and abuse of prescription painkillers continued to be a major public health challenge in 2014. Misuse and abuse of opiate prescription painkillers continued to kill more than car crashes in 2014….but we also completed some key interventions this year. In 2014 we released new Arizona Opioid Prescribing Guidelines for Arizona clinicians. They’re a [...]
The Top 5 things that kill people in Arizona: heart disease, cancer, lung diseases like emphysema and chronic bronchitis, stroke, and injuries. In fact - these 5 conditions cause 63% of all deaths - which is nearly 18,000 people each year in Arizona (about 50 people/day). Tobacco use is a major factor in 4 out [...]
Healthcare-Associated infections continued to be a major (and largely preventable) threat to patient safety in Arizona during 2014 - although we had better results this year. The 2014 National and State Healthcare Associated Infections Progress Report found significant reductions for nearly all infections in Arizona. Arizona’s public health system takes a layered approach to preventing [...]
People with a serious mental illness die more than 25 years earlier than the general population…an unacceptable health disparity in anybody’s book. The increased mortality is largely from treatable medical conditions caused by modifiable risk factors like smoking, obesity, substance abuse, and not accessing primary and acute medical care. We recognized the need to address [...]
Our Child Care Licensing shop launched a new Child Care Licensing application last week. The Bureau regulates nearly 2,500 Child Care Centers in the state of Arizona. The new web application gives Child Care Centers a way to submit licensing (and enforcement) fees - increasing the efficiency of our processing time. The application is also designed as [...]
Emergency Medical Services will also be improved thanks to some new rules that will take effect on January 1. The new rules (filed last week) make it easier for a patient who meets certain criteria to be taken to someplace other than an emergency department. The new rules also allow some emergency medical care technicians [...]
We met a major milestone in 2014 when we filed our final new set of regulations for Arizona’s 5,500 licensed healthcare facilities. We’ve now completed our overhaul of the State’s regulations of hospitals, behavioral health inpatient facilities, nursing care institutions, recovery care centers, hospices, behavioral health residential facilities, assisted living facilities, outpatient surgical centers, outpatient [...]
Our Special Licensing shop (which licenses certified professional midwives) went live with a new Midwife Electronic Reporting Utility last week…providing a secure online application for submission and viewing of midwife reports. Our certified professional midwives can now use the electronic reporting tool and our Midwife Survey Reporting Guide to track outcomes. The new web utility provides [...]
On January 1 we’ll begin accepting applications for a new class of health care institution called counseling facilities. New Rules (adopted this week) provide facilities a way to become licensed for counseling services. The new rules will allow the facility to be stand-alone (doing all administrative activities itself) or to be affiliated with another counseling [...]
