Last week we wrapped up our 5th annual Arizona Infectious Disease Training and Exercise. This event kicked off with a full day pandemic influenza tabletop exercise followed by two days of training on a variety of infectious disease topics. The 400 registrants – public health folks, infection preventionists, healthcare providers, academic partners, and others – learned [...]
The CDC issued a health advisory today regarding the Ebola outbreak in West Africa underscoring the potential for travel-associated spread of the disease and the risks to healthcare workers in the area. The possibility of infected persons entering the US from the ourbreak area is still low - but the CDC also provided guidance to clinicians on evaluating [...]
You’ve probably read about how we are working on the Arizona Health Improvement Plan to help us all live a better, healthier and longer life. But one of the most important things we can do as today’s leaders is to inspire tomorrow’s leaders. I had the opportunity to meet Cody Vasquez this week – he’s [...]
A few years ago our Bureau of EMS & Trauma System enticed dozens of AZ hospitals to become a Cardiac Receiving Centers. The initiative helps hospitals provide treatments scientifically proven to improve a patient’s survival rate (like using therapeutic hypothermia to improve the chances of survival). The program also includes protocols for the pre-hospital teams [...]
In our lifetimes, each one of us is likely to experience pain. The pain experience could be acute and resolve itself in short order (like a bee sting). Pain can also be a chronic experience lasting a long time with varying levels of intensity (like rheumatoid arthritis). Pain is also subjective and what one person considers [...]
Several staff from the Division attended and conducted presentations at the annual summer institute held by ASU’s Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy. This is the largest local conference for behavioral health professionals. This conference was originally created by our Behavioral Health Division in collaboration with ASU 15 years ago. Today, it continues to provide [...]
Last Spring the Legislature passed and the Governor signed a new law that provided our agency with the same inspection authority at abortion clinics that we have at all the other healthcare institutions we license. The previous authority required us to give abortion clinics a 10 day notice before we conduct a routine inspection. We also used to have to [...]
Our Vital Records team has a wide range of business functions. We’re responsible for maintaining and issuing certified copies of vital records, including birth and death certificates, registration of adoptions, and corrections and amendments to these vital records. Much of our work also includes helping the county vital records offices with their mission of verifying [...]
Last month I bragged about how our newborn screening team beat the deadline I gave them to improve our system – a system that ensure blood spots taken from newborns are quickly screened for life-threatening diseases. Now that the actual deadline is past, it’s good to see the team and our licensed hospitals exceeded what [...]
The monsoon season marks the tick season here in Arizona, and one of most important tick-borne disease threats in the state is Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The symptoms usually start with a fever of two or more days and can lead to a nasty “spotted” rash (although the rash is not always present in the cases [...]
