The pace of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has quickened over the last few weeks. There have now been over 4,900 cases and 2,400 deaths (half in the last month). The WHO has warned that by October, we may see the number of Ebola cases doubling every three weeks. For several months now, the [...]
It’s coming up on the harvest season for infectious diseases, and many of our ADHS teams are gearing up. We’re monitoring the number of flu cases reported across the state (we’ve only had 1 in the last couple weeks), supporting distribution of flu vaccines, encouraging healthcare workers and the public to get vaccinated, and testing influenza [...]
We’re showing success in reducing our teen age pregnancies. It’s one of our winnable battles because babies born to teen moms are more likely to have bad birth outcomes; teen moms are likely to drop out of school and live in poverty. Since 2002, our teen pregnancy rate has declined almost 40%. We continue to [...]
Congratulations to Emily Jenkins, the President and CEO of the Arizona Council of Human Service Providers who was recognized by the Arizona Capitol Times as the Leader of the Year in Public Policy for Healthcare this week. The award recognizes individuals and organizations for advancing public policy that positively impacts the lives of Arizonans. Categories [...]
The ADHS won the first-ever Newborn Screening Quality Award from the March of Dimes this week. We were recognized for shortening the length of time it takes bloodspot samples to get from Arizona hospitals to our State Laboratory, setting and achieving a target of receiving 95% of samples within 72 hours, and for establishing a policy [...]
I was at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials Annual Meeting and Policy Summit most of last week. This year’s meeting was entitled Achieving Population Health in Evolving Systems. We shared best practices with each other about different ways states are approaching population health. We heard from the Acting Surgeon General Rear Admiral Boris D. [...]
Community Integrated Paramedicine programs are beginning to come together in two primary business models in Arizona. The first one has EMS (emergency medical services) agencies partnering with hospitals to reduce the frequency that patients are re-admitted to hospitals. In the second, EMS agencies are cultivating social service referrals to reduce the frequency that folks use emergency departments [...]
Arizona joined the states asking CDC for laboratory testing for Enterovirus D68 on Friday. We’ve had an increase in the number of children hospitalized and treated for upper respiratory illness. Enterovirus is in the family with the common cold and illness is usually limited to cold symptoms (stuffy or runny nose and cough). There seem [...]
We publish several reports every year that are required by Arizona law…including our annual abortion surveillance report. We published our 4th Abortion Surveillance Report this week. Overall, the abortion rate in Arizona was stable from 2012 to 2013, however, the rate of abortions among 18-19 year old women decreased more than 30% between 2012 and 2013…the [...]
State government authority and policy is driven by laws that are established by the Legislature and carried out by the Governor through the Executive Branch. Sometimes laws are passed directly by the voters (called a voter initiative). Many state laws require state agencies to develop regulations to “flesh out” the laws they pass by giving [...]
