Until last week, influenza vaccine makers were limited to producing flu vaccines using a 40-year-old technology that depends on using fertilized chicken eggs to grow virus strains- meaning that it takes several months to make an influenza vaccine. Makers needed to organize sterile egg supplies and incubate the virus in them before the vaccine could [...]
Last legislative session the Governor signed HB 2036- which amends state law regarding abortions. Some parts of the law are pending legal challenges, but the parts requiring us to develop a website were unaffected- and our new informed consent site just went up. The website lists agencies and services that are available to assist women throughout [...]
The US Dept. of Health & Human Services released 3 new Affordable Care Act proposed regulations this week… including: 1) A proposed Rule regarding coverage requirements for pre-existing or chronic conditions; 2) A proposed Rule outlining policies and standards for coverage of essential health benefits; and 3) A proposed Rule implementing and expanding employment-based wellness [...]
This morning St. Mary’s Food Bank picked up 2 ½ tons of canned food to help those in need… courtesy of our Agency food drive. We set a goal of bringing in 4,000 pounds and we made it. When you combine the cans and cash, it equals more than 5,000 pounds of food. Good work to [...]
Our Arizona State Hospital (ASH) and the U of A share a birthday. Both were established by the 13th Territorial Legislature in 1885. The City of Tucson had wanted ASH (it came with a $100K appropriation) but their delegation got to Prescott (the Territorial Capitol) late because the Salt was flooded… and Tucson ended up [...]
In public health, we don’t gather data just for the sake of gathering data. Our goal is use that data to see what kind of issues there are, look for programs that are proven to reduce bad outcomes and help the communities implement them. One key area we watch is Maternal and Child Health because making changes [...]
Last Thursday I announced in a blog post that our team had just returned from a field inspection for a dispensary applicant in Glendale, that there were no major deficiencies, and that we had awarded the dispensary an “Approval to Operate”. Today the Applicant asked for a short delay in the effective date for their [...]
The role of a surveyor can be a difficult one. Our team of licensing surveyors need to maintain neutrality as regulators and be able to apply the Arizona Administrative Code (otherwise known as “the rules”) to a wide variety of facilities within the healthcare system. Part of our surveillance includes investigating complaints- which can be generated from [...]
Did you know that 19.6% of people in Arizona live in poverty, and 1 in 5 households are unable to afford to buy food for their families It doesn't help that one of the places people turn to for help, St. Mary's Food Bank, reports that it has 40% less food on the shelves to [...]
Our team just returned from a field inspection for a dispensary applicant in Glendale. There were no major deficiencies, and we awarded the dispensary an “approval to operate” late this afternoon. This is the first dispensary approval to operate we’ve issued in the State. By law, we’re not allowed to publicly disclose the address. The [...]
