General – Page 34 – AZ Dept. of Health Services News

2013 AZ Abortion Annual Report

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:30-07:00September 12th, 2014|General|

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 [...]

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The Legal Mechanics of State Government & PTSD

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:30-07:00September 11th, 2014|General|

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 [...]

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Awesome ASH Teamwork

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:30-07:00September 10th, 2014|General|

Thanks for all your hard work in changing our culture of care at the Hospital. It’s been 2 years since we implemented new processes to change how we work with patients. We’ve revised roles and responsibilities for unit staff and campus support, trained all our staff in Non-Violent Crisis Intervention, which is an evidence-based, best [...]

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Celebrating National Payroll Week

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:30-07:00September 10th, 2014|General|

As one of the largest departments in Arizona State Government, ADHS is joining in the salute to payroll professionals by participating in National Payroll Week. National Payroll Week recognizes professionals who support the American system by not only processing your wages, but also reporting your earnings and withholding employment taxes, which keep America running. Our payroll department [...]

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Making the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:30-07:00September 9th, 2014|General|

Arizona is focused on making affordable fruits and vegetables easy-to-find in communities throughout the state. In Arizona, more than 40% of Farmers’ Markets accept Arizona Farmer's Market Nutrition Program coupons so WIC moms and seniors on the Commodity Supplemental Food Program can purchase fruits and vegetables at Farmers’ Markets, compared to just 21% of the [...]

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Arizona Community Profiles Dashboard (Part I of IV)

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:30-07:00September 5th, 2014|General|

We collect all kinds of surveillance about prevalence of disease, birth, causes of death, reasons for hospital visits, smoking rates and hundreds of other indicators to help us assess health indicators and design interventions to improve outcomes. For the first time ever, we now have a tool to explore this data and visualize it in [...]

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e-Book Edition of the “Guide to Clinical Preventive Services”

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:30-07:00September 4th, 2014|General|

For the first time, the US Preventive Services Task Force has released an e-book version of its Guide to Clinical Preventive Services which helps primary care clinicians and patients decide together what preventive services are right for a patient’s needs. The 2014 Guide includes all active Task Force evidence-based recommendations including 28 new and updated [...]

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Vital Records Quality Improvement Team Gets Impressive Results

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:30-07:00September 3rd, 2014|General|

Our Vital Records team handles more than 600 mail-in requests for birth and death certificates each week. The average wait time for mail-in certificates had been nearly 4 weeks...too slow in anybody’s book. Last month we established a cross-functional quality improvement team to find and implement ways to reduce the turnaround time. We now have [...]

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ADHS Recognized for Communication Success

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:30-07:00September 2nd, 2014|General|

Several of our marketing efforts were honored at the National Conference on Health Communication in Atlanta. Our Intranet Re-design, Call 9-1-1 CPR and Cardiac Arrest video, Dairy Made Easy radio ads and Language Access List grabbed the attention of judges from Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. The winners in the [...]

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Two More Medical Marijuana Lawsuits This Week

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:31-07:00August 29th, 2014|General|

A few weeks ago I issued a Director’s Decision authorizing the use of marijuana for medical marijuana patients undergoing conventional treatment for PTSD. Beginning January 1 physician certifications will be valid for palliative care of PTSD symptoms as long as certifying physicians attest that the patient is currently undergoing some kind of conventional treatment for PTSD [...]

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