Here you will find topics ranging from current events that affect public health in Arizona to overall information about the Arizona Department of Health Services
Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released information about an infection some folks were getting because of the ink used in their tattoos. It reminds me that there are some good practices that folks who want tattoos can ask their artist about - I wrote about it last year in Tattoo You? Regardless [...]
The future health insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act will need to offer an Essential Benefit Package. In fact, most health insurance plans will need to cover each state’s Essential Benefit Package starting New Year’s Day in 2014. There are 10 key service categories that future plans will need to cover- including behavioral health services. States need [...]
The Affordable Care Act (aka health care reform) will establish health insurance exchanges in each state- providing folks (and small business employees) an opportunity to get health insurance coverage starting 1/1/14. The future exchanges will provide competitive marketplaces for folks to directly compare and buy private health insurance based on price, quality, and other things. The law [...]
Many of our Stakeholders and the folks that we serve have asked about how Arizona and Federal laws affect the kinds of services that the ADHS provides. The answer is (of course) “it depends.” It depends on what kind of benefit or service you’re talking about. Tom Salow, Lynn Golder and others have put together [...]
We’ve been implementing an evidence-based practice called Non-Violent Crisis Intervention as our operational model at the AZ State Hospital for the last few months- and we’re already seeing dramatic results. It's a best practice for early intervention and de-escalation created by the Crisis Prevention Institute. It’s based on teamwork and training. By using a cohesive team that’s [...]
A new public health archive called CDC Stacks opened their on-line doors this week. CDC Stacks contains documents spanning the history of CDC from issue 1 of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report to the most current CDC guidelines and recommendations. The library is at http://stacks.cdc.gov. Dig in- or at least put it in your Favorites.
Health-e-Arizona is an on-line benefits application for Arizona residents. Folks can apply for AHCCCS Health Insurance coverage, KidsCare, KidsCare II, Nutrition Assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly called food stamps) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families cash assistance using the on-line Health-e-Arizona system. We encourage anybody that’s interested in finding out whether they’re eligible for any of [...]
Arizona Health-e Connection - better known as AzHeC- is a state-wide public/private collaborative for advancing the adoption of health information technology and health information exchange. We have a seat on the board which advances the secure and private sharing of electronic health information. Here's their 2011 Annual Report. The Arizona Health-e Connection team has been working closely with Janet Mullen and Paula [...]
Booster seats dramatically lower the risk of suffering internal damage, serious spinal injury or worse for kids between 5 and 8 years old. In fact, 100% of kids ages 5-8, who were killed in Arizona car crashes in 2010 weren’t restrained in a booster seat. For years, the AZ's Child Fatality Review Team recommended a booster seat [...]
Our Quality Management Operations shop inside behavioral health has an incredibly complicated and important mission. They have responsibility for regulating and managing Information Management; Performance Improvement; Medical Management; and Quality of Care Monitoring and Oversight in AZ's public behavioral health system. These 4 critical areas work together to develop and implement a system of continuous quality improvement by establishing [...]
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