General – Page 75 – AZ Dept. of Health Services News

Looking Forward, 2012

By azdhs-admin|2017-02-10T09:51:22-07:00January 3rd, 2012|General|

Looking forward, 2012 is going to be another busy year for all of us. During the last Deputy/Assistant Director meeting, managers shared the biggest priorities for the next six months and I will share a few of the highlights throughout this week in our blog. One key focus that echoed throughout everyone’s summary was an [...]

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Annual Statewide Environmental Health Report

By azdhs-admin|2017-02-10T09:51:22-07:00December 29th, 2011|General|

I started my career in public health inspecting restaurants, motels and the like in the mid- 1980s. My area was right around here down toward South Mountain- and I inspected the cafeteria in the basement of the Executive Tower and the cafeteria that used to be on the 4th floor of the 1740 building. It doesn’t seem [...]

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AZ Biomedical Research Commission Roadmap

By azdhs-admin|2017-02-10T09:51:22-07:00December 28th, 2011|General|

Last legislative session, the Legislature and Governor made a statutory change that moved the AZ Biomedical Research Commission to our agency. The Commission basically awards contracts for research projects that translate into interventions to save lives. Our funding (a few million dollars per year) comes from tobacco taxes and some lottery funds. Shoana Anderson has volunteered to serve as [...]

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House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox

By azdhs-admin|2017-02-10T09:51:22-07:00December 23rd, 2011|General|

Looking for a book to read over the holidays about one of public health’s biggest achievements? You’ll enjoy a new book written by Dr. Bill Foege called House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox. Dr. Foege was a key leader in the smallpox eradication effort. He joined the CDC in 1962 in the Epidemic Intelligence Service [...]

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Behavioral Health State Plan Released

By azdhs-admin|2017-02-10T09:51:22-07:00December 22nd, 2011|General|

Our Division of Behavioral Health Services recently submitted its combined mental health and substance abuse prevention and treatment services State Plan for FY 12-13 to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The Plan that we submitted to SAMHSA doubles as the State Plan that’s required by ARS 36-550.01. The Plan provides an overview of Arizona’s [...]

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Web-Based EMT Certification Coming Soon

By azdhs-admin|2017-02-10T09:51:23-07:00December 21st, 2011|General, Licensing|

As our IT team was developing the electronic medical marijuana application tool they started seeing that the code they were writing had potential uses in other parts of the agency. In other words- that the basics of the Code could be used to electronify some of our other business lines. We looked for areas that consumed [...]

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Acing the Preparedness Test

By azdhs-admin|2011-12-20T08:32:49-07:00December 20th, 2011|General|

Disease detection and swift and effective public health interventions are essential to saving lives in a public health emergency. According to a new report from the CDC on Public Health Preparedness, Arizona's public health system is ready and well-prepared. The CDC report outlines the Department’s ability to detect and respond to a wide range of public [...]

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Sharpening the Axe

By azdhs-admin|2017-02-10T09:51:24-07:00December 19th, 2011|Behavioral Health, General|

There's a well-known quote attributed to Abe Lincoln that goes something like this: "Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first 4 sharpening the axe." Maybe somebody will someday quote me as saying: "Give us 20 months to transform the delivery of behavioral health and primary care services to address the [...]

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Community Health Diagnostics

By azdhs-admin|2017-02-10T09:51:24-07:00December 15th, 2011|General|

Last week I wrote about the Health Care/Public Health Continuum… in which I described how in the public health world the community is the patient. In order to assess and better help the patient we need to have indicators and surveillance data to help us construct and implement interventions. One of our primary goals over [...]

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Medicare Physician Bonus Program

By azdhs-admin|2011-12-14T08:34:16-07:00December 14th, 2011|General|

The Fed’s operate a Medicare Physician Bonus Program to encourage doctors to work in underserved areas and improve access to care for folks on Medicare. Certain physicians (including MDs, DOs, dentists, podiatrists, and chiropractors) are eligible to receive a 10% bonus if they’re providing services to Medicare beneficiaries in a geographic primary care Health Professional [...]

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