Licensing – Page 12 – AZ Dept. of Health Services News

Influenza Going Gangbusters in US and AZ

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:47-07:00January 10th, 2013|General, Licensing, Prevention|

During the 2009- 2010 influenza pandemic, we saw how influenza can be unpredictable in terms of who it affects most, when it occurs, and what strains will circulate. This season is no exception. While the circulating strains are exactly what we predicted, the peak of the flu season is hitting earlier than usual (now) and it's [...]

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Preventing Healthcare Associated Infections: An AZ Winnable Battle

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:47-07:00January 4th, 2013|Licensing, Preparedness|

Healthcare-associated infections are a critical public health challenge in Arizona and in the US. Healthcare associated infections (HAIs) are acquired during healthcare treatment and can be devastating and even deadly- and they’re largely preventable. You may have seen the article in last week's Republic about dirty needles and their link to transmission of viruses and drug-resistant superbugs. The article [...]

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Using Evidence to Reach Consensus

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:49-07:00December 11th, 2012|General, Licensing|

Some of you might remember a protest about a year ago in front of our 150 Building. About 100 folks were carrying placards asking us to make it easier to have a home-birth in AZ. They were mostly young families and some licensed midwives- and they were urging us to change our licensing rules for midwives. That day [...]

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New “Empower” Standards Here

By Will Humble|2012-11-27T08:26:29-07:00November 27th, 2012|Licensing|

It is hard to believe we’re in the 3rd year of our successful Empower Program. As a refresher for those of you that aren’t familiar with Empower, it’s a program that focuses on increasing healthy eating and active living, along with helping to provide smoke-free environments, in licensed child care facilities… reaching over 200,000 children [...]

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Evidence-Based Decision-Making: A Key Regulatory Benchmark

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:51-07:00November 19th, 2012|Licensing|

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 [...]

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Rules Rollin’ Along

By Will Humble|2012-09-26T08:32:39-07:00September 26th, 2012|Behavioral Health, Licensing|

Our regulatory reform effort in Licensing is rolling along. We’ve already held rules work group meetings with representatives from behavioral health inpatient and residential facilities and are incorporating the Stakeholder comments into our next iteration of our draft rules. In November, we’ll start holding rules work group meetings with representatives from behavioral health outpatient settings. This’ll truly [...]

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Working Together

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:59-07:00September 24th, 2012|Behavioral Health, Licensing|

I've written many times about how important it is that we work with our partners to protect the health and safety of the people of Arizona. It’s our responsibility to take advantage of opportunities to teach and practice what we preach. It’s nice when someone outside acknowledges when someone goes above and beyond which is [...]

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Dispensary Drawing Procedures Report Published

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:51:01-07:00August 31st, 2012|General, Licensing|

We carefully planned our processes for randomly selecting medical marijuana registration certificates in competitive districts to make sure the process was fair and transparent. Part of our planning included contracting with Henry & Horne, LLP to independently observe the entire process. The contract included a requirement to develop a final report documenting their observations. The [...]

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Introducing Our New Licensing Director & Agency CMO

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:51:03-07:00August 22nd, 2012|Licensing|

Please join me in welcoming Cara Christ, MD as our new Division of Licensing Services chief. Cara has agreed to share her talents as the new Assistant Director for Licensing as well as serving as the Agency Chief Medical Officer. Also, thanks a million to Colby Bower who's been doing an excellent job serving as interim director for licensing since Alan [...]

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Registration Certificate Selection Tuesday

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:51:05-07:00August 3rd, 2012|General, Licensing|

Next Tuesday (August 7) is "Selection Tuesday" for our medical marijuana dispensary applicants. By the end of the day, we’ll have whittled the initial pool of 486 medical marijuana dispensary applications down to 99. We won’t be allocating the full allotment of 126 Registration Certificates on Tuesday because 27 of our Community Health Analysis Areas [...]

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