Preparedness – Page 67 – AZ Dept. of Health Services News

Items in the Preparedness category will cover everything from Emergency Medical Services to vaccination programs. This division at ADHS tracks contagious disease, coordinates emergency preparedness activity, licenses EMTs and Paramedics, regulates ambulance companies, authorizes special hospital designations like cardiac care center and Level IV trauma center, issues birth and death certificates, and tracks critical health data through various sources including hospital discharge information.

New Ambulance Company Approved to Operate in Maricopa County

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:16-07:00February 25th, 2015|Preparedness|

A few weeks ago I approved American Medical Response’s (AMR Maricopa) application to operate ambulances in Maricopa County, called a Certificate of Necessity or CON. While I approved the CON (after reviewing a host of evidence presented to an Administrative Law Judge and her Order) I didn’t actually issue the Certificate because of the administrative [...]

EMTALA & Ebola

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:16-07:00February 24th, 2015|General, Preparedness|

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) is a federal law that requires hospitals that accept Medicare payments to provide emergency healthcare to anybody regardless of citizenship or immigration status or their ability to pay. Under the law, hospitals that accept Medicare payments can’t transfer or discharge patients that need emergency treatment unless [...]

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AZ Measles Outbreak Winds Down

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:18-07:00February 13th, 2015|Preparedness, Prevention|

So far, there have been over a hundred cases of measles associated with Disneyland (including seven here in Arizona). We’re lucky no “third generation” cases have been found here (yet). Measles can take up to 21 days to develop in a person who has been exposed to the disease, so we’re not out of the [...]

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New Infectious Disease Preparedness & Response Funding on the Way

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:19-07:00February 2nd, 2015|Preparedness|

We just got word last month from the CDC that we qualify for new funding to support accelerated infectious disease preparedness planning and response. The total award for Arizona is about $2.5M, which enhances our total Preparedness grant award by about 10%. The new funding is scheduled to arrive in April and is on an 18 [...]

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Public Health Super Bowl Activities

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:19-07:00January 29th, 2015|Preparedness|

The federal government considers the Super Bowl to be an “event of national significance.” A host of public safety and health activities are implemented during events of national significance. Our (ADHS) activities began with the Pro Bowl last weekend and finish after the Super Bowl on February 1. We have 3 primary functions: BioWatch and Suspicious [...]

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Additional Measles Cases Found this Week

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:19-07:00January 28th, 2015|Preparedness, Prevention|

Last week I wrote about the 5 measles cases that we had identified as part of the nationwide Disneyland outbreak. Four of the AZ cases were among an unvaccinated Pinal County family that had visited Disneyland. This week over 1000 contacts were identified among our now 7 measles cases. Here’s a quick summary: One of [...]

AZ Interventions to Improve Vaccination Rates

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:19-07:00January 27th, 2015|Preparedness, Prevention|

Arizona law requires kids to get certain vaccines in order to attend school unless a doctor signs a medical exemption form or a parent signs a religious or personal belief exemption form. There’s been an increasing number of parents who are signing personal belief exemption forms - putting herd mmunity at risk. Every year we [...]

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Unvaccinated Kids Come in Clusters

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:20-07:00January 27th, 2015|Preparedness, Prevention|

Courtesy: Journal of Pediatrics Last week’s issue of the Journal Pediatrics sheds light on something that we see here in Arizona - that parental refusal and delay of childhood vaccines is clustered in certain communities. The study was done in California and found that the percentage of kids who were under-immunized increased from 8% [...]

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Vaccines & the Social Contract

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:20-07:00January 26th, 2015|Preparedness, Prevention|

At the core - vaccines are really about community protection. Our public health system depends on a solid network of providers that are available to vaccinate kids for all of the nasty infectious diseases that have plagued humanity for millennium. It’s not just access to care and a solid network of providers that vaccinate that [...]

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Five AZ Measles Cases from a Disneyland Exposure

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:49:20-07:00January 23rd, 2015|Preparedness, Prevention|

By now you’ve probably heard about the measles outbreak associated with travel to Disneyland. CDC is reporting about 50 measles cases (in multiple states) who had been to Disneyland in late December. Arizona joined the list this week. This week we had 5 measles cases associated with the Disneyland outbreak, one in Maricopa County and 4 in Pinal [...]

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