Each year the American Heart Association recognizes employers who go above and beyond when it comes to their employees’ health...and we were recognized as a Gold Fit-Friendly Worksite for 2014. We’re among an elite group of nationally-recognized awardees for our efforts to promote a healthy workplace. As a Gold Level award recipient, we’ve been recognized for [...]
Every broadcast TV station and most radio outlets across Arizona will air simultaneously a 30-minute commercial-free investigative report produced by ASU student journalists on the growing perils of heroin and opioid use on Tuesday, January 13, at 6:30 pm. You may remember a similar broadcast a few years ago about methamphetamine use. That broadcast did [...]
We’ve had a great run together since I accepted the Interim ADHS Director position 6 years ago. I’m grateful to all of you for trusting me in this important position and for working together for the benefit of the folks of Arizona. We’ve made tremendous progress toward our Vision of Health and Wellness for all [...]
To better understand the health status of Arizona's population, we partnered with the county health departments to conduct Community Health Assessments in 2014. We used the Community Health Assessments to develop a comprehensive State Health Assessment, which became basis for putting together an Arizona Health Improvement Plan (AzHIP). We began developing the AzHIP in late [...]
When a reporter from Wisconsin wrote a story about newborn screening turn-around times around the country in December of 2013, we found out that we had room for improvement when it comes to the time it takes newborn metabolic screening samples to get from Arizona hospitals to our Lab. Basically, it was taking too long [...]
Teen pregnancies and births continued to be a challenge for us in 2014, but we continued to see encouraging results. Having a baby as a teenager impacts the mom, the dad, the baby and the whole community. Teen parents often don’t finish high school, which in turn, reduces their ability to financially take care of [...]
Childhood immunizations are widely credited as one of the top ten public health achievements of the 20th century. For the 13 diseases included on the current U.S. childhood immunization schedule, 20 million cases of disease are prevented per year, 42,000 lives are saved, and the healthcare system realizes $13.6 million in direct medical costs (see [...]
This morning I approved American Medical Response’s (AMR Maricopa) application to operate ambulances in Maricopa County (called a Certificate of Necessity or CON). I approved the Certificate of Necessity after reviewing a host of evidence presented to an Administrative Law Judge and her Order recommending approval. The official notice will be posted on the Office [...]
Sudden cardiac arrest continued to be a leading cause of death in Arizona during 2014 (7,600/ year), but we also had some promising results. A few years ago our Bureau of EMS & Trauma System enticed dozens of AZ hospitals to become a Cardiac Receiving Centers. The initiative helps hospitals provide treatments scientifically proven to [...]
Research in 2014 found increasing evidence that a person’s nutrition and physical activity in the first 5 years of life has a huge impact on the person’s weight and health status as an adult. One study published in the New England Journal of Medicine this year suggested that overweight 5-year-olds are 300% more likely to [...]
