Thursday we celebrated our recent statewide success at reducing the time it takes newborn screening blood spot samples to get to our State Laboratory for testing. Over the last 8 months, Arizona has improved our blood spot turn-around time to among the best in the country. Folks from dozens of hospitals came to a celebrate [...]
As you’ve probably seen in the news, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is still on the march. The outbreak started back in March and is currently the largest Ebola outbreak in history, with the WHO reporting 1,603 cases and 877 deaths as of August 1st. Most of the cases have occurred in Sierra Leone, Guinea, [...]
Believe it or not, it’s already back to school time. Whether kids are heading off to school for the first time, or going back for their senior year of high school, it’s important for parents, grandparents and students to do everything they can to insure the school year is safe and healthy. One of the [...]
Last week (in Part I of this 5-part series) I introduced the idea that contemporary pain management strategies have resulted in an epidemic of painkiller misuse and abuse that’s killing large numbers of people. In fact, misuse and abuse of opiate prescription painkillers takes out more people every year than car crashes. The run-up to the [...]
2014 has already proven to be a very active year for rabies in Arizona. So far this year, there have been 70 animals reported positive for rabies. Last year at this time there were 40 animals reported positive. We’re seeing an especially high number of rabid skunks this year. 39 skunks have been reported so [...]
Arizonans who don’t have health insurance still a way of getting affordable healthcare at one of Arizona’s 354 Sliding Fee Schedule health clinics. These clinics offer discounted fees for services to persons without health insurance. Our Bureau of Health Systems Development just updated the current list of primary care, dental or behavioral healthcare providers by [...]
Last week we wrapped up our 5th annual Arizona Infectious Disease Training and Exercise. This event kicked off with a full day pandemic influenza tabletop exercise followed by two days of training on a variety of infectious disease topics. The 400 registrants – public health folks, infection preventionists, healthcare providers, academic partners, and others – learned [...]
The CDC issued a health advisory today regarding the Ebola outbreak in West Africa underscoring the potential for travel-associated spread of the disease and the risks to healthcare workers in the area. The possibility of infected persons entering the US from the ourbreak area is still low - but the CDC also provided guidance to clinicians on evaluating [...]
You’ve probably read about how we are working on the Arizona Health Improvement Plan to help us all live a better, healthier and longer life. But one of the most important things we can do as today’s leaders is to inspire tomorrow’s leaders. I had the opportunity to meet Cody Vasquez this week – he’s [...]
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 improve a patient’s survival rate (like using therapeutic hypothermia to improve the chances of survival). The program also includes protocols for the pre-hospital teams [...]
