The core of our decision-making as an agency relies on evidence. Evidence can be scientific like surveillance or research or it can be administrative or financial (like return on investment). Whichever way you slice it- the key is to get good reliable information so that our public health system can make effective decisions as we [...]
A couple of weeks ago a healthcare worker who recently returned from Saudi Arabia was the first confirmed case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in the U.S. This week the CDC and the Florida health department confirmed a 2nd US case. A person with MERS traveled Saudi Arabia - London - Boston - Atlanta - [...]
Strokes can cause long-term health problems and death. The good news is that strokes can be prevented by understanding the risk factors (which are similar to heart disease) like high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, and tobacco. To find out more about your risk for a stroke, you can talk with your physician and [...]
The Top 5 things that kill people in the US are: heart disease, cancer, lung disease such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis, stroke and injuries. In fact- these 5 conditions cause 63% of all deaths in the US — which is nearly 18,000 people each year in AZ (about 50 people/day in AZ). This week [...]
A new report released this week from the CDC shows nearly half of adults with disabilities who are able to do aerobic physical activity don’t get any… putting them at a greater risk for chronic diseases. The report showed that adults with disabilities are three times more likely to have heart disease, stroke, diabetes or [...]
We use a lot of CDC grants in Arizona to promote public health. I’ve talked about what we do with the Maternal and Child Health, as well as the Behavioral Health, grants in previous blogs. There’s another grant that lets us focus on issues that are specifically tailored to Arizona. The Preventive Health block grant helps fund our [...]
Anybody that has worked in the healthcare industry knows who's the backbone of care: Nurses. Last week we celebrated nurses with National Nurses Week. We have many nurses throughout the Department in various divisions. Each nurse provides a distinct service to the Department. The majority of our nurses work at the AZ State Hospital providing [...]
Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll continue my series on the healthcare matrix for American Indians. Last week I covered the basics of the Indian Health Service. This week’s write-up is about something called “638's”. Tribes and Tribal Organizations can elect to administer healthcare services that normally would be administered by the IHS. This [...]
Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be writing a series on the healthcare matrix for American Indians. I’ll be covering the basics of the Indian Health Service, how Medicaid and Medicare interface with Native Americans, as well as some of the basics of the Affordable Care Act as it relates to American Indians. Let’s [...]
House Bill 2491 has been in the media and became a law with the Governor’s signature. The new law requires us to add critical congenital heart defect (CCHD) to our newborn screening program protocol. This new screening and reporting requirement will kick in once our rulemaking is complete- probably this Fall. The screening test we'll be [...]
