Last week the ASH Pharmacy began having problems with the computer system that the medical staff use to order prescriptions for patients. Orders weren’t consistently showing up on the pharmacy computer screen or printing out. We implemented our back-up system right away, but the temporary work-around was time consuming. Our Information Technology team made this their [...]
People with a serious mental illness die more than 30 years earlier than people without those challenges. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be reflecting about some of the innovative strategies that we’ve implemented with our behavioral health community partners over the last several years to improve the health status of folks with a serious [...]
It’s no secret that misuse and abuse of opiate painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin are a large and growing public health threat in Arizona- misuse and abuse of these medicines are now killing more Arizonans than car crashes. Last week the FDA approved a prescription treatment called Evzio that can be used in medical emergencies caused by prescription [...]
As I mentioned in a blog post last year, more AZ parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids- using “personal exemptions” when they enroll their kids in school. This has jeopardized our immunization rates enough that this week’s measles case in Maricopa County could spread. We’ll know in a couple of weeks. Vaccinating yourself and [...]
Like a hotshot team, a rapid response by public health is essential to stopping the spread of measles in unvaccinated persons… and disease detectives in Maricopa County are currently working to squash a measles outbreak right now. Last week a person with measles visited a restaurant, church and airport in Arizona, exposing over a thousand [...]
Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Arizona. Across men and women, all age groups, races, and ethnicities, about ½ of all colorectal cancer diagnoses in Arizona are late-stage, which are more difficult to treat. Our Fit at Fifty HealthCheck Program screens about 1,500 Arizonans per year by providing Fecal Immunochemical Tests [...]
I’ve always believed that transparency improves the efficiency of any system. Health care costs are no exception- and health care reimbursement costs are probably at the top of the list of systems that could be improved by applying a healthy dose of cost transparency. Today the federal government took a giant step forward when they [...]
Healthcare-Associated infections are a major (often preventable) threat to patient safety. Last week the National and State Healthcare Associated Infections Progress Report expanded on previous reports- detailing progress toward the eliminating healthcare-associated infections. The HAI Progress Report found significant reductions for nearly all infections- including in AZ. Central line-associated bloodstream infections and surgical site infections [...]
Now that the transition to a new Behavioral Health Authority in Maricopa County is underway- we’re turning our attention to bringing integrated care to the rest of the state. We’ll be working hard throughout 2014 to set the course for integrating behavioral health and physical health for folks with a serious mental illness as we [...]
This was a milestone week for our behavioral health program. Tuesday marked the start of our contract with Mercy Maricopa Integrated Care as the regional behavioral health authority in Maricopa County. The transition has gone well this week. Literally 100s of things had to go right in order to have a smooth transition- including Information [...]
