Earlier this week the Rural/Metro Corporation (a large provider of private ambulance in Arizona) announced that it had filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The Company announced that the bankruptcy action will allow the company to… “significantly reduce its debt, renegotiate unprofitable contracts and free [...]
Back-to-school time means that a new bolus of high-schoolers that got their license over the summer are hitting the streets for the first time during the school year. All the data suggests that the first year of driving is an especially important time for skill development. Fortunately, our State has a “Graduated Drivers License” law to [...]
Not so long ago (actually a long time ago) when I was a student I was bummed when it was back to school time. Now as a parent… I can’t wait. This year we thought we’d pull together a hub website for parents and grandparents to find resources and information with helpful hints about the [...]
In May the Arizona Department of Administration (ADOA) issued a “Stay Order” for the planned transfer of our Maricopa County Behavioral Health Authority from Magellan to Mercy Maricopa Integrated Care. In June the ADOA decided to ask the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings to conduct an official hearing regarding the October 1 contract award. This week, [...]
For the last few years our Immunizations team has been sending out revised and updated Immunications newsletters. The newsletters are geared to keep our stakeholders and partners current on the state and local immunization issues. You can sign up to receive Immunications via email or get a hard copy in the actual mail. The current issue of Immunications has: [...]
As I’ve mentioned in past updates, global efforts to eradicate polio through widespread immunization campaigns have been incredibly successful. Back in May of this year, only three countries still had endemic polio cases – Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Unfortunately, for the first time since 2007, wild poliovirus cases are again being reported in Somalia. Currently, [...]
The Superior Court judge ruled this morning that our requirement for Registration Certificate holders (dispensaries) to get an approval to operate within one year in order to renew their certificates is unreasonable. Because of today’s ruling, we’re going to accept renewal requests for all the current dispensaries in the state, whether they’re open or not. The [...]
A recent report by the American Cancer Society, suggests what many Arizonans may have suspected, that skin cancer is on the rise. An estimated 82,770 Americans will be diagnosed with skin cancer in 2013. In Arizona, one in five of us is likely to develop some form of skin cancer. The most common cause is overexposure [...]
Most people have 46 chromosomes in 23 pairs. One set from the mom and one from the dad. Sometimes something doesn’t go quite right, and one of the chromosome pairs doesn’t divide evenly at the right time, and a person ends up with 3 of one of the chromosomes. Trisomy means three chromosomes instead of the normal 2. There [...]
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, has been increasing in Arizona and the rest of the nation for the last few years. Pertussis usually runs in a cycle, peaking every 3-5 years and then decreasing again. Symptoms include fits of cough, vomiting after the fits of cough, and a whooping sound during cough. Some complications include pneumonia, [...]
