Arizona Aces Latest CDC Public Health Preparedness Report Card
Every year the CDC evaluates each of the states on their public health preparedness performance. Arizona continued to score high marks on this year’s preparedness report card. We got a perfect score this year for biological laboratory testing, and we’ve kept our excellent performance measures for incident management, medical countermeasures, and public information. Our response times for activating our emergency [...]
What’s a CON, Anyway?
Arizona uses a Certificate of Necessity (CON) system to regulate ground ambulance service in Arizona - and to make sure that every place in the State has adequate emergency medical services, including the frontier parts of Arizona. The CON actually describes the geographic service area, level of service (advanced life support or basic life support), hours of operation, response times, [...]
The Certificate of Necessity (CON) “Pipeline”
American Medical Response’s (AMR) isn’t the only application in the pipeline. A number of fire departments along with private groups are applying for CONs right now. Some are farther along in the application process than others. Why all the interest in running an ambulance company? Rural Metro’s bankruptcy has probably played a role along with the Affordable Care Act. Also, [...]
Flu Season May Be a Hard One
We expect to see flu cases, hospitalizations, and even some deaths every year, but recent data from the CDC shows that this season may be a little different than the past few flu seasons. First, the flu strain causing the most cases so far this year is Influenza A (H3N2). Flu seasons in which H3 subtypes are more common tend [...]
Vaccine Financing and Availability Advisory Committee Report
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 the study here). Unfortunately, due [...]
Mission of Mercy Starts Friday
Good oral health is critical to a person’s overall health. Tooth decay and gum disease are linked with heart disease, stroke and diabetes, and premature births. Many people in our community can’t afford dental care, so they suffer from poor oral health that affects their ability to speak, smile, smell, taste, touch and eat. That’s why the Central Arizona Dental [...]