ADHS Receives March of Dimes National Award
The ADHS won the first-ever Newborn Screening Quality Award from the March of Dimes this week. We were recognized for shortening the length of time it takes bloodspot samples to get from Arizona hospitals to our State Laboratory, setting and achieving a target of receiving 95% of samples within 72 hours, and for establishing a policy of full transparency for the [...]
New ASTHO Presidential Challenge: Healthy Aging
I was at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials Annual Meeting and Policy Summit most of last week. This year’s meeting was entitled Achieving Population Health in Evolving Systems. We shared best practices with each other about different ways states are approaching population health. We heard from the Acting Surgeon General Rear Admiral Boris D. Lushniak, MD, MPH, who provided [...]
Community Integrated Paramedicine Taking Shape in AZ
Community Integrated Paramedicine programs are beginning to come together in two primary business models in Arizona. The first one has EMS (emergency medical services) agencies partnering with hospitals to reduce the frequency that patients are re-admitted to hospitals. In the second, EMS agencies are cultivating social service referrals to reduce the frequency that folks use emergency departments for non-emergency events. Here in [...]
Enterovirus D68
Arizona joined the states asking CDC for laboratory testing for Enterovirus D68 on Friday. We’ve had an increase in the number of children hospitalized and treated for upper respiratory illness. Enterovirus is in the family with the common cold and illness is usually limited to cold symptoms (stuffy or runny nose and cough). There seem to be groups of children [...]
2013 AZ Abortion Annual Report
We publish several reports every year that are required by Arizona law…including our annual abortion surveillance report. We published our 4th Abortion Surveillance Report this week. Overall, the abortion rate in Arizona was stable from 2012 to 2013, however, the rate of abortions among 18-19 year old women decreased more than 30% between 2012 and 2013…the lowest in a decade. The majority of [...]
The Legal Mechanics of State Government & PTSD
State government authority and policy is driven by laws that are established by the Legislature and carried out by the Governor through the Executive Branch. Sometimes laws are passed directly by the voters (called a voter initiative). Many state laws require state agencies to develop regulations to “flesh out” the laws they pass by giving state agencies “Rulemaking” authority to [...]