Reducing the Painkiller Body-Count
Across the country prescription painkillers take out way more people than heroin and cocaine combined... and the story is the same in Arizona. Last year more than one person died almost every day in our state from prescription opioids... and more people died from painkiller overdoses than car crashes. In January, I blogged about how we've joined the Association of State and Territorial Health [...]
Training Improves Outcomes
Improving health outcomes at licensed healthcare facilities in Arizona requires 2 main ingredients. Having regulations and encourage continuous quality improvement (which is now complete) and providing our licensed facilities with the information they need to implement practices (in accordance with the regulations) to execute positive change. Now that we’ve finished developing the new regulations, it’s time to build the knowledge [...]
Teens & Tobacco: An AZ Success story
You’ve read on my blog before about Arizona’s statewide youth coalition Students Taking a New Direction, better known as STAND. The group just wrapped up its 5th annual youth conference to congratulate members on a great year and recognize the best of the organization. This year, Mohave County's Kingman Youth Coalition “Beating Up Teen Tobacco” won coalition of the year [...]
New Respiratory Viral Panel
Throughout the year, we talk a lot about flu, but there are several other respiratory viruses like parainfluenza, RSV, adenoviruses, and coronaviruses that can also cause respiratory infections. Our State Laboratory has been able to detect most of these viruses through a battery of test methods, but now we have a way to consolidate testing for respiratory pathogens. Our State Laboratory’s [...]
Ventanillas de Salud Snags the 2014 AMC Fannin Award
The annual plenary session of the Arizona-Mexico Commission wrapped up Friday night. The Ventanilla de Salud (Health Windows) program won the Arizona Mexico Commission’s Paul Fannin award. This is a top recognition for the Commission- with the award going to “… an organization that has demonstrated acts of goodwill and support toward the development of the Arizona-Sonora relationship.” It’s named after the AMC’s [...]
Bacteriology Revolution Coming
When a case of tuberculosis (TB) is suspected, it’s important to rapidly identify it to treat the person and prevent the spread of disease in Arizona. Our State Laboratory is critical in the identification of TB and other bacterial pathogens. The faster these diseases can be detected, the faster public health folks can take action. The Lab just scored a couple [...]