This is a story about making great-tasting sugar free lemonade from lemons. About a year and a half ago the legislature passed a bill that eliminated our general funds for licensing (nursing homes, assisted living, hospitals, behavioral health, child care etc.). In exchange, the Bill included a provision that gave us “exempt” rulemaking authority to collect [...]
We've been operating on several fronts all week for the Monument Fire. Licensing made sure that facilities in the area had executable evacuation plans and knew who to contact if they needed to evacuate. They also made sure that the facilities that remained open had enough staff. Fifteen facilities relocated patients and residents this week. Most are ready to go back, and our licensing team has 8 reopening inspections [...]
Everybody knows that people in different parts of the country behave differently when it comes to smoking and physical activity, but does it impact how long they live? The answer is yes. According to fascinating study, Americans are living longer, but not in every part of the country. In fact, in some areas, life expectancy [...]
We’re delighted that Cory Nelson has agreed to share his talents with us as our new Arizona State Hospital CEO. Cory has been serving for the last ten years as the CEO at the South Dakota Human Services Center in Yankton, SD where he runs a 304-bed state psychiatric facility. He has a great reputation [...]
Today the FDA released the new, graphic warning labels that will be on cigarette packs. The labels educate smokers and others, including kids, about the dangers of tobacco use and encourage smokers to quit. Using this proven techique, the U.S. joins 43 other countries that already require pictures or images on cigarette packs. The warning [...]
The national Public Health Prevention Plan was released last week, with a clear emphasis on the critical contributors to health. The 4 broad strategic directions for the plan are: Building healthy and safe community environments, Expanding quality preventive services in both clinical and community settings, Empowering people to make healthy choices, and Eliminating health disparities. This [...]
There’ve been 3 lawsuits filed against the Department in the last few days. On June 10th, the Arizona Biomedical Research Commission filed suit against the state (including me) to stop the enactment of the portion of SB1615, which transfers the Commission to ADHS next month. We have someone from the Attorney General’s office working on [...]
The center of gravity for the public health responses to the fires shifted South this week toward the new Monument fire. Early this week folks were allowed to go back to Springerville and Eagar, which meant that it was show-time for Licensing again. We sent a team of surveyors to re-open the licensed facilities that were evacuated last week. [...]
Men’s Health Week focuses on male specific diseases such as prostate cancer and men's wellness in general, including mental health issues and accident prevention. Many people think of their fathers this time of year - but men should at least make a commitment to themselves and their families to pay better attention to health and [...]
We kicked off Step 1 of our long-awaited overhaul of the behavioral health facility licensing requirements this week. A new law passed last legislative session charges us with facilitating “licensure of integrated health programs that provide both behavioral and physical health services." The new law tells us to adopt rules relating to construction, equipment, sanitation, [...]
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