Maricopa County Transition Moves a Step Closer
Last week a Superior Court Judge denied a motion to Stay the transition of the Maricopa County behavioral health services contract from Magellan to Mercy Maricopa on April 1. With this ruling it looks like everything is happening according to schedule. Magellan still has the opportunity to appeal the decision and exercise due process in the matter… but we’ll continue pressing ahead [...]
Detecting Scary Diseases
Disease outbreaks can come from anywhere. In Arizona we’ve had illness from contaminated pomegranate seeds from the Middle East, measles from Switzerland, salmonellosis from African dwarf frogs and cholera from Peru. More recently a Canadian traveler died of H5N1 after she returned home from a long trip to China. An exotic disease from another country is only hours away. West Nile virus [...]
Match.com for Rural Primary Care Posts
Access to primary care providers in rural AZ is a problem. Our National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program and the State Loan Repayment Program are part of the solution- recruiting primary care workforce resources in those areas. Still, there’s not enough providers in rural Arizona- and 150 rural communities in Arizona need access to primary care providers. To help alleviate [...]
Influenza Still Widespread in AZ
A report out by the CDC this week found that people between 18 and 64 years old make up 61% of all flu-related hospitalizations so far this season in the US. In normal years only about 35% of flu hospitalizations are from this age group. H1N1 (the flu strain we saw circulating in the 2009 flu pandemic) is still the main culprit. H1N1 is included in [...]
Please Help Supply Blessing Bags
Patients and Staff at the Arizona State Hospital are working with the Phoenix Rescue Mission again this year to create Blessing Bags. They're large gallon sized Ziploc bags filled with basic necessities which will be handed out by the Phoenix Rescue Mission to the homeless. But they need some donations to get going. The Hospital team has placed boxes to collect [...]
Sugar, Sugar
Sugar has been in the news with a new study in JAMA Internal Medicine that took a look at sugar intake and deaths from heart disease. The study used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and included surveys from 1988 through 2010. Some of the findings were things we already know, like most adults in the US consume [...]