Our Licensing programs for medical and long-term care facilities have been nominated for a national award by the Region IX Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services office for our High-quality work in the area of Survey and Certification under difficult circumstances; Significant performance improvement in meeting the goals of the Medicare and Medicaid Survey &Certification [...]
The latest CDC Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report has the latest on the state-by-state H1N1 vaccination rates for kids as well as national percentages for healthcare workers. Arizona had the highest vaccination rates for kids in the western U.S. The national vaccination rates for healthcare workers were a little disappointing (about 40%)- but keep in [...]
Our Behavioral Health Office of Prevention http://www.azdhs.gov/bhs/ops.htm provides tools, resources and technical support to promote the resiliency and prevention of behavioral health/substance abuse disorders in our communities. Our goal is to empower communities and kids to make healthier choices by collaborating with Arizona’s prevention workforce, including our Tribal/Regional Behavioral Health Authorities and local communities; strategically [...]
The US Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, passed legislation out of their Committee to reauthorize WIC and the other Child Nutrition Programs last week. It’s called the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The bill http://ag.senate.gov/site/legislation.html includes the reauthorization of the free and reduced lunch and breakfast programs. I was in DC a couple [...]
The US Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, passed legislation out of their Committee to reauthorize WIC and the other Child Nutrition Programs last week. It’s called the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The bill http://ag.senate.gov/site/legislation.html includes the reauthorization of the free and reduced lunch and breakfast programs. I was in DC a couple [...]
Some of the best infection control experts are laying out the plan on how to fight Healthcare-Associated Infections in the next decade. The International Conference on HAIs just wrapped up in Atlanta – it marked the first time that four leading scientific organizations committed to infection prevention are working together to further a scientific and [...]
Saturday is the third annual MyFest event out a Tempe town Lake. This is a huge Magellan-organized youth event aimed at combating stigma associated with mental illness and is a great opportunity to get positive messages out there to youth across the state. We expect several thousand youth to be there. It’s a youth involvement [...]
I don’t have to tell you that we’ve faced unprecedented challenges over the last couple of years. State revenues have declined for nearly 3 years now, and we’ve dramatically reduced our spending and staffing levels in an effort to bring spending in line with state revenues. Excluding the money that goes toward the matching funds [...]
We had our agency Sunset Hearing last Wednesday in the Senate. Every 10 years our agency comes up for a redetermination to see if the mission of the department is still necessary etc. If so, then ADHS is “reauthorized”- hopefully for another 10 years. The bill (HB 2029) passed out of the House several weeks [...]
Performance Pay Reduction The state budget that was recently signed included an indefinite (probably permanent) suspension of performance pay (2.75%) beginning May 29. The effective date of the bill (HB2003) is June 15- so that's the day that the reduction will be actually implemented. But since this is in the middle of a pay period, we won't begin to actually [...]
