Abortion Clinic Licensing
A new law was passed last legislative session (HB 2416) that expanded the definition of an abortion to include “any means” (the former definition was limited to surgical abortions) and changed the qualifications for who can perform the procedure. For us, it meant that beginning July 21 (when the law was to take effect) we'd be responsible for ensuring compliance with the new [...]
Border Health Partnerships
A few weeks ago I blogged about the June plenary session of the Arizona Mexico Commission called Arizona & Sonora: Gateway for Innovation. The conference provided an opportunity to move forward a bi-national agenda supported by Arizona and Sonora. The health committee discussed regional approaches to valley fever surveillance, burn patient infrastructure, substance abuse, TB, border first aid services and Sonora’s [...]
Behavioral Health Integration Progressing
You'll remember that ADHS and AHCCCS jointly applied for and received a $750K Planning Grant to explore integrating primary health care and behavioral health care- especially for folks with serious mental illnesses. Our teams have been very busy over the last couple of weeks getting the initiative underway. One of the concepts we're exploring is a specialty Regional Behavioral Health Authority (RBHA) containing [...]
Encouraging Trends in New Bi-annual Tobacco Prevention Report
Part of the authorizing statute for our tobacco prevention programs includes a requirement that we develop a bi-annual report of our progress and activities. Just two years ago, we reported that we were shifting to an “evidence-based” approach to our prevention activities. In other words, we shifted our intervention strategies to focus on approaches that have been statistically proven to work. [...]
Encouraging Trends in New Bi-annual Tobacco Prevention Report
Part of the authorizing statute for our tobacco prevention programs includes a requirement that we develop a bi-annual report of our progress and activities. Just two years ago, we reported that we were shifting to an “evidence-based” approach to our prevention activities. In other words- we shifted our intervention strategies to focus on approaches that have been statistically proven to work. [...]
Forensic Unit Jelling
The construction on our new Forensic Unit at the Hospital is moving right along. The plumbing and electrical systems, heating and cooling systems, and the wall/ceiling trim are now complete in all the new buildings. Hot and chilled water pump controllers were recently installed which allowed the air handler to start up. Once the kinks are worked out of the [...]