The State Loan Repayment Program (SLRP) is launching its electronic application system that will improve efficiency in the program. Through the program’s continuous quality improvement (CQI) efforts, we recognized that the SLRP paper application is unclear, outdated, and inefficient. For instance, the paper application often results to an incomplete or deficient application and increased phone calls to [...]
On January 19th, our Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) program collaborated with the local Grand Canyon Chapter of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) in hosting their annual State of the State meeting. Around 50 infection preventionists and other state partners attended the event, which was held at the Health Services Advisory Group in Phoenix. This annual presentation is dedicated [...]
If you haven’t been vaccinated, protect yourself by getting your flu shot today. Just like putting on your seat belt, getting vaccinated can save you a trip to the hospital. If you or your children are sick with influenza, take precautions like staying home when you’re sick and covering your nose and mouth when coughing and sneezing. [...]
Last week, the CDC released the National and State Healthcare-associated Infection Data Report for 2015 National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) data. The National Healthcare Safety Network is the nation’s most widely used Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) tracking system and is being used for care improvement by facilities, states, regions, quality groups, and national public health agencies including CDC. [...]
ADHS collects huge amounts of data to help understand and address health problems across our state. The department uses statistics to get insights about how many people in Arizona get Valley Fever each year or where environmental hazards are. We also use statistics to address causes of disease, finding answers that impact policy and program decisions. In the 1940s [...]
It has been a busy four months since the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) submitted the Opioid Action Plan to Governor Ducey in September. The report on findings and recommendations was one of the requirements under the public health emergency declaration issued on June 5. The challenging work of reducing opioid overdoses has continued [...]
What are your health-related resolutions? The Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program’s New Year’s Resolution is to increase blood lead testing among Arizona’s most at-risk children. Children exposed to lead may not have any signs or symptoms but experience serious and permanent developmental and learning problems. The Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program released their 2018 Targeted [...]
With the holiday and travel season upon us, Arizonans are encouraged to continue to rebel against arboviruses like chikungunya, dengue, and Zika. Whether you are traveling to a galaxy far, far away or to lands much closer to home, we encourage you to “Fight the Bite” and support resistance efforts. If you have a bad [...]
Infectious agents are all around us. They can be found in the food we eat, in the water we drink, in the air we breathe, and on what we touch. Modern times have brought us solutions, such as vaccines and treatments, but also problems, like air travel and globalized food distribution, which can help spread [...]
Emma is the top name for girls, and Liam is the top name for boys for the second year in a row. The top five girl names for 2017 are Emma, Isabella, Olivia, Mia, and Ava. The top five boy names for 2017 are Liam, Noah, Sebastian, Alexander, and Daniel. The list of baby names [...]
