As the holidays approach, visiting friends and family residing in nursing homes and assisted living facilities is a top priority for many. The visits, while strongly recommended by those involved in health care and aging, are sometimes very emotional. We highly recommend that visitors plan ahead to ensure that the time spent together is as [...]
The first big fire of the season started this week in Oak Creek Canyon- called the Slide fire. Smoke is usually the first public health impact from wildland fires. The air quality in Flagstaff and Sedona has been generally OK- but poor at times depending on the winds (smoke levels in Sedona have been high [...]
Our Licensing & Rulemaking teams have spent the better part of 18 months working with hundreds of folks from numerous associations and licensed facilities as part of our regulatory reform initiative. We’ve been overhauling 18 Articles of regulations for Healthcare Institutions and Behavioral Health Service Agencies including hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, outpatient surgery and treatment centers, recovery [...]
The role of a surveyor can be a difficult one. Our team of licensing surveyors need to maintain neutrality as regulators and be able to apply the Arizona Administrative Code (otherwise known as “the rules”) to a wide variety of facilities within the healthcare system. Part of our surveillance includes investigating complaints- which can be generated from [...]
The vision of the Department is to ideally achieve a state of Health and Wellness for all Arizonans and our mission is to promote, protect, and improve the health and wellness of individuals and communities in Arizona. The updated mission and vision statements are helping us build public health value in-house as well as in [...]
The Secretario de Salud Publica & the ADHS jointly received the Arizona Mexico Commission’s Paul Fannin award for our public health collaborations last Friday night. This is a top award for the Commission- with the award going to “… an organization that has demonstrated acts of goodwill and support toward the development of the Arizona-Sonora relationship.” It’s named after the [...]
Colby Bower will serve as our Interim Assistant Director for Licensing while we recruit and hire a permanent Assistant Director. Colby has been serving as our Legislative Affairs chief for the last couple of years. Colby fills several of the criteria that we needed for the interim post: 1) He’s a good risk manager and [...]
“Promoting Health and Wellness for all Arizonans" is the motto of the Arizona Department of Health Services. We promote and protect the health of Arizona's children and adults and set the standard for personal and community health through direct care, science, public policy and leadership. Want a piece of the action? We’re looking for an [...]
I’m writing this from my hotel room in Rocky Point- after a long day (and night) of the inter Plenary Session. The 2 day conference started Thursday and goes through tonight. We meet twice a year- it’s basically an opportunity for us to form partnerships across the border and to develop regional approaches to things like [...]
Our Assisted Living Licensing shop received a complaint about physical and verbal abuse of vulnerable adults in an assisted living facility in Casa Grande a couple of weeks ago. Surveyors Matthew Deise and Doris Laidlaw responded to the facility and interviewed several residents and caregivers at the home, who confirmed that some employees treat the residents [...]
