Ben Franklin said: "Critics are our friends, they show us our faults". A true statement. When a reporter from Wisconsin wrote a story about newborn screening turn-around times around the country, we found out that we had room for improvement when it comes to the time it takes newborn metabolic screening samples to get from AZ hospitals to our Lab. Basically, [...]
House Bill 2491 has been in the media and became a law with the Governor’s signature. The new law requires us to add critical congenital heart defect (CCHD) to our newborn screening program protocol. This new screening and reporting requirement will kick in once our rulemaking is complete- probably this Fall. The screening test we'll be [...]
Last December I wrote about an investigation done by a reporter from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about newborn screening program turn-around times across the country. When I saw where Arizona stood relative to the other states in the article, we set a new goal of making sure that our Lab gets 95% of all newborn [...]
Our Licensing team promotes and protects public health and safety by addressing quality of care issues. Last week we hosted a forum for our licensed midwives to learn more about our programs and resources to bring them up to speed on our newest initiatives related to maternal and child health so they'll have the latest tools [...]
An investigative article published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel a couple of weeks ago has triggered a state by state assessment of newborn screening programs across the country. Arizona is no exception. Our newborn screening and maternal and child health teams have been reviewing our procedures and looking for ways to improve Arizona’s performance. For example, several Arizona [...]
Our Newborn Screening Program ensures that each newborn is tested for 28 inherited disorders and hearing problems. The goal is to help kids avoid illness, developmental delays and even death by quickly identifying problems and swiftly letting their doctors know so they can implement interventions. On any given day our newborn screening team tests from [...]
The first newborn screening test was developed in 1963 by Dr. Robert Guthrie to test for phenylketonuria, commonly known as PKU. Since then, scientists have developed more tests to screen newborns for a variety of severe conditions. This year, the nation celebrates 50 Years of Newborn Screening. The State of Arizona currently screens for 29 [...]
Our Lab just finished a major website makeover. Check out the new Laboratory landing page which will lead you to Newborn Screening, Microbiology, Chemistry, and Lab Licensure and Certification.
Our Midwifery Scope of Practice Advisory Committee Meeting is meeting from 4 to 6 pm this evening in the Lab conference room (250 N 17 Avenue, Phoenix). The Agenda includes a discussion of the draft U of A Literature Review including a Presentation of the results along with the Draft Rules for Public Comment. The [...]
According to the CDC about 15% of school age kids have some hearing loss. Children who are hard of hearing will find it harder to learn vocabulary, grammar, word order, and other parts of verbal communication. Newborn hearing loss occurs in about 1 in 5,000 births- which is why it’s so important that AZ kids [...]
