Will Humble

/Will Humble

About Will Humble

Will Humble, M.P.H. Director Arizona Department of Health Services

Abortion Clinic Inspections Bill

By | April 24th, 2014|Licensing|

We license and inspect abortion clinics in AZ.  Due to a court settlement agreement (unlike other health care institutions we license) we’re currently required to get an administrative search warrant before conducting an unannounced inspection of an abortion clinic.   For a routine compliance inspection, we need to give them 10 days-notice. On Tuesday, the [...]

Novel Group B Strep Intervention for Babies

By | April 23rd, 2014|Prevention|

Group B Streptococcus bacteria is a leading cause of infection and death within the first week of life. Each year about 40 infants less than 1-week old get early-onset group B strep disease in Arizona.  The bacteria can cause life-threatening infections like sepsis (infection of the blood), pneumonia (infection in the lungs), and meningitis (infection [...]

5 Years of Behavioral Health Innovation Paying Dividends (Part II)

By | April 22nd, 2014|Behavioral Health|

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll continue reflecting about some of the innovative strategies that we’ve implemented with our behavioral health community partners over the last several years to improve the health status of folks with a serious mental illness. Last week I wrote about the Integrated Health Homes initiative. Another success has been [...]

Compliance v. Enforcement

By | April 21st, 2014|Licensing|

Those of you in Public Health Licensing have heard me talk about the difference between compliance and enforcement more than once.  They’re 2 different things. Compliance means that a licensed healthcare, residential or childcare facility meets our standards and expectations.  Enforcement is an action that we occasionally take in order to get a facility into [...]

Comments Off on Compliance v. Enforcement

Regulatory Reform Improves Health & Wellness in AZ

By | April 18th, 2014|Licensing|

 Three years ago we made the commitment to overhaul the way we regulate Arizona’s 5,500 licensed healthcare facilities.  Our goal was to move from the existing prescriptive regulations to a new set of outcome-based rules.  The idea was to shift from the former 2-dimensional standards to a deeper set of 3-dimensional regulations. The final regulations that [...]

Comments Off on Regulatory Reform Improves Health & Wellness in AZ

ADHS SWAT Team Strikes

By | April 17th, 2014|Behavioral Health|

Last week the ASH Pharmacy began having problems with the computer system that the medical staff use to order prescriptions for patients.  Orders weren’t consistently showing up on the pharmacy computer screen or printing out.  We implemented our back-up system right away, but the temporary work-around was time consuming.  Our Information Technology team made this their [...]

Comments Off on ADHS SWAT Team Strikes

5 Years of Behavioral Health Innovation Paying Dividends (Part I)

By | April 15th, 2014|Behavioral Health|

People with a serious mental illness die more than 30 years earlier than people without those challenges.  Over the next few weeks, I’ll be reflecting about some of the innovative strategies that we’ve implemented with our behavioral health community partners over the last several years to improve the health status of folks with a serious [...]

FDA Approves Painkiller Overdose Field Treatment

By | April 14th, 2014|Prevention|

It’s no secret that misuse and abuse of opiate painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin are a large and growing public health threat in Arizona-  misuse and abuse of these medicines are now killing more Arizonans than car crashes. Last week the FDA approved a prescription treatment called Evzio that can be used in medical emergencies caused by prescription [...]

More Arizona Parents Choosing Not to Vaccinate their Kids

By | April 11th, 2014|Preparedness|

As I mentioned in a blog post last year, more AZ parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids- using “personal exemptions” when they enroll their kids in school.  This has jeopardized our immunization rates enough that this week’s measles case in Maricopa County could spread.  We’ll know in a couple of weeks. Vaccinating yourself and [...]

Comments Off on More Arizona Parents Choosing Not to Vaccinate their Kids

Epidemiologists: Public Health’s Smoke-Jumpers

By | April 10th, 2014|Preparedness, Prevention|

Like a hotshot team, a rapid response by public health is essential to stopping the spread of measles in unvaccinated persons… and disease detectives in Maricopa County are currently working to squash a measles outbreak right now. Last week a person with measles visited a restaurant, church and airport in Arizona, exposing over a thousand [...]