Will Humble

/Will Humble

About Will Humble

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

Healthcare Associated Infections

By | December 29th, 2014|Licensing, Prevention|

Healthcare-Associated infections continued to be a major (and largely preventable) threat to patient safety in Arizona during 2014 - although we had better results this year.  The 2014 National and State Healthcare Associated Infections Progress Report found significant reductions for nearly all infections in Arizona. Arizona’s public health system takes a layered approach to preventing [...]

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Improving Behavioral Health Outcomes

By | December 27th, 2014|Behavioral Health|

People with a serious mental illness die more than 25 years earlier than the general population…an unacceptable health disparity in anybody’s book.  The increased mortality is largely from treatable medical conditions caused by modifiable risk factors like smoking, obesity, substance abuse, and not accessing primary and acute medical care. We recognized the need to address [...]

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Electronic Child Care Renewal Utility Goes Live

By | December 26th, 2014|Licensing|

Our Child Care Licensing shop launched a new Child Care Licensing application last week.  The Bureau regulates nearly 2,500 Child Care Centers in the state of Arizona.  The new web application gives Child Care Centers a way to submit licensing (and enforcement) fees - increasing the efficiency of our processing time.  The application is also designed as [...]

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Updated EMS Rules Finalized

By | December 26th, 2014|General|

Emergency Medical Services will also be improved thanks to some new rules that will take effect on January 1.  The new rules (filed last week) make it easier for a patient who meets certain criteria to be taken to someplace other than an emergency department.  The new rules also allow some emergency medical care technicians [...]

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Regulatory Reform

By | December 25th, 2014|Behavioral Health, Licensing|

We met a major milestone in 2014 when we filed our final new set of regulations for Arizona’s 5,500 licensed healthcare facilities.  We’ve now completed our overhaul of the State’s regulations of hospitals, behavioral health inpatient facilities, nursing care institutions, recovery care centers, hospices, behavioral health residential facilities, assisted living facilities, outpatient surgical centers, outpatient [...]

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Electronic Midwife Reporting Utility Goes Live

By | December 24th, 2014|Licensing|

Our Special Licensing shop (which licenses certified professional midwives) went live with a new Midwife Electronic Reporting Utility last week…providing a secure online application for submission and viewing of midwife reports.  Our certified professional midwives can now use the electronic reporting tool and our Midwife Survey Reporting Guide to track outcomes. The new web utility provides [...]

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New Counseling Facility Rules

By | December 23rd, 2014|Behavioral Health|

On January 1 we’ll begin accepting applications for a new class of health care institution called counseling facilities.  New Rules (adopted this week) provide facilities a way to become licensed for counseling services.  The new rules will allow the facility to be stand-alone (doing all administrative activities itself) or to be affiliated with another counseling [...]

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Arnold v. Sarn Service Capacity Increases on Target

By | December 22nd, 2014|Behavioral Health|

Service capacity increases mandated by the Arnold v. Sarn lawsuit are on target.  The exit agreement on the suit stipulates an increase of services for folks living with a serious mental illness in Maricopa County during fiscal years 2015-2016.  Mercy Maricopa Integrated Care (the regional behavioral health authority for Maricopa County) is on target in [...]

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ADHS Awards New Behavioral Health Services Contracts

By | December 18th, 2014|Behavioral Health|

The mind and body aren’t separated - and neither should the healthcare delivery system - especially for folks with a serious mental illness.  People with a serious mental illness die more than 25 years earlier than the general population…an unacceptable health disparity in anybody’s book.  The increased mortality is largely from treatable medical conditions caused [...]

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Arizona Aces Latest CDC Public Health Preparedness Report Card

By | December 18th, 2014|Preparedness|

Every  year the CDC evaluates each of the states on their public health preparedness performance.  Arizona continued to score high marks on this year’s preparedness report card.  We got a perfect score this year for biological laboratory testing, and we’ve kept our excellent performance measures for incident management, medical countermeasures, and public information.  Our response [...]

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