General

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Here you will find topics ranging from current events that affect public health in Arizona to overall information about the Arizona Department of Health Services

American Indian Healthcare Matrix (Part III)

By | May 20th, 2014|General|

In addition to services provided by the Indian Health Service and the ”638’s” administered by tribes and tribal organizations, American Indians are eligible to apply for and receive Medicare, Medicaid, and  Children’s Health Insurance Plan.  American Indians applying for Medicaid services in Arizona need to meet the same income requirements as all other applicants.  Unearned [...]

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Federal Funds for Arizona Public Health

By | May 13th, 2014|General, Preparedness, Prevention|

We use a lot of CDC grants  in Arizona to promote public health.  I’ve talked about what we do with the Maternal and Child Health, as well as the Behavioral Health, grants in previous blogs.  There’s another grant that lets us focus on issues that are specifically tailored to Arizona.  The Preventive Health block grant helps fund our [...]

National Nurses Week & the Harlem Shake

By | May 12th, 2014|General|

Anybody that has worked in the healthcare industry knows who's the backbone of care: Nurses.  Last week we celebrated nurses with National Nurses Week. We have many nurses throughout the Department in various divisions. Each nurse provides a distinct service to the Department. The majority of our nurses work at the AZ State Hospital providing [...]

American Indian Healthcare Matrix (Part II)

By | May 9th, 2014|General|

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll continue my series on the healthcare matrix for American Indians.  Last week I covered the basics of the Indian Health Service.  This week’s write-up is about something called “638's”. Tribes and Tribal Organizations can elect to administer healthcare services that normally would be administered by the IHS. This [...]

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American Indian Healthcare Matrix (Part I)

By | May 8th, 2014|General|

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be writing a series on the healthcare matrix for American Indians. I’ll be covering the basics of the Indian Health Service, how Medicaid and Medicare interface with Native Americans, as well as some of the basics of the Affordable Care Act as it relates to American Indians. Let’s [...]

“People First” Law

By | May 6th, 2014|General|

A few years ago, the legislature made some important changes to the language in our state laws by removing hurtful words related to people with developmental disabilities.  Last year, the legislature removed some really old definitions and terms related to mental illness.  This year a new law was passed and signed (HB 2667) that went through [...]

First Case of MERS in U.S.

By | May 2nd, 2014|General, Preparedness|

A healthcare worker who recently returned from Saudi Arabia is the first confirmed case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the U.S.  The person's in stable condition in isolation in an Indiana hospital. All public health agencies around the world have been carefully watching for new cases of MERS since the disease was [...]

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FDA Study Committee Recommends Disapproval of New Opiate Painkiller

By | April 29th, 2014|General|

Last week an FDA panel unanimously recommended rejecting a new drug that’s a combination of morphine and oxycodone – two very strong painkillers.  The panel, Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee, said the company didn’t provide data to prove that Moxduo is more effective or safer than using one of the already available drugs. [...]

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Severe Dog Bites Up Sharply in AZ

By | March 27th, 2014|General|

When I heard about what happened to the 4 year old boy that was attacked by a Pit Bull a couple of weeks ago, I asked our public health statistics team to look at our surveillance data and see whether severe dog maulings are really up- or whether it just seems that way.  It turns [...]

ICM Spring Cleaning Drive Final Push

By | March 25th, 2014|General|

 If you're a regular blog reader, you've probably seen posts about our water drives in the spring to prepare for the summer heat and the food drive in the fall to help our food banks for the holiday season.  We also do an annual spring cleaning drive that benefits ICM.  This is a great opportunity [...]