General

/General

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

Using Evidence to Reach Consensus

By | December 11th, 2012|General, Licensing|

Some of you might remember a protest about a year ago in front of our 150 Building.  About 100 folks were carrying placards asking us to make it easier to have a home-birth in AZ.  They were mostly young families and some licensed midwives- and they were urging us to change our licensing rules for midwives.  That day [...]

2012 Environmental Health Annual Report

By | December 5th, 2012|General|

I started my career in public health inspecting restaurants, motels and the like in the mid- 1980s.  My area was right around here down toward South Mountain-  and I inspected the cafeteria in the basement of the Executive Tower and the cafeteria that used to be on the 4th floor of the 1740 building.  It doesn’t seem [...]

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Personnel Reform Whirlwind

By | November 29th, 2012|General|

We met the review deadline for our agency-level policies and procedures related to Personnel Reform thanks to the full court press from our Operations team. This was no small task…  and it took an entire village to complete!  We met weekly throughout the process, but during several phases smaller groups met more frequently, especially as we [...]

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AZ’s Mission of Mercy

By | November 28th, 2012|General, Prevention|

Oral health is more than a nice smile.  Having good oral health improves a person’s ability to speak, smile, smell, taste, touch, chew, and eat.  Plus, tooth decay and gum disease have been linked with other health problems like heart disease, stroke and diabetes, as well as premature births.  Given the potential link between oral [...]

Maintain- Don’t Gain!

By | November 28th, 2012|General|

Join me and challenge yourself this holiday season. Give yourselves the most important holiday gift, the gift of health. Visit North Carolina’s Eat Smart, Move More website to get started today! Not only will you be provided with easy and fun ways to stay on top of the seasons’ calories, but you can also join the Eat [...]

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Informed Consent Website Up & Running

By | November 26th, 2012|General|

Last legislative session the Governor signed HB 2036- which amends state law regarding abortions. Some parts of the law are pending legal challenges, but the parts requiring us to develop a website were unaffected- and our new informed consent site just went up.  The website lists agencies and services that are available to assist women throughout [...]

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Food Drive Results

By | November 21st, 2012|General|

This morning St. Mary’s Food Bank picked up 2 ½ tons of canned food to help those in need… courtesy of our Agency food drive. We set a goal of bringing in 4,000 pounds and we made it.  When you combine the cans and cash, it equals more than 5,000 pounds of food.  Good work to [...]

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Thanksgiving, ASH & the Territorial Cup

By | November 21st, 2012|General|

Our Arizona State Hospital (ASH) and the U of A share a birthday.  Both were established by the 13th Territorial Legislature in 1885.  The City of Tucson had wanted ASH (it came with a $100K appropriation) but their delegation got to Prescott (the Territorial Capitol) late because the Salt was flooded…  and Tucson ended up [...]

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Making a Public Health Difference

By | November 20th, 2012|General|

In public health, we don’t gather data just for the sake of gathering data.  Our goal is use that data to see what kind of issues there are, look for programs that are proven to reduce bad outcomes and help the communities implement them. One key area we watch is Maternal and Child Health because making changes [...]

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Glendale Dispensary Opening Postponed

By | November 19th, 2012|General, Preparedness|

Last Thursday I announced in a blog post that our team had just returned from a field inspection for a dispensary applicant in Glendale, that there were no major deficiencies, and that we had awarded the dispensary an “Approval to Operate”.   Today the Applicant asked for a short delay in the effective date for their [...]