Arizona Department of Health Services, Director’s Blog

Mission of Mercy Starts Friday

mission of mercy logoGood oral health is critical to a person’s overall health. Tooth decay and gum disease are linked with heart disease, stroke and diabetes, and premature births. Many people in our community can’t afford dental care, so they suffer from poor oral health that affects their ability to speak, […]

By | December 11th, 2014|Prevention|Comments Off on Mission of Mercy Starts Friday

Administrative Judge Recommends Approving New Ambulance Service Application

Emergency VehiclesLate Monday, an Administrative Law Judge issued an Order recommending that I approve American Medical Response of Maricopa’s (AMR) application to operate ambulances (certificate of necessity or CON) in all of Maricopa County.

We regulate ambulance services differently than most states.  In order to operate an ambulance here the applicant […]

By | December 9th, 2014|General|Comments Off on Administrative Judge Recommends Approving New Ambulance Service Application

Community Paramedicine Legal Analysis Report

ECommunity Integrated Paramedicine programs are coming together in two primary business models in Arizona.  The first one has EMS (emergency medical services) agencies partnering with hospitals to reduce the frequency that patients are re-admitted to hospitals.  In the second, EMS agencies are cultivating social service referrals to reduce the frequency that […]

By | December 9th, 2014|General|Comments Off on Community Paramedicine Legal Analysis Report

2013 Arizona Health Status and Vital Statistics Report

2013 reportLast week we published our Agency’s most popular annual report.  It’s called the 2013 Arizona Health Status and Vital Statistics Report.  Last year’s version got 2,000,000 hits!

It gives our most granular public health information of the year including refined health statistics on pregnancies, births, reportable diseases, deaths, inpatient hospitalizations, […]

By | December 5th, 2014|General|1 Comment

Reflections on Global Polio Eradication

polioFor the last several years global public health has been coming down the home-stretch to eradicate Polio from the globe – making it the 3rd infectious disease to be eliminated – joining smallpox and rinderpest.  Polio incidence has dropped 99% in the last 20 years…going from 350,000 cases in […]

By | December 4th, 2014|Prevention|Comments Off on Reflections on Global Polio Eradication