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Arizona Department of Health Services Director Sue Gerard is resigning her position, effective Aug. 1.
I'd like to thank Governor Napolitano for giving me the opportunity to work at my dream job for the last three years, Gerard wrote in a statement released Thursday. It has been a privilege to work for the people of Arizona and we've made some wonderful progress toward improving the quality and availability of health care. But I think this is the right time for me to move on. We have an excellent staff in place and I'm proud of the progress we've made.Previously, the 35-year Arizona resident was a chief adviser to Gov. Janet Napolitano on health care issues, and served as a Republican legislator from 1988 to 2002. Replacing Gerard on an interim basis is January Contreras, the governor's adviser on health issues.
My thanks go to Susan for her commitment to Arizona , and for sharing her expertise with DHS, Napolitano wrote in a statement. She has been an outstanding public servant for more than two decades. Much of the progress we've made in health care is a direct result of legislation Susan introduced and improvements she made at DHS.
Regardless of the sunny statements released Thursday by Napolitano and Gerard, their relationship became strained over the last year or so with the uncovering by Gerard's inspectors of a string of patient-care problems at the Arizona State Veteran Home, which is part of the state Department of Veterans Services.
In May, the state-run nursing home came under criticism after sending home without home-health services or medications a 67-year-old diabetic man recovering from brain surgery. DHS declared that residents in the home were in "immediate jeopardy, the worst possible designation for such a facility. It was the second time in a year-and-a-half that the home had received the designation.
After that incident, the outspoken Gerard revealed some of her frustration with the Governor's Office in a series of inter-agency e-mails, which subsequently became public.
In one, Gerard wrote that the Governor's Office and Department of Veterans Services had a habit of siding with the veterans home rather than DHS when it came to questions of patient care at the nursing home. In another, Gerard described the reaction to her agency's negative inspections of the veterans home as a shoot the messenger mentality.
Napolitano spokeswoman Jeanine L'Ecuyer said the governor didn't request Gerard's resignation, and denied that recent problems at the veterans home played any role in the shakeup.
Sue Gerard made the decision to resign, L'Ecuyer said. It was her decision. The timing of Gerard's decision was Gerard's. News of her resignation comes two days after General Richard Gregg Maxon stepped down from has position as head of the Department of Veterans Services. Stepping in to replace Maxon is Col. Joey Strickland, who most recently was deputy secretary of the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs.