PHOENIX — The Arizona Department of Health Services says it published misleading information online due to a technical error with its state-run website.
AZCareCheck.com is a searchable database run by the health department and is a site the public uses for information about licensed medical facilities in the state.
“We put a lot of information on AZ Care Check, but with that, there may be some hiccups along the way,” said Tom Salow, the health department’s assistant director of licensing.
Salow called it a hiccup, but ABC15’s Investigation revealed it was more significant, especially for those considering mental health treatment.
On the AZ Care Check website, the public should be able to find a medical facility’s licensing history, deficiencies and citations found during inspections, and enforcement actions taken by the health department.
But ABC15 found the state was posting incorrect information.
“It was a coding issue,” said Salow. “It was just misleading to the public.”
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As a result of that IT error, ABC15 found the state was essentially duplicating the number of citations for behavioral health inpatient facilities, which lead to more citations or deficiencies being listed than the facility actually received.
“Thanks for bringing it to our attention,” Salow said.
ABC15 uncovered the error while looking into a behavioral health facility.
Salow said the error impacted just over 60 behavioral health inpatient facilities and lasted from November 2024 to January 2025.
“We addressed the issue shortly after it was brought to our attention,” he said.
In addition to fixing the issue, the state said it recently launched a new AZ Care Check website which is supposed to be more user-friendly and prevent errors.
The state said it is still working out the kinks, and as of late March the site still had a warning on it that some information may be temporarily missing as data is migrated.
“Anytime an issue is brought up about our systems, we try to learn from them. We try to not make that same mistake twice,” Salow said.
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