The purpose of this project is to support the operations and continuous improvement of a national accreditation program for state, tribal, local and territorial public health departments.
Since 2004, there has been national work in exploring, establishing and launching a national accreditation
credit:
program.
Through a consensus process with national leaders from the major national public health organizations including those representing the organizations to be accredited the principles for a national accreditation program were determined and set the foundation for the establishment and incorporation of the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB).
Since PHABs incorporation in 2007, thousands of national, state, and local public health leaders have been involved in the development of all aspects of the national accreditation program, such as standards, measures and the assessment process.
The national accreditation program was launched by PHAB in September 201 1. PHAB serves as the accrediting body and also oversees continuous improvement of the elements of the program.
Support for the national accreditation program is critical in this early juncture of its existence and will also be vital for determining the opportunities for improvement and impact of the national accreditation activities.
Through this project, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will support the awardee to:
Support communications and education regarding the accreditation program, including but not limited to broad communications regarding the value and impact of accreditation, communications with health departments that represent the applicant constituency, and training and technical assistance activities such as training of public health professionals to serve as volunteer site visitors.
Establish a process of continuous improvement of the accreditation standards, tools and processes by monitoring changes needed for the standards, ongoing field-driven input for the national standards, and updates to the processes and information systems to ensure a smoothly functioning program.
Strengthen strategic partnerships through continued collaboration with national partner organizations and other sectors, and the development and enhancement of connections between public health categorical programs and accreditation.
Strengthen the evidence base for accreditation by conducting a comprehensive evaluation, ongoing analysis of the standards and measures for public health agency performance, and by developing a data base suitable for monitoring public health practice nationwide.