Public Health Accreditation

NALBOH, in partnership with the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) and other national partners, is in the process of developing standards and measures to support a voluntary national public health accreditation program. Tribal, territorial, state, and local health departments will be eligible to apply for accreditation in 2011. Boards of health will play an important role in supporting local public health agencies in their pursuit of public health accreditation. Stay tuned to NALBOH's and PHAB's websites for tools, resources, and updates that will inform and provide information about the progress of voluntary national accreditation.

 

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Did You Know..

 

The draft standards and measures have been vetted and reviewed by the Standards and Measure committee.  The comments received during the vetting period are in the process of being incorporated into the standards and measures document to be ready for the launch of the beta-test at the end of the year.

 

PHAB received a great deal of feed back during the public comment period.  PHAB received almost 4,000 individual comments, approximately 123 online surveys, 29 feedback forms, 35 paper surveys and more than a dozen narrative comments. 

 

The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB), the organization developing a national voluntary public health accreditation program, released the first draft standards for state, local, and territorial health department accreditation. The release of the initial iteration of the standards is an important milestone for the field of public health and is a noteworthy step toward the goal of having the accreditation program in place by early 2011.
 
Standards are largely the same--though measures differ--for state, local, and territorial health departments, but all touch on a wide range of public health services. PHAB is working closely with tribal partners to develop standards for tribal health departments that are consistent with the draft state and local standards.  Although the standards are still in draft form, it is likely that health departments will be encouraged to show competency in areas ranging from administrative capacity to the ability to engage community partners, from solving health problems to enforcing public health laws. The draft standards are available in their entirety on the PHAB website at www.phaboard.org.
 
Following revisions to the draft standards, an 18-month beta test of the full accreditation process will take place beginning in the summer of 2009, and will result in further refinement of the standards and the process. PHAB will accept its first applications for voluntary accreditation beginning early 2011.
 
PHAB was established in 2007 to develop and oversee a national program for the voluntary accreditation of state, local, territorial, and tribal health departments. The goal of the voluntary national accreditation program is to improve and protect the health of the public by advancing the quality and performance of state and local public health departments. PHAB is led by a Board of Directors that includes state, tribal, and local public health leaders and is jointly funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
 
For more information, visit PHAB's website, www.phaboard.org,

or contact Kaye Bender by email or by calling (703) 778-4549.

 

NALBOH Board Governance Pages

 

National Public Health Performance Standards

 

Public Health Accreditation

 

 

For questions or more information, please contact Yolanda Savage.

 

 

 

Page updated 10/05/2009.