The era of public health accreditation has arrived. While not a surprise — momentum to make public health accreditation a reality has been growing for more than a decade — a consensus has emerged that the standards and measures developed by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) represent the future of public health. The 20th anniversary issue of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice (JPHMP) — a free special issue devoted to "Transforming Public Health Practice Through Accreditation" — acknowledges that accreditation is a transformative step in public health.
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January/February 2014 issue of JPHMP includes research articles, case reports, and commentaries that depict state-of-the-art practices, as well as the challenges, in achieving public health accreditation. The Public Health Foundation (PHF) is honored to have contributed to this special issue:
PHF has worked closely with several state and local health departments profiled in the special issue, including the states of Maine and Oklahoma; Missoula City-County, OK; New Orleans, LA; and Norwalk, CT; as well as several state TRAIN affiliates (Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Oregon). In addition to the examples presented in the issue, PHF has provided customized technical assistance (TA) in performance management, QI, or workforce development to seven of the 22 health departments PHAB has accredited to date.
The anniversary issue also includes two contributions about the CDC's National Public Health Improvement Initiative (NPHII): a research article on findings from the NPHII evaluation; and a commentary on how NPHII funds readiness activities to advance accreditation. The CDC has designated PHF to provide grantees with TA; to date PHF has worked with 30 of the 73 grantees, with accreditation readiness as a primary focus.
Accreditation will continue to shape the future of public health. In this quickly changing environment, PHF is committed to assisting health departments that are working to achieve and maintain public health accreditation. PHF’s TA aligns with Version 1.5 of PHAB’s standards and measures — including new workforce development provisions — which go into effect on July 1, 2014. To learn more, review PHF’s accreditation preparation resources.