Benefits of Accreditation:
Accreditation through PHAB provides a means for a health
department to identify performance improvement opportunities, improve
management, develop leadership, and improve relationships with the
community. The process is one that will
challenge the health department to think about what business it does and how it
does that business. It will encourage
and stimulate quality and performance improvement in the health department. It will also stimulate greater accountability
and transparency. National public health
department accreditation has been developed because of the desire to improve
service, value, and accountability.
The tangible benefits of working on accreditation will vary
among health departments. Since accreditation is about performance and quality
improvement, the actual benefits to a health department will depend on its
identified needs. Accreditation provides a framework for a health department to
identify performance improvement opportunities, to improve business operations,
develop leadership and staff, and improve relationships with the community. The
process is one that will challenge the health department to think about what
business it does and how it does that business.
PHAB has an ongoing commitment to documenting the impact of
accreditation on the nation’s governmental public health departments, and by
extension, the benefits to the communities they serve. PHAB’s
website includes the early evaluation results of their accreditation
efforts and will be updated regularly as results become available.
Resources:
Public Health Accreditation Board Standards
Perhaps
PHAB’s greatest influence has been the development of national standards and
the accreditation process. PHAB
standards address services, programs, and operations essential to effective
public health management. Through
accreditation, an agency is able to maintain a balance between protecting the
public and providing an environment that safeguards the life, health, and
safety of staff. Standards set by PHAB
reflect practical up-to-date policies and procedures and function as a
management tool for public health departments in the United States.
The
standards development and approval process has involved participation from a
wide range of organizations, and the current standards and measures were the
products of months of development by the PHAB Standards Development Workgroup,
which included state and local public health professionals, national and
federal public health experts, public health researchers, and other technical
experts. The initial standards and measures were subject to an “alpha” field
test with a small group of local and state health agencies, resulting in
multiple revisions. The standards and measures were then subject to a public
vetting process, and a beta test where feedback was collected from 30 beta site
health departments and 97 beta test site visitors. Version 1.0 of the Standards
and Measures was adopted by the PHAB Board of Directors in May, 2011, after
three years of development.
The
Standards and Measures are divided into 12 domains; domains 1-10 address the
ten Essential Public Health Services. Domain 11 addresses management and
administration, and Domain 12 addresses governance. Standards are the required
level of achievement that a health department is expected to meet. Measures provide a way of evaluating if the
standard is met. Required documentation
is the documentation that is necessary to demonstrate that a health department
conforms to a measure.
Each
Domain, Standard and Measure is numbered using a standardized taxonomy for
clarity. Thus, the numbers 5.3.2 delineate Domain 5, Standard 3, and Measure
2.
The
Standards and Measures document provides guidance to health departments as they
work to select the best evidence to serve as documentation. It includes a “Purpose” statement for each
standard and measure, a “Significance” statement for each measure, and
narrative guidance specific to each required documentation item. PHAB strongly recommends that the health
department pay close attention to this document when selecting the most
appropriate documentation to meet a measure.
PHAB
released Version 1.5 of the Standards and Measures in December 2013. Version
1.5 of the Standards and Measures clarifies the wording of requirements,
stipulates the number of examples that are required for each measure, and
specifies the time frame for each measure. Additionally, a limited number of
noteworthy public health issues that are emerging as important forces in the
advancement of public health have been included. For a quick summary of the
revisions and clarifications, see the Summary of Version 1.5 Revisions and Clarifications, March 2014.
As of June 2, 2014, PHAB stopped accepting accreditation
applications under the Standards
and Measures Version 1.0. Health departments whose applications were
currently in the system on June 2 will still be reviewed under Version 1.0,
while all health departments that submit their applications from June 3, 2014
forward will be reviewed under the revised Standards
and Measures Version 1.5.
Resources: