Public Health Accreditation
What is Public Health Accreditation?
The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) is a nationally accrediting body for public health departments. It is PHAB's mission to "advance and transform public health practice by championing performance management, strong infrastructure, and innovation".
Through the PHAB accreditation process, a health department's performance is measured against a set of nationally-recognized, practice-focused, and evidence-based standards. Once a health department receives accreditation, accreditation status is valid for five years. The five-year time frame is used to measure the continual development, revision, and advancement of the department against public health standards. When initial accreditation expires after five years, the health department must apply for and receive reaccreditation to maintain accreditation status.
Huron County Public Health (HCPH) received national accreditation status from PHAB in 2015, and was up for reaccreditation in 2020. However, due to HCPH's response during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, PHAB approved HCPH's request for a re-accreditation application extension. HCPH applied for re-accreditation in Summer 2022.
What is involved in Public Health Accreditation?
There are a few key components that aid in measuring a health department's performance, which include the Community Health Assessment (CHA), Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), Strategic Plan, and Quality Improvement (QI)/Performance Management. Explanations of each are as follows:
-
Community Health Assessment (CHA)
-
The function of the Community Health Assessment (CHA) is to help community stakeholders better understand the health needs and priorities of Huron County residents through a county-wide assessment of youth and adults living in Huron County. The most recent (2023) CHA can be found at www.huroncohealth.com/resource-library.
-
-
Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP)
-
The Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) piggybacks off the Community Health Assessment (CHA) and serves as a community-based improvement plan for the priority areas that were identified from the CHA.
-
-
Strategic Plan
-
PHAB identifies a strategic plan as a plan that "results from a deliberate decision-making process and defines where an organization is going. The plan sets the direction for the organization, and through a common understanding of the mission, vision, goals and objectives, provides a template for all employees and stakeholders to make decisions that move the organization forward."
-
-
Quality Improvement (QI) Plan
-
In conjunction with the 10 Essential Public Health Services (EPHS), one of the guiding principles of HCPH is Quality Improvement, which is defined as "the commitment to transformation and the highest level of quality and efficiency we can achieve." Maintaining consistent quality improvement efforts allows HCPH to live up to its mission of achieving and sustaining healthy people and healthy communities throughout Huron County by providing public health services which promote health and prevent disease.
-
What are the Benefits of PHAB Accreditation?
A full explanation of the benefits of receiving national accreditation status can be found here.
Want to Learn More About Public Health Accreditation?
PHAB offers more information and several resources on every aspect of accreditation on the PHAB website.