On September 28th and 29th, 2021, the Public Health National Center for Innovations, a division of the Public Health Accreditation Board, brought together over 100 public health innovators for the virtual Public Health Innovation Summit & Showcase. Throughout the Summit, attendees heard from an array of speakers and engaged in conversations on local and community innovations, challenges and opportunities with
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These findings provide insight into the specific capabilities and capacities strengthened through accreditation that may, in turn, influence financial outcomes. In the United States, the public health system includes a diverse and complex constellation of organizations and individuals. The backbone of this system is governmental public health, including state, tribal, local, and territorial public health departments. Health departments do critical
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by Paul Kuehnert, DNP, RN, FAAN Strong public health departments are essential for healthy and safe communities. This simple truth—evident to all of us in the “public health choir” before the COVID-19 pandemic tore through our communities—should be evident to all community members and policymakers now. Unfortunately, I think it is not. To change what otherwise may default to a
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by Gulzar H. Shah, PhD, MStat, MS, and Jessica Kronstadt, MPP COVID-19 does not discriminate; or does it? Many say, “COVID-19 is an equal opportunity offender,” implying that the virus treats rich and poor, urban and rural, and homeowners, renters, and unhoused individuals equally. Thinking superficially, the argument may seem convincing. However, true inequities and disparities arise from social structures
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by Jessica Kronstadt, MPP The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) Data Portal allows users to explore a unique set of data on health department capacity to deliver the 10 Essential Public Health Services. Data are available for health departments that apply for accreditation and are based on peer assessments of conformity with the PHAB Standards & Measures. The portal makes
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by Robin Wilcox, MPA The war against COVID-19 is international and national. But the battlefields are local. Accredited state, county, and city health departments are on the front lines of working to keep residents healthy. On March 16, PHAB-accredited Santa Clara County Public Health Department in California issued an historic seven-county legal order that required residents to “shelter-in-place,” the first
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The Benefits to Counties: Public Health Department Accreditation PHAB Webinar – Thursday, January 30th, 2 pm – 3 pm ET Strong public health departments engaged in effective community partnerships make all communities healthier places to live, work, learn, and play. On this webinar, leaders from PHAB and the National Association of Counties (NACo) will join in a discussion of the
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by Jessica Solomon Fisher, MCP “Now is your chance to inform the field, and practice, of public health for years to come. Please take the time to share your thoughts and reimagine what a framework might look like that would take us into the next 25 years and beyond.” Jessica Solomon Fisher, PHNCI Chief Innovations Officer The graphic below likely
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by Kaye Bender, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Robin Wilcox, MPA At the Public Health Accreditation Board, it’s the season for reaccreditation. In March, four health departments became the first in the nation to successfully achieve national reaccreditation, thereby extending their accreditation status for another five years. And there are many more in the process of seeking reaccreditation. To these health
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by Grace G. Gorenflo, MPH, RN Focus on Accreditation and Innovation addresses current issues related to the Public Health Accreditation Board’s national public health department accreditation program, and the Public Health National Center for Innovations. This series highlights the experiences and perspectives of accredited health departments and explores topics related to the Standards and Measures, research and evaluation findings, and the
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