Sometimes public health feels like an alphabet soup of acronyms, frameworks, and jargon that only insiders can understand. While acronyms and jargon can be easily explained, the nuance between frameworks, whether subtle or stark, is hard to keep track of in a fast-paced and ever-changing world. We need a clear, consistent way to identify and apply the most relevant frameworks, understand how they work together, define effective practice, and measure progress toward excellence.
To help, the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) aligned the field around a common understanding of what governmental public health practice ought to be, and how to measure it, while allowing the unique context of each community to drive how it gets done. The product of that alignment, public health Accreditation, serves as a mechanism for continuous improvement and accountability while transforming practice to meet today’s dynamic needs.
Led by PHAB, public health Accreditation is based on a set of nationally recognized Standards that dictate how we measure public health practice and how we move toward excellence in practice.
But what is behind the PHAB Standards? The simple answer is, trusted public health frameworks combined with practices developed and driven by the field.
What are these frameworks and how do the Standards build upon them? The PHAB Standards are organized around 10 domains derived from the 10 Essential Public Health Services (EPHS) framework. The EPHS framework defines activities that the entire public health system must perform to protect and promote community health. This work is the responsibility of the health department as well as the myriad of public health system partners that contribute to a community’s health and well-being. Public health system partners include health care organizations, schools, planning and transportation departments, community-based organizations, and more. These partnerships look different but play a vital role in supporting community health.
The PHAB Standards also draw from the Foundational Public Health Services (FPHS) framework. The FPHS framework outlines the unique responsibilities of governmental public health and defines a minimum set of capabilities and programs that must be available in every community, along with the community-specific services that vary by jurisdiction. Within the FPHS framework, the Foundational Capabilities (FCs) are the eight areas of expertise needed to provide essential programs. Having these capabilities in place allows health departments to respond to known and emerging issues, to support resilience, and provide a roadmap for health departments to identify improvements. These FCs align directly with a subset of PHAB Standards, allowing the Standards to translate
FCs into organizational practice and provide a mechanism for evaluating health departments against their ability to deliver FCs.
Overall, the FPHS framework defines what services health departments should provide, health departments decide how they deliver those services, and PHAB Accreditation measures how well they do so. Together, these approaches support the delivery of foundational services and capabilities in alignment with governmental public health’s broader role in supporting the health and well-being of communities.
Ultimately, the EPHS and FPHS frameworks provide a shared foundation for public health practice by defining the essential activities, capabilities, and programs needed to protect and promote community health. PHAB Accreditation Standards translate this foundation into consistent measurable expectations, helping health departments pursue excellence while remaining responsive to the unique needs of their communities.
To learn more about how the connection between Accreditation and the FPHS, or for tools to support FPHS implementation, visit our FPHS resources page.
