Accreditation, Quality Improvement, and Epidemiology: Defining the Intersection Points - PRESENTING AUTHOR CHANGE

Key Objectives:
The presenter(s) in this session will discuss

• The background and importance of national voluntary accreditation of public health departments by PHAB
• The contribution of epidemiologic data to community health assessment and improvement planning
• How QI projects conducted within epidemiology/surveillance programs have helped the accreditation process, with one example from a disease investigation and one from a surveillance program

Brief Summary:
Momentum is growing among health departments to become accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). PHAB accreditation is a multi-step process through which health departments demonstrate how they are meeting national standards across 12 domains of public health practice. PHAB’s goal is to improve and protect the public’s health by advancing the quality and performance of state, tribal, local, and territorial public health departments. Epidemiologists can contribute substantially toward helping health departments achieve accreditation; epidemiologic data and activities are integral to multiple areas of PHAB standards. For example, Domain 2 of the PHAB standards focuses on public health surveillance and disease investigations. Domains 1 and 5 require that health departments complete state or community health assessments and improvement plans founded on high quality data and surveillance information. Domain 9 requires health departments to undertake quality improvement efforts. Further, when submitting documentation to PHAB, some health departments have used quality improvement (QI) efforts conducted by their epidemiology sections to demonstrate conformity with Domains 2 and 9.