Columbus Public Health Recieves National Accreditation
Columbus
Public Health One of First in Country to Receive National Accreditation
CPH
Met and Exceeded Continuous Quality Improvement Standards in Public Health
Columbus
Public Health recently became one of the first public health departments in the
country to receive national accreditation from the Public Health Accreditation
Board (PHAB). It earned national accreditation after a rigorous two year
multi-faceted, peer review assessment process to ensure it meets or exceeds a
set of quality standards and measures for public health.
“We
are thrilled to receive national accreditation because it validates our work in
meeting many community health challenges, including infant mortality, obesity,
high rates of HIV and daily outbreaks such as the current university student
mumps outbreak,” says Columbus Public Health Commissioner Dr. Teresa
Long,
“But
public health is not a solo act. It is a team sport. Our talented
and committed staff are having an impact on our community every day. And we
could not protect health and improve lives without the support of all of our
partners, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the
Ohio Department of Health, our local health systems and our community
partners,” adds Dr. Long.
The national
accreditation program works to improve and protect the health of the public by
advancing the quality and performance of the nation’s Tribal, state, local and
territorial public health departments. The program, which is jointly
supported by the CDC and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, sets standards
against which the nation’s more than 3,000 governmental public health
departments can continuously improve the quality of their services and
performance.
Since the
program’s launch in September 2011, nearly 130 health departments have applied
to PHAB for accreditation. Until this week, only 22 local health
departments nationwide, two of which are in Ohio, have achieved accreditation.
On Wednesday, that number increased to include two central Ohio Health
Departments -- Columbus Public Health and the Delaware General Health District.
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