Steve Jennings, of Jefferson County Public health, told the county Health and Human Services committee that the department has completed most of the documentation required for national accreditation and is awaiting a site visit from the accrediting body.

Jennings said the accreditation process measures a health department’s performance against nationally recognized, evidence-based standards and “promotes a culture of quality and performance improvement.” He said accreditation also increases capacity for public health emergency response and encourages use of an equity lens to set priorities and refer individuals to partner services.

The accreditation program is administered by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). Jennings said Jefferson County is at step three of a seven-step process: pre-application and application are complete and the department is submitting documentation for PHAB’s review. He said the next steps include a site visit and interviews with staff before a decision is issued. “We are submitting documents right now and we have almost all of the documentation that they want,” Jennings said.

Jennings reviewed the department’s recent efforts tied to accreditation: adopting a performance management system, completing strategic and workforce development plans, creating a quality improvement and performance management plan, and hiring a full-time accreditation coordinator through a federal Public Health Infrastructure Grant (referred to in the meeting as the FIG). He described past quality-improvement work — including streamlining communicable-disease case reporting after a 2012 grant — as a foundation for the current push.

Legislator Bolio asked when the accrediting program began nationally; Jennings answered that state and local departments began applying in 2011. Jennings said COVID-19 slowed prior accreditation efforts because response activities were not always documented in the way PHAB requires, but that the county resumed a deliberate accreditation push after receiving federal resources in 2022 and hiring coordinators in 2023.

Jennings said departments that achieve accreditation generally maintain continuous improvement through annual progress reports and pursue reaccreditation after five years. He asked the committee if there were questions and received none from the committee.

Why it matters: Accreditation is voluntary but is intended to make health departments more resilient, transparent and ready to respond to emergencies. Jefferson County Public Health described concrete steps already completed and identified the site visit and PHAB decision as the near-term milestones to watch.

Sources: Presentation to the Jefferson County Health and Human Services committee by Steve Jennings and committee discussion recorded in meeting minutes.