Accreditation and QI, Kansas
|
The Kansas public health system is a decentralized system of public health partners and agencies. Key among them are one primary state agency—the Kansas Department of Health and Environment—and 100 local health departments serving all 105 Kansas counties. The local health departments in Kansas have been exploring regional cooperation as a model for developing public health capacity across the state. The model was first used for preparedness. Regional cooperation is now being developed as an option for preparing for public health accreditation. The preparations have included participation in the NACCHO Regionalization Project, a Kansas Regional Accreditation Project that examined the Multi-Jurisdictional Application process outlined in the PHAB Beta test, and working with the Kansas Association of Counties to engage local county commissioners in developing and supporting regional cooperation as a model for preparing for accreditation.Kansas has also participated in the Multi-State Learning Collaborative (MLC), a project to advance QI in public health. A unique feature of the Kansas MLC projects is that quality improvement efforts involved regional teams working together to improve services and health outcomes throughout a region. The Kansas Association of Local Health Departments is also working with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas Health Institute in a review of all Kansas public health IT systems to determine if existing systems’ functionalities support the PHAB accreditation standards. Where needs are identified, modifications to the system are planned, prioritized, and scheduled. The goal of the project is for the information systems to support quality improvement and accreditation efforts of public health departments in Kansas.
|