Accreditation and QI, Wisconsin

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In 1991, Wisconsin's local health departments (LHDs) and the Division of Public Health (DPH) at the Department of Health Services created an assessment/quality improvement (QI) initiative known as Health Services Administrative Rule 140: Local Health Department Review. A state statute mandates this process, which aims to ensure that all LHDs provide a basic level of public health services to the community. By utilizing a checklist of required essential services that an LHD either has or does not have, the review examines the structure and function of all 92 LHDs in Wisconsin at least once every five years. In 2008, work was started to revise the current assessment tool to reflect the language in NACCHO's Operational Definition of a Functional Local Health Department in order to develop a system that has more qualitative depth and more potential for directed QI.

Also in 2008, Wisconsin was chosen to participate in the Multi-State Learning Collaborative (MLC) project's third phase, Lead States in Public Health Quality Improvement, which assesses QI strategies to enhance the work of public health departments. The Institute for Wisconsin's Health, Inc. (IWHI) leads this initiative in partnership with DPH and the Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards.

• Visit the Web sites of the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, the Institute for Wisconsin's Health, Inc., and the Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards for more information about their MLC project.
• View the state statute outlining the required services local health departments must provide and the roles of the local boards of health.

• Read about the quality improvement project from the West Allis Health Department as part of NACCHO's Accreditation Preparation and Quality Improvement Demonstration Sites Project (Round 1).
• View Wauwatosa Health Department's case example that outlines a quality improvement project the agency implemented to enhance performance as part of NACCHO's Accreditation Preparation and Quality Improvement Demonstration Sites Project (Round 2).
• Read about Polk County Health Department's experience utilizing a self-assessment to implement quality improvement initiatives as a means to prepare for national accreditation.
  

• Learn about Wisconsin's review process in a fact sheet highlighting its MLC efforts.
• Visit the IWHI Project Portal for information on Wisconsin's efforts to improve its health departments through accreditation preparation and QI by using NACCHO's LHD Self-Assessment Tool for Accreditation Preparation.