National Accreditation Program

PHAB has used the standards and measures from NACCHO's Operational Definition of a Functional Local Health Department (LHD) as a starting point for framing local health department standards. In addition, PHAB has considered existing standards from state-based accreditation and related programs, and the local instrument of the National Public Health Performance Standard Program. Once the standards are released by the Standards Development Workgroup, they will be available for public comment.

The 2003 Institute of Medicine report, The Future of the Public's Health, called for the establishment of a national Steering Committee to examine the benefits of accrediting governmental public health departments.  Within its Futures Initiative, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified accreditation as a key strategy for strengthening the public health infrastructure.  Several states already managed statewide accreditation or related initiatives for LHDs.

Within this context, in 2004, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) convened public health stakeholders to determine whether a voluntary national accreditation program for state and local public health departments should be explored further.  The consensus was to proceed, and with support from the RWJF and the CDC, the Exploring Accreditation project was launched.  The Summary Report and the Full Report of the Final Recommendations from the Exploring Accreditation Steering Committee conclude that a voluntary national accreditation program for state and local public health departments is both feasible and desirable.  NACCHO created a resolution to support a voluntary accreditation program for LHDs and is committed to assisting those agencies prepare for accreditation. More »

Below are additional resources that provide specific information on the national accreditation program.