Health Division Awarded National Accreditation
County’s Public Health Team Meets All Standards for Accreditation
Pontiac, Michigan – Oakland County Health Division’s robust relationships with community partners, commitment to improvement and growth as an organization, and skill in promoting the value of public health is getting national recognition. The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) cited these as the Health Division’s top strengths when it awarded the Health Division its coveted national accreditation today.
During the PHAB accreditation process, partners described Oakland County Health Division as reliable and innovative and always ready to meet the changing needs of the community.
“I’m so proud of our public health team,” County Executive Dave Coulter said. “Meeting the high standards of PHAB’s national accreditation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic reassures our residents, partners, and local officials that our public health services are top notch and responsive to the needs of our community.”
Oakland County Health Division met all the standards for accreditation. The Health Division received perfect scores in health equity, data collection and use, environmental health, lab services, emergency preparedness, access to care, and workforce. It also had high scores in quality improvement/performance management and planning.
“Going through the national accreditation process has helped our health department become better connected to the community and our partners, more knowledgeable about our community’s needs, more focused on quality improvement, and more dedicated to health equity and addressing the root causes of poor health,” Oakland County Director of Health & Human Services Leigh-Anne Stafford said.
The national accreditation program, which receives support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, sets standards against which the nation’s governmental public health departments can assess and continuously improve the quality of their programs and services. More than 80 percent of the U.S. population now reap the benefits of being served by a health department that has undergone PHAB’s rigorous, multi-faceted, peer review process to ensure it meets a set of quality standards and measures.
“The value of becoming nationally accredited through PHAB extends far beyond the interior walls of the health department,” said PHAB President and CEO Paul Kuehnert, DNP, RN, FAAN. “People living and working in communities served by these health departments can be assured that their health department is strong and has the capacity to protect and promote their health. Just going through the accreditation process itself helps health departments pinpoint the areas that are critical to improving the work they do for their communities.”
To learn more about Oakland County Health Division programs and services, click on the Health Division’s website at oakgov.com/health or by contacting Nurse on Call at 800-848-5533 or [email protected]. For up-to-date public health information, follow @publichealthOC on Facebook and Twitter.
About the Public Health Accreditation Board
The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) was created to serve as the national public health accrediting body and is jointly funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The development of national public health department accreditation has involved, and is supported by, public health leaders and practitioners from the national, state, local, Tribal, and territorial levels. For more information, contact PHAB Communications Manager Janalle Goosby at [email protected]. Learn more about PHAB and accreditation at www.phaboard.org, and by signing up for the PHAB e-newsletter.