Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB)
The Public Health
Accreditation Board (PHAB) is a national venture to develop and test benchmark
standards for state, local, and territorial health departments. With
funding support from the CDC and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
PHAB will offer voluntary accreditation to public health departments
beginning in 2011.
Faculty at the NWCPHP have provided leadership in the national movement toward accreditation.
Bud Nicola, MD, MHSA, FACPM, Senior Consultant and CDC Assignee to NWCPHP, currently serves on the Board of Directors of PHAB as a local Board of Health member.
Chuck Treser, MPH, DAAS, and Carl Osaki, RS, MSPH, attended a PHAB Think Tank meeting in Alexandria, Virginia on December 2-3, 2009 to address a PHAB concern that environmental health issues be adequately addressed in the accreditation standards ultimately adopted by PHAB. They were two of approximately 30 environmental health leaders from across the country.
Beta Sites & NWCPHP
There are three beta sites within NWCPHP's region. Washington, Wyoming, and Deschutes County, Oregon have all been selected to participate in the process of testing PHAB's process for accreditation. NWCPHP will be providing assistance to these locations as they take on this massive amount of work. NWCPHP will also be able to assist other sites within the region for future accreditation. Some of our participation in the beta site locations include:
Jack Thompson, MSW, Senior Lecturer at the University of Washington School of Public Health, serves on the Performance Management Committee of the Washington State Public Health Improvement Partnership, which is overseeing initiatives toward voluntary accreditation in Washington State.
NWCPHP is providing technical assistance to the State of Montana in its accreditation efforts.
