When I was a health department director a few years back, my colleagues would only half jokingly say, “we really should have a manual for running one of these things!”  Well, 2009 has arrived and there still isn’t a manual per se, but progress has been made in developing standards that can guide our direction. One great example is the Operational Definition of a Functional Health Department. In the words of the National Association of City& County Health Officials (NACCHO), the operational definition, “defines what people in any community can reasonably expect from their local health department.”  This definition has become the basis for building the NACCHO Local HealthDepartment Self-Assessment Tool and the soon-to-be-released draft standards for accreditation from the Public HealthAccreditation Board (PHAB).

A few highlights from the webcast:

• The PHAB has developed 30 standards and 120 measures based on the Operational Definition and National Public Health Performance Standards Program and other sources.
• The vetting process for the standards and measures will proceed through April 2009.
• By mid 2011, the PHAB will be open for business – and that business will be accrediting health departments nationwide.

Because of Wisconsin’s Accreditation and Quality Improvement Project, led by this institute (IWHI) in partnership with the Wisconsin Division of Public Health and the Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards, our state has a bit clearer vision of “the lines” being developed nationally and has an inside track forproviding feedback for the national standard development. Our 15 local healthdepartment project partners are now using the NACCHO self-assessment tool and building quality improvement experience so that they can be better prepared for accreditation when it becomes a reality. If you are a health department or board of health leader, please consider joining our project in our second year beginning May 1, 2009.  Check in here for more information over the next two months.

For anyone interested in public health quality improvement:

 1. One immediate opportunity to get involved on a national level - PHAB is seeking members forthe new Fees & Incentives Workgroup. This workgroup will develop a fee structure for national accreditation applicants and identify strategies for securing incentives for participants.

2. This blog page (Project Portal) now has an RSS feed option. If you have an RSS reader and wish to be notified automatically when there is a new blog entry, just click on the orange speaker icon in the right column of this page and follow your reader's instructions for subscribing. RSS has been available on the IWHI news page for sometime, so you may subscribe to that as well.

For WIQIProject Partners:

 1. Reminder -The second Project Partner Teleconference is scheduled for January 13, 2009 at10 AM. Call in instructions and agenda will be posted in the Forum soon.

2. And we are finalizing the agenda for the February 17, 2009 in person meeting.  It will be held at the Jefferson Street Inn in Wausau and reservation (for those who choose to come the evening before)and registration information will be coming soon. 

3. It would be GREAT to have one or more of our project partners involved in the PHAB Fees & Incentives Workgroup (see number 1 above  and act quickly if you are interested)