Recently the Marion County Health Department became the first in Oregon to receive national accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). The national accreditation program began in September 2011 and since then 31 health departments throughout the United States have received accredited status.
May 6, 2014
Recently the Marion County Health Department became the first in Oregon to receive national accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). The national accreditation program began in September 2011 and since then 31 health departments throughout the United States have received accredited status.
There are over 3,000 governmental public health departments in the nation and hundreds of them are somewhere in the process of seeking accreditation. To receive accreditation, our health department has undergone a rigorous, multi-faceted, peer-reviewed assessment process to ensure we met or exceeded a set of quality standards and measures.
Schools, daycare centers, police departments, hospitals, and other community services and organizations have long seen the value of accreditation. Public health departments play a critical, but often unrecognized role in promoting and preserving the health of the people in our communities by promoting healthy behaviors; preventing diseases and injuries; ensuring access to safe food, water, clean air, and life-saving immunizations; and preparing for and responding to public health emergencies. Accountability and the quality of these services are now ensured and recognized through accredited public health departments.
The national accreditation program was developed over a decade-long process with input from thousands of public health professionals, researchers, academics, and other technical experts.
We think having a national accreditation program for public health departments makes a lot of sense. It provides our health department with valuable, measurable feedback about how we are performing, which allows us to better protect, promote, and preserve our community’s health. As the public health field faces increasing challenges from difficult economic times to epidemics and disaster preparedness, it is more important than ever that we have systems in place to ensure our effectiveness and promote a high quality of services.
The Health Department provides behavioral health and alcohol and drug treatment services as well as public health services, including communicable disease investigation and control, early childhood nursing, women’s health, emergency preparedness, vital records, environmental health, WIC nutrition program, and prevention of tobacco, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and chronic disease.
The accreditation process helps to ensure the programs and services we provide are as responsive as possible to the needs of our community. Through accreditation, the Health Department is demonstrating increased accountability and credibility to the public, funders, elected officials and partner organizations with which we work. Accreditation drives us to continuously improve the quality of services we deliver.
When you see our seal of accreditation, you will know that the Health Department meets or exceeds national standards that promote continuous quality improvement for public health.
We are proud to be the first health department accredited in Oregon. Accreditation means you can be sure we are meeting your public health needs as effectively as possible.
Marion County Health Department has offices in Salem and Woodburn. For more information please call 503-588-5357, visit http://www.co.marion.or.us/HLT/ , follow us on Twitter @MarionCo_Health or like us on Facebook.com/MarionCountyHealth.
Pam Hutchinson, RN, MPH, is the Director for Public Health at Marion County Health
Department. She can be reached at (503) 588-5612 or [email protected].
