ACCREDITATION

Public Health Nursing & Professional Development Unit, Nurse Consultants serveas lead consultants for the Accreditation process. Our main purpose with Accreditation is to provide guidance and advice to local Health Department going through the Accreditation process but we alsowork closely with partner organizations, such as the North Carolina Institute for Public Health (NCIPH), the North Carolina Association on Local Health Directors (NCALHD), and other external groups as it relates to the accreditation process. Activities include but are not limited to:

Meeting with NCALHD Committee on Accreditation to address issues that need to be brought to the Committee’s attention;

Conference calls with other partners on the accreditation process to present the Division’s perspective on accreditation issues and hear the concerns;

Work collaboratively with the Accreditation Administrator and others from NCIPH to assure that the process is functioning effectively and that appropriate evaluation data is captured and results incorporated as necessary to improve the process and its outcomes;

Serve as the point person for questions and concerns from other DPH consultants on the standards, benchmarks, documentation, site visit, and consultant role relative to accreditation; and

Bring issues needing DPH leadership input to the Head, Local Technical Assistance & Training for presentation to Division Management Team.

PHNPDU, Nurse Consultants serve as the lead consultants for agencies seeking initial and reaccreditation. This includes serving as a primary resource to the agency in preparing the self-assessment, preparing documentation for the site visit and could include pulling together other resources throughout the Division to assist with specific issues on behalf of the assigned agencies.

HISTORY

In 2002, the North Carolina Division of Public Health and the North Carolina Association of Local Health Directors undertook an initiative to develop a mandatory, standards-based system for accrediting local public health departments throughout the state. Since 2002, the North Carolina Institute for Public Health (NCIPH) has provided Accreditation staff support.

North Carolina’s local health departments include rural and urban areas, large and small health departments, public health authorities, a community health alliance, and district health departments which represent multiple counties.

The focus of North Carolina’s Local Health Department Accreditation (NCLHDA) is on the capacity of the local health department to perform at a prescribed, basic level of quality the three core functions of assessment, assurance, and policy development and the ten essential services as detailed in the National Public Health Performance Standards Program. The program focuses on a set of standards that must be provided to ensure the protection of the health of the public, but does not limit the services or activities an agency may provide to address specific local needs. NCLHDA does not create a wholly new accountability system; rather it links basic standards to current state statutes and administrative code, and the many Division of Public Health contractual and program monitoring requirements that are already in place.

The program comprises three functional components:

  • An agency self assessment, which includes 41 benchmarks and 148 activities
  • A three day site visit by a multidisciplinary team of peer volunteers, and
  • Determination of accreditation status by the North Carolina Local Health Department Accreditation Board.

The program process is adjudicated by an independent entity, the North Carolina Local Health Department Accreditation Board. Its members are appointed by North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services Secretary. The Accreditation Administrator (AA), within the North Carolina Institute for Public Health, serves by legislative mandate.

Accreditation is achieved by appropriately meeting a set of capacity-based Benchmarks as evidenced by documented completion of prescribed Activities. Benchmarks may be met by either direct provision or assurance (through contracts, memoranda of understanding, or other arrangements with community providers) of required services and activities.

While the Benchmarks being applied are similar to the NACCHO Operational Definition of a Functional Local Public Health Agency (2004) and drawn from work done in other states, the Activities are specific to practices in North Carolina local public health agencies.

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