Stories and Topical Briefs

Achieving national accreditation will enable health departments to measure their performance against national standards, receive recognition for their accomplishments, and demonstrate accountability within their communities. These topical briefs and stories from individual states summarize key lessons learned by health departments engaged in quality improvement (QI) and accreditation preparation efforts and provide recommendations for practitioners.

Topical Briefs

Individual State Stories

Florida: Bringing Health Departments Together in Collaboration (Learn how the state health department helped local health departments work with standards and measures and brought them together to learn about accreditation preparation.)	Oklahoma: Support Straight from the Top (Learn how PHAB beta test applicants convinced OK's new public health commissioner to commit to accreditation. As a result, three health departments—one state, one local, one tribal— were selected as beta test sites.)
Kansas: Home Rule in the Sunflower State (Learn how public health leaders spearheaded the development of public health regions, enabling small, local health departments to form partnerships and deliver public health services more efficiently and effectively across this large, rural state.)	Washington State: From “Anything but Accredited” to Champions (Learn how a state with its own health department accreditation process and standards—initially leery of changing to accommodate new national standards—became a champion for national accreditation.)
New Hampshire: Success brings Success (This state's public health services are delivered primarily by local community-based organizations that contract with the state health department. Learn how NH strengthened its partnerships with these community-based organizations by launching three local QI projects aimed at reducing childhood obesity.)	Wisconsin: Local Pioneers (Learn how the director of Wisconsin's West Allis Health Department and his team have pioneered the department through a multi-step process to build internal support, bring community leaders to the table, and implement a comprehensive accreditation plan.)

To learn more about NNPHI's Accreditation and Performance Improvement initiatives, contact Anooj Pattnaik, Program Coordinator, at .