PHAB E-Newsletter header

   ISSUE #25: 

June 2010

IN THIS ISSUE
Beta Test Site Visits
Site Visit Summer
PHAB's Newest Staff Member
Messages from the PHAB Board
PHAB Word on the Street
Provide Feedback Today
QUICK LINKS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PHAB
1600 Duke Street
Suite 440
 Alexandria, VA 22314
 
 
703.778.4549 
 
 
Greetings,

Colleagues Image

The Beta Test site visits have begun! In May, Deschutes County Health Services became the first health department to host a Beta Test site visit team. This was a historic milestone for PHAB. True to the concept of the Beta Test, it was a tremendous learning experience. 
 
We are also pleased to announce a new PHAB team member, Rachel Margolis. Rachel has hit the ground running and is already participating in our Beta Test site visits. I know you will all enjoy getting to know Rachel. We are fortunate to have her join us in the role of Accreditation Specialist. Rachel is working on site visit logistics and will be assisting with the accreditation process from the PHAB side for applicants in the future.
 
The PHAB Board of Directors met in May. We've included some highlights in this e-newsletter. The Beta Test Accreditation Review Committee (ARC) has some newsworthy activity to share and there have also been developments in Tribal health department accreditation. Soon, we will be calling for volunteers to form a PHAB workgroup that will be tasked with guiding the development of tribal versions of standards, measures, documentation, and interpretation. Look for more details soon!
 
Lastly, "Word on the Street" features a description of an agency strategic plan and a discussion of the key processes in Domain 9. Please keep sending in your questions. We'll share the answers with everyone. 
 
Thank you for all the support you've given PHAB. We are looking forward to a productive summer!
 

Kaye Bender, PhD, RN, FAAN
PHAB President & CEO


Beta Test Site Visits
To date, PHAB Beta Test site visit teams have met onsite with:
 
  • Deschutes County Health Services in Bend, OR
  • Hennepin County Human Services and Public Health Department in Minneapolis, MN
  • Tooele County Health Department in Tooele, UT
  • Washington State Health Department in Olympia, WA
  • Mahoning County District Board of Health in Youngstown, OH
  • Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department in Austin, TX
  • Franklin County Health Department in Frankfort, KY
  • Oklahoma State Department of Health in Oklahoma City, OK
  • County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency in San Diego, CA
  • Comanche County Health Department in Lawton, OK
  • Central Valley Health District in Jamestown, ND
 
Deschutes County Site Visit
Members of Deschutes County Health Services, the PHAB site visit team, and other attendees present at the first Beta Test site visit.

 Site Visit Summer

At PHAB, the summer of 2010 will always be remembered as the "summer of the thirty site visits." Each of the thirty health departments that are participating in the PHAB Beta Test are being visited by a team of three or four trained volunteers who review the material that the health department provided to show conformity with the PHAB standards and measures. After spending two or three days at the health department, the site visit team will write a report and "score" each measure as "demonstrated," "partially demonstrated," or "not demonstrated." The reports and scores will be reviewed by the Beta Test Accreditation Review Committee (ARC), a committee of the Board, which will make accreditation recommendations to the full Board in the future. For the Beta Test, of course, accreditation status will not be awarded. However, the PHAB Board has established the ARC to consider and recommend how the PHAB Board will determine accreditation status. The ARC is charged with the development of policies and procedures, the development of a decision tree for consideration and awarding of accreditation status in the future, and the scoring methodology. Members of the ARC are: F. Douglas Scutchfield, Chair; Rex Archer; Les Beitsch; Leah Devlin; Carol Moehrle; Bud Nicola; H. Sally Smith; Hugh Tilson; and Harvey Wallace. The ARC has met one time and will continue to work through the calendar year. For questions, please contact Robin Wilcox at rwilcox@phaboard.org.

PHAB Welcomes Rachel Margolis

Rachel Margolis, MPHPHAB is pleased to introduce Rachel Margolis, MPH, who joined the PHAB team as an Accreditation Specialist in May 2010. Rachel came to PHAB after working for the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) as a Program Associate for the Advanced Practice Centers (APC) program. Prior to her time at NACCHO, Rachel completed an assignment as the Assistant for the Leaders in International Health Program at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and also served as the Program Specialist, Events Coordinator, and Conservation Internship Assistant for the Student Conservation Association (SCA).
 
Rachel received her MPH in Global Public Health at the George Washington University in Washington, DC, and became a member of the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health in 2009. Rachel received her B.S. in Biology and Spanish from Ursinus College in Collegeville, PA. Rachel currently volunteers at the Alexandria Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) and the United Service Operations (USO).

 Messages from the PHAB Board
The PHAB Board of Directors met May 18-21, 2010, and had a very busy agenda. PHAB remains grateful for the hard work of the Board as we continue to develop the final elements of the national accreditation program over this year. Some highlights from the meeting included:
 
  • A report from the Beta Test, with a special debriefing from the first Beta Test site visit. Overall, the Beta Test is moving along on schedule. The first site visit went well. NORC also gave an update from the evaluation thus far, which included information from the surveys related to the self-assessment. The Board continues to be pleased with NORC's approach to the evaluation and with being able to receive the interim reports.
  • Report from the Beta Test Accreditation Review Committee as described above in this e-newsletter.
  • Discussion of a work plan for the development of the information system for PHAB. There has been a deliberate delay in starting this work because, even though we did not plan to evaluate the system being used in the Beta Test, PHAB is learning a lot that will inform the development process in the future. This committee plans to begin their work this summer and carry it forward through the development of a full information system plan for the new system. We will involve some of the Beta Test sites in that development.
  • Think Tank interim reports from the Environmental Public Health Think Tank and the Governance Think Tank were discussed. The Governance Think Tank recommendations and plans for future work were discussed in detail given the complexity of this topic. A brief report from the Laboratory Think Tank was also discussed. The Think Tanks continue to serve as a vital resource for PHAB in the development of national accreditation.
 
The next PHAB Board of Directors meeting will be held in August 2010.

Tribal Public Health Standards

PHAB is in the process of creating a workgroup to develop a Tribal-specific set of standards, measures, documentation, and interpretation guidance based on the current PHAB standards for state and local health departments. The Tribal set of materials will be developed to be specific to the unique characteristics of Tribal public health departments, with attention to linguistic and cultural appropriateness.
 
PHAB is inviting representatives to volunteer to serve on a Tribal Standards Development Workgroup. PHAB will soon release an announcement and application for individuals who have in-depth knowledge of Tribal health departments, especially in the areas of administration, public health functions, and policy development in Tribal settings. It is anticipated that the workgroup will meet two to three times between September 2010 and January 2011, and there may be sub-committee work between meetings. If you are interested in volunteering to be on this workgroup, please contact Robin Wilcox at rwilcox@phaboard.org for more information.

Word on the Street
1. What is meant by processes in Domain 9 where goals, objectives, and performance measures are required?
 
Domain 9 focuses on quality improvement (QI). The health department is asked to establish a performance management system and build department capacity to implement such a system. The QI plan (measure 9.2.1), which drives everything else in this domain, should include the following components:
 
  • Purpose and scope of quality improvement activities;
  • Goals and objectives with quantifiable and time-framed measures;
  • Responsible person(s) for each objective;
  • Description of QI projects; and
  • Description of process to evaluate the effectiveness of QI activities.
 
What PHAB is looking for in this domain is a comprehensive approach to performance management. The relevant processes within that approach should be described in the plan and then implemented and evaluated accordingly. PHAB will not prescribe a particular QI model upon which to base this work. It should be the model that the health department relates to and which can readily be implemented to strengthen the culture toward a sustained commitment to QI.
 
PHAB expects to strengthen the interpretation of this domain and its relationship to describing a comprehensive approach to agency-wide QI as accreditation is launched in 2011. We are learning much more about how to do that from the beta test experiences.
 
2. What is PHAB looking for in an agency strategic plan, one of the three required documents for the accreditation application?
 
An agency strategic plan guides the health department in forming its role in the community it serves and in setting its own priorities. A strategic plan:
 
  • Is internal to the health department (although may have been developed with input from partners);
Shapes and guides what the health department does and why it does it;
  • Sets forth the department's vision, mission, guiding principles and values, and strategic priorities; and
  • Describes measurable and time-framed goals and objectives.
    •  
    The agency strategic plan should build on the information obtained in the other documents required for application for accreditation, the community health assessment and the community health improvement plan. Once the health department has described with its partners the health status of the community it serves and the objectives the community plans to support to improve the health status, the agency strategic plan describes the role of the health department in all of that work. It should be a strategic picture of the health department's planned work.
    •  
    If you have a suggestion for future segments of "Word on the Street," please send them to Donna Davis, PHAB's Director of Public and Constituent Relations, at ddavis@phaboard.org.
     
    Opportunity to Provide Feedback Extended
    PHAB is extending the time that you can comment on the following Beta Test documents:
     
    • Guide to Accreditation  
    • Readiness Checklist  
    • Statement of Intent  
    • Application for Accreditation Information 
    • State Self-Assessment Tool 
    • Local Self-Assessment Tool 
    • Guide to Standards and Measures Interpretation 
     
    To review these documents and submit comments, visit the PHAB website. PHAB will incorporate your comments with others received as part of the Beta Test. Help PHAB improve these documents by reviewing them and submitting comments today!