Accreditation and Quality Improvement for Public Health Departments

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Accreditation and Quality Improvement for Public
Health Departments

• Patrick Libbey

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Quality Improvementisdeliberate and defined
improvementfocused on activities that are
responsive to community needs and improving
population health. It is a continuouseffort to
achieve measurable improvements in the
efficiency, effectiveness, performance,
accountability, outcomes and other indicators of
quality in services or processes which achieve
equity and improve the health of the community.

• The Accreditation Coalition
• July 14, 2009

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Poll Question
Do you have a formal quality improvement process
in place?
A. Only some programs B. All programs C.
Organization-wide D. None at all
Click on the down arrow if you cant see the
response choices.
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Quality Improvement or Evaluation?

• Incentives and disincentives
• Consequences
• What gets measured gets done

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Plan-Do-Study-Act The Quality Improvement Cycle
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Preparing for the Test or Putting into Practice?
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Other Qualitative and Operational Implications
Changes to system, structure, and service delivery

• Increased visibility improving public and
  partner understanding

Clarification of expectations by policy makers
and funders
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We dont know what public health is supposed to
do. And we dont know if youre doing it.

• The Joint Commission

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Accreditation Internal or External?

• Having partner and public involvement in
  preparation and review
• Sharing the results
• Creating buy-in and building expectations
• Keeping it understandable

Create buy-in build expectations
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I dont know how he lost the election everybody
I talked to voted for him.
Patrick Libbey about the outcome of the 1972
Nixon-McGovern presidential race
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Policy Makers and Funders

• Over 50 of local public health costs are funded
  by local and state government (exclusive of
  federal pass-through)
• State legislatures and local government elected
  officials establish public health policy,
  priorities and operating frameworks.
• Do we know what they want public health
  departments to be able to do?
• This is an opportunity to shape expectations.

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Poll Question
In moving forward with accreditation, you
envision involving your policy makers.
A. Strongly agree B. Agree C. Disagree D.
Strongly disagree
Click on the down arrow if you cant see the
response choices.
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Insanity doing the same thing over and over
again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein
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Regionalization

• Shared capacities and resources among health
  departments
• Cross jurisdiction services or issue focus, e.g.,
  preparedness
• Consolidation of jurisdictions
• Changes in local / state roles, relationships,
  and services

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I won't belong to any organization that would
have me as a member.
Groucho Marx