Public Health Accreditation Board

Accreditation and Recognition Program:The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) is the voluntary national accreditation program for tribal, state, local, and territorial, governmental public health departments. Through the national accreditation program, PHAB works to transform the public health system by (1) setting standards and measures that define excellence in public health department performance, (2) encouraging public health departments to engage in quality improvement, (3) expanding the evidence base of public health practice, and ultimately (4) improving the population's health. See Schedule O For Continuation.The Accreditation program includes programmatic modules that have their own standards and measures for Vital Records/Health Statistics Units (VRHS), and US Army Public Health installations. These are both part of the Accreditation Program and follow the same workflow. PHAB launched two new products in July 2023. The first was Readiness Assessment and Training, a pre-requisite to all other recognition and accreditation programs that helps health department assess if they are ready to move forward. The second product is a recognition program called Pathways to assist health departments to take a smaller first step towards full national public health accreditation.

PHAB Center for Innovation: The PHAB Center for Innovation serves as a national initiative guiding health departments in using innovation as a tool to drive change and improve health and equity. The Center for Innovation: a) Drives public health transformation through collaboration, thought leadership, and systems-based learning; b) Collaborates with partners to explore how equity is and should be embedded in public health transformation, including developing strategies to implement innovation processes that intentionally include equitable practices; c) Provides a learning space for health departments' innovations; See Schedule O For Continuation.d) Identifies and fosters innovations in health departments and public health system by: 1) Collecting lessons learned and success stories from grantee programs and learning comm; 2) Developing and sharing resources, tools, education, and expertise to guide health departments in developing or replication innovations in their community; 3) Connecting innovators within public health and across sectors; 4) Monitors, disseminates, and builds the science of public health innovation.

Strengthening the Nation's Public Health Systems through a National Voluntary Accreditation Program for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Health Departments 93.097Support the operations and continuous improvement of the PHAB accreditation program for state, Tribal, local and territorial health departments as well as to develop and continuously improve accreditation standards, programs, and products for programmatic or focused areas of public health services. The funding provided supports five strategic activities as outlined here. Strategy 1: Promote, communicate, and provide education regarding the accreditation program to diverse and relevant audiences. Strategy Two: Evolve, improve and/or develop new products and services and tools to ensure a relevant, current, and smoothly functioning program, as well as to respond to new needs from the field. Strategy Three: Monitor emerging issues, foster innovation, and strengthen strategic partnerships to support and advance accreditation. Strategy Four: Strengthen the evidence base for accreditation and the use of accreditation to advance public health practice. Strategy Five: Develop and continuously improve accreditation standards, programs, and products for programmatic or focused areas of public health services.