Sept 12 -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) invites the general public and other federal agencies the opportunity to comment on the proposed information collection project, Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB): Assessment of Processes and Outcomes. The purpose of this Extension is to collect information from health departments throughout the initial accreditation and reaccreditation process to learn about program processes and the accreditation/reaccreditation standards, to improve the program's quality, and to document program outcomes and inform decision making about future program direction. CDC must receive written comments on or before November 14, 2022.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) works to protect America from health, safety, and security threats, both foreign and domestic. CDC strives to fulfill this mission, in part, by supporting state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) health departments. One mechanism for supporting STLT health departments is through CDC's support of a national, voluntary accreditation program.
CDC supports the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB), a non-profit organization that serves as the independent accrediting body. PHAB, with considerable input from national, state, tribal, and local public health professionals, developed a consensus set of standards to assess the capacity of STLT health departments. Between February 2013 (when the first health department was accredited) and August 2022, 40 state health departments, 305 local health departments, five Tribal health departments, and one integrated system (comprised of 67 local health departments in one centralized state) have been accredited. Accreditation is granted for a five-year period and 68 health departments have successfully completed the reaccreditation process. Formal efforts to assess the outcomes of the accreditation program began in late 2012 and continue to date. Priorities focus on gathering feedback for program improvement and documenting program outcomes to demonstrate impact and inform decision making about future program direction. From 2012-2019, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the social science organization NORC at the University of Chicago, led evaluation efforts. CDC assumed support of the evaluation beginning in 2020 and is seeking OMB approval to continue data collection.
The purpose of this Information Collection Request (ICR) is to support the collection of information from participating health departments through a series of five surveys. The surveys seek to collect longitudinal data on each health department throughout their accreditation process. Data collected through this ICR provides documentation about the evidence and value of health department accreditation.
Respondents will include STLT health department directors or designees, one respondent per each health department. All surveys will be administered electronically; a link to the survey website will be provided in an email invitation. The surveys will be administered on a quarterly basis and sent to all health departments that reach any of five milestones in the accreditation process (application, recently accredited, accredited for one year, approaching reaccreditation, and reaccreditation). Each health department will be invited to participate in each survey once (for a total of five surveys max per health department).
PHAB:
https://phaboard.org/
CDC National Voluntary Accreditation for Public Health Departments:
https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/accreditation/index.html
Draft data collection instruments and technical documentation provided by CDC:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gkxe3uiw2cmuy5x/redrafticrrequestphabassessmentofprocessesando.zip?dl=0
2020 submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=201912-0920-015
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2022-19565