A national board that evaluates public health departments recently awarded full accreditation to the Ingham County Health Department.
The Public Health Accreditation Board has only accredited eight of Michigan’s 45 public health departments. Nationwide, only about ten percent of public health departments have earned the board’s accreditation.
Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail says the board examines 100 metrics related to quality improvement and workforce development. “Of the 100 metrics, we fully demonstrated 79 of them, and we mostly demonstrated another 21 of them, which required nothing on our part in order to be fully accredited.”
The board is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that uses what they call a rigorous, peer-reviewed assessment process. It's partially funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.