BURLINGTON – Alamance County Health Department (ACHD) was one of eight health departments awarded reaccreditation status by the North Carolina Local Health Department Accreditation (NCLHDA) Board on November 22, 2019.
“All of the agencies recently achieving reaccreditation have much to be proud of. They have not only demonstrated their ability to meet a set of important performance standards but excelled in many areas. Through reaccreditation, these agencies demonstrate a strong commitment to continuously work to improve the quality of services provided to their respective communities,” comments Amy Belflower Thomas, NC Local Health Department Accreditation Administrator.
Reaccreditation with Honors designation was awarded to seven agencies. This honorary designation was implemented for the first time in the fall of 2017 to recognize agencies that especially excelled in their accreditation assessment by missing one or less activities within each of five standards set by the NCLHDA program. ACHD received 100% completion on all 147 reaccreditation activities in all five standards. With successful completion, the health department’s reaccreditation period is 2019-2023.
“I could not be more proud of our reaccreditation with honors. It is a true testament to the hard work and integrity our public health professionals demonstrate each day in providing quality services and programming to improve health in Alamance,” stated Health Director Stacie Saunders.
North Carolina is the first state in the country to mandate accreditation for its local health departments. The purpose of the accreditation program is to assure a basic level of capacity and services in each of the local health departments across the state.
Since the pilot program involving six local health departments began in 2004, all eighty-five health departments have all been initially accredited and reaccredited at least once. The process of accreditation includes three major components – a self-assessment completed by the agency, a site visit by a multidisciplinary team of peers to review performance standards, and determination of accreditation status by an independent Accreditation Board comprised of state and local public health officials, Board of Health members, County Commissioners, and public members.
The NC Local Health Department Accreditation program is a collaboration of the North Carolina Institute for Public Health (part of the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and the North Carolina Association of Local Health Directors.
The Alamance County Board of Commissioners will recognize ACHD for their reaccreditation achievement at the December 16 meeting.
