Latest site visit extends accreditation thorough 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 19, 2011
BURLINGTON – The continued commitment to protecting and improving the public’s health in Alamance County has been confirmed once again by state officials.
The Alamance County Health Department has been awarded re-accreditation status by the North Carolina Local Health Department Accreditation Board. Alamance was one of five counties to receive re-accreditation by the Accreditation Board at its meeting on December 16.
“We are very pleased to have completed this process successfully,” said Alamance County Health Department Director Barry Bass. “The department’s accreditation is a validation of the staff’s hard work and dedication to quality. We are particularly appreciative of the work of our Agency Accreditation Coordinator, Kathy Brooks, Carl Carroll and Lynn Connor, our technical consultant. The agency takes very seriously its mission of protecting and promoting the health of our community.”
North Carolina is the first state to mandate accreditation for its local health departments in the country. 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, 64 health departments have been accredited in North Carolina. 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 certain 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 accreditation process is a collaboration of the North Carolina Division of Public Health, part of the Department of Health and Human Services and the North Carolina Institute for Public Health of the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, with input from the North Carolina Association of Local Health Directors.
For more information about the North Carolina Local Health Department Accreditation program, please visit www.sph.unc.edu/nciph/accred.