Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #101671

Mary Davis, DrPH, MSPH¹, Rachel Stevens, EdD, RN², John Graham, PhD², Sheila Pfaender, MS³, and Edward L. Baker, MD, MPH². (1) NC Institute for Public Health, UNC School of Public Health, CB 8165, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8165, 919-843-5558, mary_davis@unc.edu, (2) NC Institute for Public Health, UNC at Chapel Hill, School of Public Health, CB# 8165, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8165, (3) North Carolina Institute for Public Health, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, CB #8165, Chapel Hill, NC 27599

The back bone of the North Carolina public health system is the state Division of Public Health and 85 local, autonomous public health agencies located throughout the state. In 2004, the North Carolina Public Health Task Force, convened by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and Division of Public Health, developed recommendations to strengthen North Carolina's public health system. Two of the recommendations are a mandatory local health department accreditation system and the creation of voluntary, locally driven, regional collaborations called “incubators.” The accreditation system is now in the second pilot phase with 10 health departments having participated in the first two pilot phases. The “incubators” project supports 4 regional collaborations that represent half of the 85 NC local health departments. To support both the accreditation system and “incubators,” the NC legislature funded the North Carolina Institute for Public Health (NCIPH), the service and outreach arm of the UNC School of Public Health, to provide administrative and evaluation services. This presentation will briefly describe NCIPH responsibilities to the accreditation system and “incubators.” The primary focus of the presentation will be the conceptual models, and evaluation approaches and results for the accreditation system and “incubators.” The evaluation approaches examine the utility and feasibility of the accreditation system and “incubators” and potential of these strategies to improve the public health system. The presentation will also examine lessons learned from the state, local public health agency, and academic partnership established to implement these public health system improvement strategies.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the North Carolina accreditation system and "incubators" public health system improvement strategies.
• Describe conceptual models for these strategies.
• Define evaluation approaches for the accreditation system and "incubators" strategies.
• Discuss lessons learned from agency, academic partnerships to implement public health system improvement strategies.

Keywords: Accreditation, Evaluation

Related Web page: www.sph.unc.edu/nciph/

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation