Oral

This session will describe the potential impact that a national accreditation program can have on quality and performance improvement for health departments, the progress that has been made with establishing new programs and the timeline for getting it started. Another presenter will focus on how health departments, regardless of size or capacity, can form formal partnerships to enhance their public health service provision and meet national accreditation standards. A comparison of the dimensions of performance taken into consideration in various countries will be discussed. Also presented will be a qualitative analysis of accreditation manuals (Canada, France, USA, Australia and PAHO) in which standards related to performance were classified according to the integrative framework which described the health care organizations’ performance with four dimensions and their alignments.

Session Objectives: Participants should be able to: Define the implications that a national accreditation program has for public health. Identify alternative approaches to enhancing public health service provision . Discuss common and different patterns of performance across accreditation systems.

CE Credits: CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing