Essential services tool: A resource for increasing capacity for accreditation

This presentation describes an online resource, the Essential Services Tool, developed by the Local Health Section, Office of Local and Rural Health, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and located on their website at http://www.kdheks.gov/olrh/index.html. It provides public health information and resources increasing readiness for national accreditation. Development of this resource began with the Kansas Multi-State Learning Collaborative-2 (MLC-2) project objectives of bolstering public health performance assessment for accreditation and producing public health resources and tools.

The tool links to competency based training available through KS-TRAIN https://ks.train.org; the State's learning management system. Kansas currently has over 17,000 registered KS-TRAIN learner accounts. KS-TRAIN is a part of the Public Health Foundation's TRAIN https://www.train.org with 22 states, the Medical Reserve Corps, and a section of CDC as affiliates. Capacity to perform community health assessment is strengthened by links to the Community Tool Box http://ctb.ku.edu/en/. Multiple communication methods have been used to increase awareness and encourage application of the Essential Services Tool.

The tool is also used in creating the Kansas Core Public Health (CPH) curriculum, a one year competency based public health training program. CPH is an academic based practice partnership. Job descriptions using essential service indicators build awareness at the entry level and create a clearer picture of a health department's ability to deliver essential services. The Essential Services Tool assists in increasing the performance of delivery of public health essential services at the local, regional, and state levels.