Quality Improvement and Accreditation: Strategies from the 16 States in the Multi-State Learning Collaborative

The Multi-State Learning Collaborative (MLC) is a collaborative effort to advance quality improvement and prepare for public health accreditation within 16 states. The project, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and managed by the National Network of Public Health Institutes, is currently in its fifth year and builds on the momentum of two previous MLC initiatives. Within each of the participating states, local and state health departments are partnering with other stakeholders including public health institutes, health care providers and universities to improve public health services and the health of their community by 1) implementing quality improvement practices and 2) taking steps to prepare for as well as contribute to the national voluntary accreditation program currently under development and scheduled to launch in 2011. In this session, the presenters will introduce the MLC project, the movement towards quality improvement and voluntary national accreditation within the public health community, and describe how the 16 participant states in the MLC are playing a major role in this process.

Exemplary activities to implement quality improvement and prepare for accreditation that are underway among the 16 states will be shared, including such efforts as applying quality improvement to specific public health issues; developing and implementing communications plans to further accreditation efforts; forming health department collaboratives to conduct agency self-assessments; and developing strategies to meet the accreditation pre-requisites. Resources and tools to help the attendees begin their journey toward quality improvement and accreditation will also be presented.