To Be or Not to Be: Accredited

The author conducted a study of incentives that may be valuable for public health agencies in encouraging them to consider applying for and achieving voluntary accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board. The study focused heavily on incentives that state health agencies might use to motivate local health departments, but the study included the roles of other partners as well. The study was made using the information from 31 key informant interviews and secondary data research. The work was contracted through the National Association of County and City Health Officials with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support.

The findings include a menu of possible incentives and a framework for considering incentives. This framework differentiates between incentives that are true tangible benefits, incentives that are related to intangible benefits, and incentives that remove or reduce barriers to accreditation. The latter is where most of the current incentives are focused as agencies seek ways to meet the prerequisites for accreditation and find sources of technical assistance and training to move along the path to accreditation.

The roles that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can play in supporting incentives at the state and local level are included in the study. In addition, the work considers the important roles that state and national associations, private foundation, public health institutes and academia can play in supporting accreditation.