Preparing for accreditation - readiness review and other successful strategies from Maine

As governmental public health agencies prepare to pursue accreditation there are lessons learned and experiences among the first wave of applicants that can inform those just starting the journey, particularly those in the early stages. This presentation will showcase efforts in the State of Maine to build accreditation support, assess the health department's readiness and address specific gaps in performance through quality improvement (QI) efforts. The leadership in Maine's State Health Department has been vocal about their commitment to seeking national voluntary accreditation and a number of strategies have been developed to support the agency's application and preparation efforts. For example, an Accreditation Coordinator was hired, an Accreditation Steering Committee was convened, internal champions were identified, and external partners were engaged. In addition, the State of Maine conducted a “readiness review” with external consultants after the initial documents were collected and before a Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) application was initiated. This process proved to be valuable and may be of interest to those seeking to assess their existing performance based on the actual standards and measures. In Maine, the outcomes identified both existing strengths and where the agency was not yet ready to proceed. The “readiness review” also helped inform subsequent quality improvement initiatives in the agency. This presentation will describe the strategies that helped build staff engagement in the process, the “readiness review” process, and the lessons learned, which may be of interest to other agencies. In addition, the session will focus on how the results were used to identify, prioritize, and launch QI efforts designed to strengthen the agency's accreditation application, and ultimately, their performance.