LENOIR, NC (May 22, 2017)…Fifteen health departments were awarded reaccreditation status by the North Carolina Local Health Department Accreditation Board on May 19th, 2017; including Caldwell County Health Department. “All of the agencies recently achieving reaccreditation have much to be proud of. They have not only demonstrated their ability to meet a set of important performance standards, but excelled in many areas. Through reaccreditation, these agencies demonstrate a strong commitment to continuously work to improve the quality of services provided to their respective communities,” comments Amy Belflower Thomas, NC Local Health Department Accreditation Administrator.
North Carolina is the first state in the country to mandate accreditation for its local health departments. The purpose of the accreditation program is to assure a basic level of capacity and services in each of the local health departments across the state. The process of accreditation includes three major components – a selfassessment completed by the agency, a site visit by a multidisciplinary team of peers to review performance standards, and determination of accreditation status by an independent Accreditation Board comprised of state and local public health officials, Board of Health members, County Commissioners, and public members.
Caldwell County Health Department provided evidence to a site-visit team on December 9th 2016, to show proficiency in 147 benchmarks and participated in an on-site visit from the members of the team on March 9th-10th 2017. This team evaluated the evidence provided and determined that Caldwell County Health Department showed competency in 145 of the 147 benchmarks. Caldwell County Health Department is proud of the work their agency has completed to allow the acceptance of this Reaccreditation status. “We all have a role in the accreditation process. Each of our employees work hard, each and every day, to provide quality care and service to the citizens of Caldwell. We will continue to provide this excellent service and continue to look for ways to improve,” comments Brittany Dobbins, MPH, CHES, Assistant Health Director and Co- Accreditation Coordinator for Caldwell County Health Department.
The NC Local Health Department Accreditation program is a collaboration of the North Carolina Institute for Public Health (part of the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), the North Carolina Association of Local Health Directors, and the North Carolina Division of Public Health (part of the NC Department of Health and Human Services). For more information, contact Anna Martin, MPH, Health Education Supervisor, Caldwell County Health Department amartin@caldwellcountync.org; 828-426-8506.