(upbeat music) – The Public Health
Accreditation Board
is the nation’s accrediting body for
governmental public
health practice in the United States. The Public Health National
Center for Innovation is our division that researches
insights and innovations for the future to inform
accreditation standards. To date, we have 235 accredited state, local, tribal
health departments, plus the entire local Health
Department system in Florida who went through
accreditation all together. We have another almost
200 who are in the process covering 70% of the
United States population. When the Public
Health Accreditation
Board was established about 10 years ago, one of
the fundamental cornerstones of that establishment
was health equity. The idea was that high
quality public health services should be available to
all of the US population regardless of where they live. So whether it’s a
small rural area, or a large metropolitan
area, or every kind of area in between, residents
and people who live in the United States
should have access to high quality
public health service. Since that time, we have
added increased emphasis on health equity in our
accreditation standards and we ask health
departments going through their accreditation process
to talk about their work on health equity, reducing
health disparities, and addressing the social
determinants of health. – Over 80% of accredited health
departments have indicated that they work specifically
on health equity. Examples of some of the topics
that they address include community,
transportation systems, access to safe places to
engage in physical activity, and, of course, access
to healthful foods. Once a health department
is accredited, they submit an annual report to the Public Health
Accreditation Board to maintain their
accreditation status. We’re very excited when
we see these reports because so many of them talk about continued efforts
around health equity. Particularly, developing
their own capacity to address health equity. Examples of some of the
things that are reported include the development of
internal health equity office or division, embedding health
equity in their policies, and, importantly, expanding and
deepening their partnerships with the community. – PHAB is doing a number
of things to encourage health departments to build
resilience and health equity. One of those is the development of the Public Health National
Center for Innovations. And we actually exist
to encourage innovation in health departments, and a
lot of that work takes place around looking at what
the state of the field is with regard to health equity,
and developing new ways to address health equity,
and advancing those in other health departments
across the country. The Public Health National
Center for Innovations with the help Public
Health Accreditation Board has made nine grants
to health departments, primarily state and local, to address a broad category
of work around innovation. But all of them actually have
a big focus on health equity in their communities. And so through these grantees
we are learning about what are the new ways to address
health equity in communities. – At the Rhode Island
Department of Health this is our strategic framework. By knowing we need to shift
investments, from clinical care setting primarily high
acuity care that’s costly to prevention-oriented primary
care community services. We have three leading priorities
for accomplishing that. Addressing social, economic,
and environmental determinants of health, eliminating
disparities of health, and promoting health equity, so regardless of the
zip code you are from you have access to living the
healthiest life you can live in the healthiest community
that’s achieving health equity, and ensuring access to quality
health services for all, including our
vulnerable population. – I’m very excited that the Public Health Accreditation
Board is committed to continuing to encourage
health departments to engage in health equity work and
transform public health. Health departments can develop
and utilize community assets, and strengthen
community resilience, build community social
capital, and importantly, strengthen and deepen authentic
and effective partnerships with their community to
address health equity and improve community health. – What I see when I
look ahead to the future and the impact of
accreditation on health equity is our continued
work and partnership with the health
departments going through the accreditation process
to keep a sharp lens focused on health disparities
and on health equity so that we do achieve
that of ensuring that no matter where somebody
lives, or who they are, or where they come from,
that they have access to the same level and quality
of public health services.