How To Do It

  1. Read National Public Health Standards and Measures
  2. Review Your Department Against Standards and Measures
  3. Communicate Findings

Overview

Please note that public health nurse consultants from the MDH Office of Performance Improvement are available to support tribal health departments and community health boards through this process. For more information on this support, contact your region's public health nurse consultant.

1. Read National Public Health Standards and Measures


Review the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) Standards and Measures for public health departments.

The Standards and Measures are grouped into 12 domains, or broad groups of standards relating to similar public health services. The first 10 domains address the ten Essential Public Health Services. The last two domains address a department's administration and governance functions.

Standards note the required level of achievement a department is required to meet. Measures provide a way of evaluating whether the standard is met (Source: PHAB).

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2. Review Your Department Against Standards and Measures


A. Review Measures

Once familiar with the standards and measures, review them a second time with the self-assessment tool.

Tribal, local, and state health departments must meet measures indicated with an "A." Measures pertaining to local health departments only are indicated with an "L," and those relevant to tribal health departments only are indicated with a "T." (Note: Some tribal measures correspond with local measures, and some with state measures.)

Determine the extent to which the department meets each measure and can demonstrate this with supporting documentation. The PHAB National Public Health Department Accreditation Documentation Guidance (below) provides information on the requirements for supporting documentation:

  • Fully demonstrated
  • Largely demonstrated
  • Sightly demonstrated
  • Not demonstrated

B. Review Standards

Next, review each standard as a whole. Considering the department’s ability to meet measures, what is the department’s ability to meet corresponding standards?

  • Fully demonstrated
  • Largely demonstrated
  • Sightly demonstrated
  • Not demonstrated

C. Note Standards Most in Need of Improvement

Review each standard's rating, and choose the standards you've rated the lowest—as "not" or "slightly" demonstrated—as your standards most in need of improvement.

DeliverableEach community health board is asked to submit its Three Standards Most in Need of Improvement to MDH by February 2015. If there are more than three standards that are ranked as low, consider which of these standards are most important to the functioning of your department and how feasible it would be to improve the department’s performance for this standard.

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3. Communicate Findings


Finally, share this information with the department’s quality improvement council or team, and with those who are participating in the health department’s strategic planning process.

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