Congratulations to Ohio’s Newly PHAB-Accredited Local Health Departments!

The national Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) announced last week the latest local and state health departments to receive accreditation, including ODH and three more of Ohio’s local health departments – Erie County Health Department, Huron County Public Health, and Medina County Health Department. Congratulations to the employees of all three local health departments for joining a select group of local health jurisdictions in Ohio and nationally that have earned PHAB accreditation! In Ohio, eight of 122 local health jurisdictions are now PHAB-accredited: Columbus Public Health; Delaware General Health District, Erie County Health Department, Huron County Public Health, Licking County Health Department, Mahoning County District Board of Health, Medina County Health Department, and Summit County Combined General Health District. All of Ohio’s local health jurisdictions must be accredited by July 1, 2020. Nationally, only 96 state and local health departments are accredited, and two states – Ohio and Illinois – currently have nine PHAB-accredited health departments each. Despite the critical role of public health, there had not been nationally recognized standards for public health departments until 2011 when PHAB was launched with the support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The national accreditation program sets standards toward which the nation’s more than 3,000 governmental public health departments can continuously work to improve the quality of their services and performance.